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Recommendations for Somali Entries in Library Cataloguing Systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

B. W. Andrzejewski
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Extract

Since the introduction of a national orthography in 1972 books and articles by Somali authors have been finding their way on an increasing scale into library catalogues in universities and centres of learning outside Somalia. Somali author entries are likely to present some difficulty for cataloguers and library users not acquainted with the Somali cultural background, and these brief notes are offered in the hope that they will be of some use to them.

As in many other Muslim countries, surnames are not normally used in Somalia. Instead, a person is identified by a sequence of names which begins with the given name, followed by the name of his or her father and sometimes also by the name of his or her grandfather. This is reminiscent of the system used in Arabic, except that the words corresponding to ‘son’ or ‘daughter’ are omitted.

Type
Documentation
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , 1980 , pp. 21 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1980

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Footnotes

1

This paper was originally presented at the international symposium Somalia and the World (Mogadishu, 15-21 October 1979).

References

Note

2 Further information concerning this orthography can be found in my article ‘The development of a national orthography in Somalia and the modernization of the Somali language', Horn of Africa, 1978, 1, 3, pp.39-45.