Osmanya script
The Osmanya script ( 𐒍𐒖𐒇𐒂𐒖 𐒋𐒘𐒈𐒑𐒛𐒒𐒕𐒖), also known as Far Soomaali (𐒍𐒖𐒇 𐒘𐒝𐒈𐒑𐒛𐒘, "Somali writing") and, in Arabic, as al-kitābah al-ʿuthmānīyah, is a writing script created to transcribe the Somali language. It was invented between 1920 and 1922 by Osman Yusuf Kenadid, the son of Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid and brother of Sultan Ali Yusuf Kenadid of the Sultanate of Hobyo. History. While Osmanya gained reasonably wide acceptance in Somalia and quickly produced a considerable body of literature, it proved difficult to spread among the population mainly due to stiff competition from the long-established Arabic script as  well as the emerging Somali Latin alphabet developed by a number of leading scholars of Somali, including Musa Haji Ismail Galal, B. W. Andrzejewski and Shire Jama Ahmed. As nationalist sentiments grew and since the Somali language had long lost its ancient script, the adoption of a universally recognized writing script for the Somali language became an important point of discussion. After independence, little progress was made on the issue, as opinion was divided over whether the Arabic or Latin scripts should be used instead. In October 1972, because of the Latin script's simplicity, its ability to cope with  all of the sounds in the language, and the widespread existence of machines and typewriters designed for its use, made President Mohamed Siad Barre require it for writing Somali instead of the Arabic or Osmanya scripts. Barre's administration subsequently launched a massive literacy campaign designed to ensure its sole adoption, which led to a sharp decline in use of Osmanya. Description. The direction of reading and writing in Osmanya is from left to right. Letter names are based on the names of letters in Arabic, and the long vowels "uu" and "ii" are represented by the letters "waaw" and  yaa, respectively. Unicode. Osmanya script was added to the Unicode Standard in April 2003 with the release of version 4.0. The Unicode block for Osmanya is U+10480–U+104AF: