Shire Jama Ahmed - Language Issue

Language Issue

For about a decade, there was an effort to find a common orthography for the Somali language, with many Somali scholars working hard to introduce new writing scripts. From as early as the Somali Language Committee's establishment in 1962, it was reported that Shire already favored the Latin script.

But this preference didn't stop at merely favoring one script over another; Shire also printed many books based on Somali oral culture using his modified Latin script. Shire was, in fact, a linguist by training.

Two successive governments, from 1960–1967 and 1967–1969, could not settle the debate over what script to use: Arabic, a script which most Somalis had used for centuries and which is featured in the Qur'an, or Latin, a script that only really came to the attention of the Somali people during the late 18th century upon contact with the British and Italian European administrations.

Shire campaigned for the Latin script, while Sheikh Abdurahman Sheikh Nuur, Osman Yusuf Kenadid and Muse Haji Ismail Galal each favored different writing systems for transcribing the Somali language. Originally, there were 18 different scripts that were brought before the newly-established Somali Language Committee. Of these 18 proposed orthographies, 11 were new inventions, while 4 were derived from the Arabic script and 3 were Latin.

Anything less than choosing an Arabic alphabet was equated with being a non-Muslim. In fact, a common taunt designed to cast a bad light on those supporting the Latin script was the expression "Latin, laa diin", which translates as "Latin, no religion" (Laa in Arabic means "no" and the word "diin" refers to religion). Shire, on the other hand, was more pragmatic in his arguments. He pointed out that the printing presses and other machines that were then in use in most other parts of the world were mostly set to the Latin alphabet, as were the machines and typewriters already extant within Somalia.