Continually seeing and reading disfigured Somali words and sentences outrages you and outrages me, too. Are we furious? Yes, we’re, for we find our beautiful, native language being bashed in front of our eyes. Stop hurting us, please. Our Somali, native language deserves some respect.
Like any other language, writing Somali needs some rules. You can’t just put together a bunch of letters and produce whatever you desire. Accept my apology if you aren’t one of those who continuously mutilate the language beyond recognition. And I am not surprised if you’re agonizing over daily encounters of screwed sentences and inappropriate representation of the language.
It has a unique way of writing and consists of 32 letters: 22 consonants and 10 vowels. The vowels play the biggest role regarding how a certain word is written based on its sound. To correctly write words, you have to listen to how they sound, and that sound is determined by the vowels.
There are single vowels and double ones, and they can confuse if not used properly. Write a single vowel when the particular word requires a single vowel, but a double vowel when the case is so. Here are two examples: qad (ink); qaad (take). Do you see how the vowel (a) is playing a role here and changing both the sound and meaning of the word? The former word contains a single vowel; the latter word contains a double vowel.
If you’re born into the language and disfigure it continuously, you’re one of two: you only speak the language, but can’t write it, or you just write things and don’t care about their accuracy or integrity.
It’s simple to learn how to write Somali if you’ve some challenges. So learn it in two weeks or so. The two images the post contains can be your cheat sheet. If you know how to write it, write it well. Don’t insult it. It’s your mother tongue, it’s yours. Non-Somali individuals who can write the language are few, but some of them write it well.
Although none of us is perfect, it disheartens us when we see people who deface the language repeatedly and are oblivious to what they do to it. The Somali language must get its due respect.