Gadabuursi Somali Script

{{Short description|Writing system for Somali developed around 1933}}

{{Infobox Writing system |name=Borama |sample=Borama Alphabet Chart.jpg |imagesize=300px |caption= |languages=Somali language |type=Alphabet }}

The '''Gadabuursi script''', also known as the '''Borama script''' (Borama: frameless|upright=0.25),<ref name="Omni">[http://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm Somali alphabets, pronunciation and language] at Omniglot</ref> is an alphabetic script for the Somali language. It was devised around 1933 by Sheikh Abdurahman Sheikh Nuur of the Gadabuursi clan, and principally used in and around his home town of Borama.<ref name="Laitin1977">{{cite book|first=David D. |last=Laitin |author-link=David D. Laitin |title=Politics, Language, and Thought: The Somali Experience |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LR8A4tEYZUAC&pg=PA98|access-date=2 July 2012|date=1 May 1977|publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-46791-7|pages=98–}}</ref>

==History== [[File:Borama-script.gif|thumb|upright=1.5|A qasida in the Borama script.]] Though not as widely known as Osmanya, the most popular script invented for Somali, Borama has produced a notable body of literature mainly consisting of qasidas.<ref name="Lewis">{{cite journal |first=I.M. |last=Lewis |author-link=Ioan Lewis |year=1958 |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/15957443/The-Gadabursi-Somali-Script |title=The Gadabuursi Somali Script |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |publisher=University of London |volume=21 |pages=134–156|doi=10.1017/S0041977X00063278 |s2cid=161856327 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The Borama or Gadabuursi script was devised in 1933 by Sheikh Abdurahman Sheikh Nuur, a Qur'anic teacher and son of Borama's ''qadi'' (judge), who devised the new orthography for transcribing the Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Somali language. A quite accurate phonetic writing system, it was principally used by Sheikh Nuur, his circle of associates in the city and some of the merchants in control of trade in Zeila and Borama. Students of Sheikh Nuur were also trained in the use of this alphabet.<ref name="Laitin1977"/>

==See also== *Kaddare *Osmanya *Somali orthography

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm#borama 'Borama/Gadabuursi alphabet' in ''Somali''], at Omniglot * {{cite web|first=Mauro (University of Turin) |last=Tosco |year=2010 |title=Somali Writings |website=Afrikanistik-Aegyptologie-Online. |access-date=2023-04-07 |url=https://www.afrikanistik-aegyptologie-online.de/archiv/2010/2723/index_html/view?set_language=en |language=en |trans-quote=Covers Wadaad's writing, Osmanya, Gadabuursi, and Kaddare.}} *[https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=bildhaan Somali reconstruction and Local Initiative: Amoud University]. Published in World Development (2001). *[https://www.scribd.com/doc/15957443/The-Gadabursi-Somali-Script The Gadabuursi Somali Script] - qasidas in Gadabuursi/Borama *[https://archive.org/details/LinguisticReport1961 The report of the Somali Language Committee]

Category:Writing systems of Africa Category:Somali orthography Category:Somali inventions Category:Writing systems introduced in the 1930s Category:1933 introductions