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Kaddare
Script type	Alphabet
Languages	Somali language
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between , / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

The Kaddare alphabet is an alphabetic script created to transcribe Somali, a Cushitic language in the Afroasiatic language family. The Somali Language Committee, tasked with deciding the script for the nation, officially recommended the Kaddare alphabet, but had to settle for the Latin alphabet due to economic restraints. They stated in their 1961 report “it will be seen in this report that preference was made to one script which had no printing machines against another which had. For instance we recommended the Somali script No 1, by Husein Sh. Ahmed Kaddareh which was not yet printed and rejected the Osmania and the Arabic scripts wich had.”

History

The orthography was invented in 1952 by a Sufi Sheikh, named Hussein Sheikh Ahmed Kaddare.

A phonetically robust writing system, the technical commissions that appraised the Kaddare alphabet concurred that it was the most accurate indigenous script and orthography for transcribing the Somali language.

Form

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

Several of Kaddare's letters are similar to those in the Osmanya alphabet, while others bear a resemblance to Brahmi.

As there are no dedicated characters for long vowels, a vowel is made long by simply writing it twice.

See also

• Somali orthography
• Borama
• Osmanya

References

1. Laitin, David D. (1977). Politics, Language, and Thought: The Somali Experience. University of Chicago Press. p. 87. ISBN 0226467910.
2. ^ Rendition at www.skyknowledge.com/kaddare.htm

External links

• 'Kaddare alphabet' in Somali, at Omniglot
• Tosco, Mauro (University of Turin) (2010). "Somali Writings". Afrikanistik-Aegyptologie-Online. Retrieved 2023-04-07. [Covers Wadaad's writing, Osmanya, Gadabuursi, and Kaddare.]*Somali Language History and Vernaculars
• The report of the Somali Language Committee

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