The well-known 'Ismaaniya (Osmaniya) or ' Somali writing' was invented about 1920 by 'Ismaan Yuusuf Kenadiid, brother of 'Ali Yuusuf (Daarood, Majeerteen),1 Sultan of Obbia in Somalia. The script was noticed by Marcello Orano, and later by Dr. Cerulli.2 It has been widely publicized, by Dr. M. Maino who has given the fullest descriptions,3 and by 'Ismaan Yuusuf's son, Yaasiin (the well-known authority on Somali language and literature) in Somalia. The orthography is little known and virtually never used in the British Protectorate * although it is widely known and quite often used in Somalia. Even in Somalia, however, its currency falls short of that of the different varieties of ' wadaad's Arabic' writing. Phonetically 'Ismaaniya is highly accurate.5 There are new symbols for each of the 22 Somali consonants except the glottal stop, which can be represented by hamza. In practice it is usually omitted. The ten vowels, five long and five short, are represented by eight new symbols and the consonants for y (ii) and w (uu). There are also ten numerals.6 The most striking feature of the script is, of course, that in contrast to Arabic it is written from left to right. With the exception of the glottal stop (if used) the symbols bear little or no resemblance to any Arabic characters. In contrast to the strict phonetic character of the letters, 'Ismaaniya has certain definite etymological or quasi-etymological features.7 Thus the article is usually written separately from the noun which it qualifies, as in geed ha ' the tree ', aqal hiisa ' his house ', etc. Vowel mutations which occur in speech on the addition of certain suffixes8 are not always phonetically represented. Some writers of 'Ismaaniya write etymologically, aabbe hii for aabbihii ' the father ', magaalo da for magaalada ' the town '. Similarly an apostrophe is inserted in 'Ismaaniya to denote an absent consonant in a suffix mutation as e.g. maga°a for maga'a ' the name', where the masculine article has been changed to ain in agreement with the final ain of the unqualified noun.1 Similarly 'Ismaaniya writes geeVa for geela ' the camels '. The modification of the feminine article ta when attached to a final I to ska is written, etymologically, as in <[u%ul ska for the pronunciation (fahusha ' the charcoal' ; ul sha for usha ' the stick', etc.8 The mutations which occur with the final consonants of verb stems in the third person feminine and second person of the reflexive conjugation are written etymologically, e.g. ([aladtay for ([alattay ' you are/she is born', etc. These features are generally absent in the Gadabuursi script as written by its inventor, Sheikh 'Abdurahmaan, although he sometimes writes the article suffix separately from the noun which he qualifies.
