the biggest mistake in somali history

[sahal80]

Yes we are hamites but the hamites and the semites are both of afro-asiatic root. The semitic scripts have their origin in the hamitic phoenicia.Thus, we had the right and the osmanya should have been the official somali alphabet.
Both the levant and all the arabian peninsula had once a similar hamito-samito inscriptions. the nabataean(ismailites) script has been similar to that of the phoenicians, even during the islmic era it was still known as al khad al musnad/al himyari/al sabai( the sabaean script) its not from the habasha, they just had their own as a semitc clan.
Imagin if the particularly horn brothers had a similar inscriptions we would have been demonstrably one horn nation.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmania_alphabet

[Gantaal05]

[waryaa]

many companies including Microsoft accepted Osmania script (Osmanya) and added to the list of available fonts in their products

[Hyperactive]

i dont know if it's biggest mistake of somali history but was very short sighted to write somali in latin letters!!!

[ElfRuler]

i dont know if it's biggest mistake of somali history but was very short sighted to write somali in latin letters!!!

I agree. Out own national alphabet would have been worth it.

[truther]

It would have just made it harder for people to integrate in other countries when Somalia failed.

[AbdiWahab252]

There were no incentives for writing in Somali lands unlike Ethiopia due to:

1. Lack of organized settlements

2. No feudal systems that needed extensive administration to collect taxes

[sahal80]

There were no incentives for writing in Somali lands unlike Ethiopia due to:

1. Lack of organized settlements

2. No feudal systems that needed extensive administration to collect taxes

There has always existed a nomadic somali script, its written on their herds that they belong to some clan, there were stone borders between the north clans, between the central clans and the khawaaja has written about them.
This osmanya script has a genetic relationship with the ancient arabic and the levent scripts such as phoenicia, pamyra,nemara, nabateans, sabaeans and so on. In the middle ages, we had a distinctive somali calligraphy like the rest of the islamic civilazation from andalus to india who had a distictive local calligraphies for example khad al kufi, khad al ruq3a of persia and many and many who went out of general use about the 19 century. The ajuran calligraphy is written on the mihrab of some masjid in xamar.

[AbdiWahab252]

Sahal,


Akhii, the reality is that there was no widespread use of the scripts in Somalia beyond high level communications. In the book called "Why Nations Fail", the example of Somalia vs Ethiopia is highlighted. In Ethiopia there was a centralized form of government which needed scripts to record affairs of state, managing the government, recording land deeds, taxes etc. In Somalia, there were no strong central institutions so no need for script writing.

To Hyper's point, it would have made more sense to switch to a modified form of the Arabic script as a vast majority of Somalis can read and write in Arabic script.

[The`Republic]

You need Latin in this post-modern world. Read on China and the problem it says between the inability or time consumed teaching Chinese youngsters about learning and using Chinese characters vs. Latin script.

[Arabmann]

To Hyper's point, it would have made more sense to switch to a modified form of the Arabic script as a vast majority of Somalis can read and write in Arabic script.

I concur.

[Executive]

All the typewriters were in latin so it made perfect sense

[sahal80]

Sahal,


Akhii, the reality is that there was no widespread use of the scripts in Somalia beyond high level communications. In the book called "Why Nations Fail", the example of Somalia vs Ethiopia is highlighted. In Ethiopia there was a centralized form of government which needed scripts to record affairs of state, managing the government, recording land deeds, taxes etc. In Somalia, there were no strong central institutions so no need for script writing.

To Hyper's point, it would have made more sense to switch to a modified form of the Arabic script as a vast majority of Somalis can read and write in Arabic script.

much clearer now. We did not have a kingdaom back in history unlike of sudan wich had the meroitic alphabet or the abyssinian kingdom wich had the habashi sabaean script. Any kingdom needs a diwan(royal chronicle) to record their works,wars and invasions.

[sahal80]

All the typewriters were in latin so it made perfect sense

Was for this reason!

[Shirwac_1]

i dont know if it's biggest mistake of somali history but was very short sighted to write somali in latin letters!!!

What would you have suggested?

It would have just made it harder for people to integrate in other countries when Somalia failed.

Just what I thought bro.