Somali Scripts

This app can help you get to know some of the indigenous Somali alphabets. Scroll through the letters and study their shapes and sounds. Practice tracing each one until you're familiar-- then quiz yourself on the letters!

The three scripts presented are Osmanya, Borama/Gadabuursi, and Kaddare. Each one is interesting and has its short history.

Unfortunately, most are not widely used since the Somali government's decision to adopt the Latin alphabet. Osmanya is the only indigenous Somali script included in unicode.

This is the Osmanya alphabet. It is called Farta Cismaanya, also known as Far Soomaali.

It was invented between 1920 and 1922 by Osman Yusuf Kenadid, the son of Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid and brother of Sultan Ali Yusuf Kenadid of the Sultanate of Hobyo.

It has a numbering system and is written left-to-right. In the 1970s it reached fairly widespread use in personal correspondance, bookkeeping, and even some books and magazines.

Its use declined sharply after the Somali government's official adoption of the the Latin alphabet. It is the only indigenous Somali script currently included in unicode.

This is the Kaddare alphabet. It was created in 1052 by a Sufi Sheikh named Hussein Sheikh Ahmed Kaddare of the Abgaal Hawiye clan.

The Kaddare script uses both upper and lower case letters, with the lower case represented in cursive. Many characters are transcribed without having to lift the pen.

We list the uppercase letters first, with the lower-case ones underneath. The lower-case letters are repeated at the bottom of the list where they are shown above the capital letters.

The Gadabuursi script also known as the Borama alphabet is a writing script for the Somali language. It was devised around 1933 by Sheikh Abdurahman Sheikh Nuur of the Gadabuursi clan.

Though not as widely known as Osmanya, the other major orthography for transcribing Somali, Borama has produced a notable body of literature mainly consisting of qasidas (poems).

This Borama script was principally used by Sheikh Nuur, his circle of associates in the city and some of the merchants in control of trade in Zeila and Borama. Students of Sheikh Nuur were also trained in the use of this script.