Osmanya Letter Ee

It marks the long ee vowel in an Osmanya word.

Somali long ee is held longer than short e; Latin Somali spelling writes it as ee. Cismaan Yuusuf Keenadiid devised Osmanya in 1920–1922, and its first published description appeared in 1932. Earlier spellings wrote long ee with two short-e signs (𐒗𐒗) or short e followed by y (𐒗𐒕); later forms gave it a dedicated letter, 𐒜.

Why was Osmanya made?

It gave Somali a writing system designed for the language. Osmanya met a practical and political aim: writing Somali in a locally developed alphabet that could represent its sound distinctions. Arabic influence shaped some letter-order and vowel conventions, but Osmanya is a distinct Somali alphabet.

From 1945, the Somali Youth League taught and promoted it as a national script. It also appeared in private correspondence and bookkeeping, with a small book-and-magazine culture. A separate Arabic-based proposal associated with Sheikh Uweys came earlier; Borama and Kaddare were later, independent Somali-script projects. Latin orthography became the official standard for Somali writing in 1973. A reader taught Osmanya may recognize 𐒜 as a letter at once; someone taught Somali only in Latin spelling may need the script identified.