Zosoforum

In 1962 a guy called Kingsley Read designed a perfectly phonetic alphabet, which would get rid of inefficiencies and replace the latin alphabet in english. This Shavian Alphabet (named posthumously after playwright Bernard Shaw, who funded the alphabet's creation) contains 40 letters and 8 ligatures (a union between two letters, like œ in french). The only written use of the shavian alphabet to my knowledge was a 1962 copy of Bernard Shaw's play "Androcles and the Lion", which featured both latin and shavian spelling.

Though the Alphabet never saw widespread use, there appears to be a small online community dedicated to the alphabet which can found on the site shavian.info.
They have designed a variety of fonts that can be used with the alphabets on various softwares, which you can find here:
https://www.shavian.info/shavian_fonts/
https://2gd4.me/tidbit/shavian-fonts.html

The alphabet was added to Unicode in 2003, which means you can type with it.
The shavian.info site also has a helpful tool to help you type directly in shavian from a latin keyboard.
https://www.shavian.info/type/


𐑤𐑝 1962 𐑪 𐑧𐑞𐑓 𐑴𐑪𐑮𐑮𐑵𐑦 𐑑𐑤𐑝𐑧𐑨𐑮𐑵𐑓 𐑱𐑵𐑪𐑦 𐑦𐑵𐑨𐑤𐑧𐑝𐑵𐑦 𐑪 𐑒𐑵𐑱𐑩𐑵𐑴𐑳𐑮𐑓 𐑒𐑐𐑥𐑝𐑵𐑳𐑤𐑴 𐑪𐑮𐑒𐑐𐑪𐑚𐑵𐑳, 𐑷𐑐𐑤𐑴𐑐 𐑷𐑥𐑞𐑮𐑦 𐑧𐑵𐑳 𐑱𐑤𐑦 𐑥𐑩 𐑤𐑝𐑵𐑩𐑩𐑤𐑴𐑤𐑵𐑝𐑴𐑤𐑵𐑨 𐑪𐑝𐑦 𐑱𐑵𐑒𐑮𐑪𐑴𐑵 𐑳𐑐𐑵 𐑮𐑪𐑳𐑤𐑝 𐑪𐑮𐑒𐑐𐑪𐑚𐑵𐑳 𐑤𐑝 𐑵𐑝𐑧𐑮𐑤𐑨𐑐. 𐑳𐑐𐑤𐑨 𐑨𐑐𐑪𐑰𐑤𐑪𐑝 𐑪𐑮𐑒𐑐𐑪𐑚𐑵𐑳 (𐑝𐑪𐑟𐑵𐑦 𐑒𐑥𐑨𐑳𐑐𐑞𐑟𐑥𐑞𐑨𐑮𐑓 𐑪𐑩𐑳𐑵𐑱 𐑒𐑮𐑪𐑓𐑷𐑱𐑤𐑧𐑐𐑳 𐑚𐑵𐑱𐑝𐑪𐑱𐑦 𐑨𐑐𐑪𐑷, 𐑷𐑐𐑥 𐑩𐑞𐑝𐑦𐑵𐑦 𐑳𐑐𐑵 𐑪𐑮𐑒𐑐𐑪𐑚𐑵𐑳)𐑨 𐑴𐑱𐑵𐑪𐑳𐑤𐑥𐑝9 𐑴𐑥𐑝𐑳𐑪𐑤𐑝𐑨 40 𐑮𐑵𐑳𐑳𐑵𐑱𐑨 𐑪𐑝𐑦 8 𐑮𐑤𐑧𐑪𐑳𐑞𐑱𐑵𐑨 (𐑪 𐑞𐑝𐑤𐑥𐑝 𐑚𐑵𐑳𐑷𐑵𐑵𐑝 𐑳𐑷𐑥 𐑮𐑵𐑳𐑳𐑵𐑱𐑨, 𐑮𐑤𐑑𐑵 œ 𐑤𐑝 𐑩𐑱𐑵𐑝𐑴𐑐). 𐑳𐑐𐑵 𐑥𐑝𐑮𐑓 𐑷𐑱𐑤𐑳𐑳𐑵𐑝 𐑞𐑨𐑵 𐑥𐑩 𐑳𐑐𐑵 𐑨𐑐𐑪𐑰𐑤𐑪𐑝 𐑪𐑮𐑒𐑐𐑪𐑚𐑵𐑳 𐑳𐑥 𐑟𐑓 𐑑𐑝𐑥𐑷𐑮𐑵𐑦𐑧𐑵 𐑷𐑪𐑨 𐑪 1962 𐑴𐑥𐑒𐑓 𐑥𐑩 𐑚𐑵𐑱𐑝𐑪𐑱𐑦 𐑨𐑐𐑪𐑷'𐑨 𐑒𐑮𐑪𐑓 "𐑪𐑝𐑦𐑱𐑥𐑴𐑮𐑵𐑨 𐑪𐑝𐑦 𐑳𐑐𐑵 𐑮𐑤𐑥𐑝", 𐑷𐑐𐑤𐑴𐑐 𐑩𐑵𐑪𐑳𐑞𐑱𐑵𐑦 𐑚𐑥𐑳𐑐 𐑮𐑪𐑳𐑤𐑝 𐑪𐑝𐑦 𐑨𐑐𐑪𐑰𐑤𐑪𐑝 𐑨𐑒𐑵𐑮𐑮𐑤𐑝𐑧.

What's your favorite artificial alphabet?

Before 1900, Somali was written exclusively in the Arabic script, specifically in a style known as "Wadaad's Writing" (Wadaad = Scholar). This form of written Somali was non-standardised, with different writers adapting the Arabic script in a plethora of ways. Of course, while Somali and Arabic are both Afro-Asiatic languages, their similarities end there. Arabic is famous for being relatively dearth of vowels, whilst Somali is full of them. It's a similar problem Iranians faced when trying to adapt the Arabic script to the Persian tongue.

Enter Osman Yusuf Kenadid, brother of the Sultan of Hobyo. He identified just how poor the Arabic script was suited for Somali and decided to create his own script as a response, named Osmanya. Osmanya has several unique qualities. First, since it was intentionally crafted for the Somali language, each letter corresponds to a sound in the language, with sounds rarely shared between letters. In addition, there exist three letters: 𐒛, 𐒜, and 𐒝 which correspond to double vowels (a long A, O and U respectively). There's also another letter which corresponds to a double I, but for some reason it's not included in Unicode.

Osmanya achieved limited traction but it was hobbled by being identified with the Majerteen clan as opposed to the Somali nation as a whole. In addition, some traditionalists opposed switching from the Arabic script. Somalis were always very religious and abandoning Arabic writing could be perceived as sacrilege. It laid dormant until Siyaad Barre's coup de etat in 1969, which overthrew the Somali Republic in favour of the Somali Democratic Republic, a Marxist-Leninist state. In 1972 the question of a Somali script was raised, and Osmanya was one of the scripts considered, along with another newly made script, the Kaddare script.

Sadly however, the question was eventually answered in favour of the most boring option - Somalia ended up adopting the Latin script. After the script was chosen, Siyaad proceeded to lead a mass-literacy campaign which consigned the Osmanya and Kaddare scripts to the dustbin of history.

This in my view was worse then a crime, it was a mistake. Somali written in the Latin script, for lack of a better word, is absolutely hideous. Just to illustrate with an excerpt from the poem Qun Yar Soo Soco (Come to me softly):

In Latin:

Qudhu kii ay raacdoow
Waad qaboobiye
Qunyar soo soco

And now, in Osmanya:

𐒎𐒚𐒆𐒔𐒚 𐒏𐒘𐒘 𐒖𐒕 𐒇𐒉𐒋𐒆𐒝𐒓
𐒓𐒉𐒆 𐒎𐒖𐒁𐒝𐒁𐒘𐒕𐒗
𐒎𐒚𐒒𐒕𐒖𐒇 𐒈𐒝 𐒈𐒙𐒋𐒙

In English:

You who my soul follows
You will soon be refreshed
So come to me slowly

It's my opinion of course, but Osmanya looks far superior. But while I wish I lived in a world where Osmanya was the national Somali script, that ship has long since sailed. For better or worse, we have to work with the Latin script since it is the one used by the overwhelming majority of Somali people. Our task is to make the language look less...retarded, for lack of a technical term. I have an orthographic reform in mind. Will I write it out..? Who knows...

To conclude, this website lets you write out Osmanya script. I sometimes find myself playing with it, whilst imagining a world where our language was taken marginally more seriously.

https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/osmanya.htm