Somali Latin Alphabet

The Somali Latin alphabet (also known as Somali Latin script) is a writing system based on Latin characters used for the Somali language. It was officially adopted by Somalia in 1972 and subsequently became the script used by the government, schools, and media.

A key feature of this system is that each sound in the language has a designated letter or digraph. The Latin letters p, v, and z are not used in native Somali words, while x, c, and q have been repurposed to represent sounds that do not exist in English.

History

Before 1972, Somali was primarily an oral language. There was lengthy debate over which script to adopt: some advocated for the Arabic script, others for the Osmanya script developed by Osman Yusuf Kenadid in the early twentieth century, and still others for the Latin alphabet. The military government of Mohamed Siad Barre decided on the Latin script and subsequently launched literacy and education campaigns to teach the population how to write.

Letters and sounds

The consonants include b, t, j, x, kh, d, r, s, sh, dh, c, g, f, q, k, l, m, n, w, h, y, and the glottal stop (') representing hamza. The letter 'x' represents a pharyngeal fricative (ħ), 'c' represents a pharyngeal fricative (ʿ), 'dh' represents a uvular sound, and 'q' is a pharyngeal stop.

The basic vowels are a, e, i, o, u. Each vowel has a short form and a long form; length is marked by doubling the letter, as in 'aa', 'ee', 'ii', 'oo', 'uu'. There is also a distinction between front and back vowels, but formal writing does not always mark this.

Current use

The Somali Latin script is the most widely used writing system today, used within Somalia, Somaliland, Djibouti, the Somali region of Ethiopia, and the diaspora. It is used in schoolbooks, newspapers, digital media, and online communities. However, standardization of spelling for certain terms, proper nouns, and loanwords remains a matter of debate.