Kaddare script

Kaddare
Script type	Alphabet
Published	1952
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 script is a poorly known alphabetic script created to transcribe the Somali language. There are no known books written in the script.

History

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

The Somali Language Committee, tasked in 1961 with deciding on a script for the nation after independence, recommended the Kaddare script, but had to settle for the Latin alphabet due to economic constraints. They appraised Kaddare as being the most accurate indigenous script for transcribing the Somali language.^[1]

Cursive writing of Kaddare

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.

External links

• Kaddare alphabet at Omniglot
• Tosco, Mauro (University of Turin) (2010). "Somali Writings". Afrikanistik-Aegyptologie-Online. Retrieved 2025-05-15. [Covers Wadaad's writing, Osmanya, Gadabuursi and Kaddare.]
• The report of the Somali Language Committee