Somali Latin alphabet

E468907

The Somali Latin alphabet is the official writing system for the Somali language, using a modified form of the basic Latin script to represent Somali phonology.

All labels observed (4)

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (71)

Predicate Object
instanceOf alphabet
orthography
writing system
adoptedAsOfficial 1972
adoptedBy Somali government
basedOn ISO basic Latin alphabet
linked to: ISO 646
caseDistinction has uppercase and lowercase forms
creator Shire Jama Ahmed
designedFor phonemic spelling
designPrinciple one letter or digraph per phoneme
excludesLetter P
V
Z
diacritics
includesLetter A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
Q
R
S
T
U
W
X
Y
numberOfLetters 21
officialStatusIn Djibouti
Ethiopia
Kenya
Somalia
Somaliland
primaryUsage Somali government documents
Somali literature
Somali media
education in Somalia
promotedBy Siad Barre government
linked to: Siad Barre
replaced Arabic-based Somali scripts
Borama alphabet
linked to: Borama script

Kaddare alphabet
linked to: Kaddare script

Osmanya script
Wadaad writing
represents Somali phonology
representsPhoneme postalveolar fricative /ʃ/ with SH
voiced pharyngeal fricative /ʕ/ with C
voiced retroflex stop /ɖ/ with DH
voiceless pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ with H
voiceless uvular stop /q/ with Q
voiceless velar fricative /x/ with KH
scriptType Latin script
usedFor Somali language
linked to: Somali
usesDigraph AA
DH
EE
II
KH
OO
SH
UU
writingDirection left-to-right

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (9)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Somali people usesScript Somali Latin alphabet
Benadiri Somali writingSystem Somali Latin alphabet
Digil writingSystem Somali Latin alphabet
Osmanya script replacedBy Somali Latin alphabet
Northern Somali writingSystem Somali Latin alphabet
Siad Barre implementedPolicy Latinization of the Somali language
linked to: Somali Latin alphabet
Darod usesScript Latin Somali alphabet
linked to: Somali Latin alphabet
Digil and Mirifle clans usesWritingSystem Somali Latin alphabet
Hussein Sheikh Ahmed Kaddare associatedWith Somali writing systems
linked to: Somali Latin alphabet