Osmanya alphabet
Alfabeto osmanya
- Date
- c. 1920-1922 · confidence medium
- Place
- Hobyo, Mudug, Somalia
- Credited to
- Osman Yusuf Kenadid
- People
- 👤 Osman Yusuf Kenadid1889–1972
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The poet and member of the Hobyo royal house Osman Yusuf Kenadid devised between 1920 and 1922 his own alphabet for writing Somali, adapted to its sounds. It was the informal national script until the Latin alphabet was adopted in 1972.
The exact place of creation is debated (Hobyo, Bosaso or Yemen, where he was exiled); Hobyo is used as the dynasty's seat.
What it led to
- Somali literacy outside Arabic and Latin
- the literacy campaign of the 1970s
- an example of individually created script