Somali Latin alphabet

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For other Somali alphabets, see Somali alphabets.
Somali
Sign including instructions written with the Somali alphabet, Minneapolis.
Script type
LanguagesSomali 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 Somali Latin alphabet is an official

diacritics or other special characters, although it includes three consonant digraphs: DH, KH and SH. Tone is not marked and a word-initial glottal stop is also not shown.[3]
Capital letters are used for names and at the beginning of a sentence.

Form

The Somali Latin alphabet is largely

Diphthongs
are represented using Y or W as the second element (AY, AW, EY, OY and OW) and long diphthongs are shown with the first vowel doubled.

As there is no central regulation of the language, there is some variation in orthography, the endings -ay and -ey being particularly interchangeable.

The Somali Latin alphabet, which follows an Arabic-based order, is seen in the following table. The letters' names (with their Arabic equivalents) are spelt out in the following table.

Letter Name Arabic equivalent Pronunciation
ʼ alef ء /ʔ/
B ba ﺏ /b/
T ta ﺕ /
t
/
J ja ﺝ /d͡ʒ/
X xa ﺡ /ħ/
KH kha ﺥ /χ/
D da د /
d
/
R ra ر /
r
/
S sa ﺱ /s/
SH sha ﺵ /ʃ/
DH dha ڎ /ɖ/
C ca ﻉ /ʕ/
G ga گ /ɡ/
F fa ف /f/
Q qa ﻕ /q/
K ka ﻙ /k/
L la ﻝ /
l
/
M ma ﻡ /m/
N na ن /
n
/
W wa و /w/
H ha ه /h/
Y ya ﻱ /j/
A a /æ/ or /ɑ/
E e /e/ or /ɛ/
I i /i/ or /ɪ/
O o /ɞ/ or /ɔ/
U u /ʉ/ or /u/

The Somali alphabet lacks equivalents of the Arabic letters thāʼ (ث), dhal (ذ), zāy (ز), ṣād (ص), ḍād (ض), ṭāʾ (ط), ẓāʾ (ظ), and ghayn (غ). However, when writing in Wadaad's Script, these letters are retained for writing of Arabic loanwords.

The following elements of the Somali alphabet either are not IPA symbols in their lower case versions, or else have values divergent from IPA symbols:

  • J –/d͡ʒ/
  • X – /ħ/
  • KH – /χ/
  • SH – /ʃ/
  • DH – /ɖ/
  • C – /ʕ/
  • W – /w/ or the second element in a diphthong
  • Y – /j/ or the second element in a diphthong
  • A – /æ/ or /ɑ/
  • E – /e/ or /ɛ/
  • I – /i/ or /ɪ/
  • O – /ɞ/ or /ɔ/
  • U – /ʉ/ or /u/

See also

Notes

  1. ISBN 978-0-313-31333-2
    .
  2. ISBN 978-0-85255-280-3
    .
  3. ^ H.I. Galaal, pp. 4-11

References

External links

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