The Kamar-Eddine system (Arabic script)
Lesson 3 of 4≈ 10 min
Before Latin, Arabic
Before Alifube (1975-1978) and the official norm (2009/2019), shikomori was written — when written — in adapted Arabic script.
The most accomplished system is *Saïd Kamar-Eddine's, developed in the 1960s. It offers ingenious adaptations to transcribe Bantu sounds that don't exist in Arabic*.
It's not the current institutional norm — the Republic of the Comoros and Mayotte use the 2009/2019 Latin norm for all official uses. But Kamar-Eddine lives on in:
- Religious circles (transcribing prayers, Sufi chants)
- Some scholarly families attached to tradition
- Cultural calligraphy (manuscript titles, ornaments)
It's also legible to older readers schooled in madrasa.
Main adaptations
| Shikomori sound | Kamar-Eddine solution | Note |
|---|---|---|
| o (distinct from u) | ـه (ha) as suffix | Disambiguates o and u |
| e (distinct from i) | ـه (ha) as suffix | Same for e and i |
| dz, ts (affricates) | shadda (ّ) on d or t | Marks the sound complexity |
| ɓ, ɗ (implosives) | Arabic consonant + special diacritic | Varies by scribe |
| long vowels | alif / yāʾ / wāw of lengthening | As in Classical Arabic |
| nasals (â, ô…) | tanwin (Arabic nunation) | Marks nasality |
Why ـه (ha) for /o/ and /e/?
Classical Arabic has only three vowels: a, i, u. No /o/ nor /e/ — which exist in shikomori.
Kamar-Eddine had the idea of using the silent ـه (ha) as a suffix to signal:
- That the preceding vowel is /o/ (not /u/)
- Or that the preceding vowel is /e/ (not /i/)
An orthographic convention — a bit like the silent « h » of French, which isn't pronounced but marks a distinction. Without this trick, moro (fire) and muro (river) would have been graphically identical in Arabic.
Shialifube — the transliteration tool
For researchers and enthusiasts, an NLP tool called Shialifube allows bidirectional transliteration between the Latin alphabet and the Kamar-Eddine system.
Useful to:
- Digitise old manuscripts
- Prepare critical editions of religious texts
- Preserve calligraphic heritage
The tool isn't integrated into luhayini but is referenced in the Comorian linguistic community. Search online under « Shialifube ».
A word of caution
This module does not teach you to write in Kamar-Eddine. It's a complex system that would need a full module of its own, and is less and less taught.
Our goal here: that you know what we're talking about when an older text (or a religious manuscript) is presented to you in adapted Arabic. Recognising the basic principles is enough to:
- Identify that a text is in shikomori, not pure Arabic
- Ask an expert if you want to read it fully
- Appreciate the historical richness of Comorian writing
Practice
Why does Kamar-Eddine use ـه for /o/?
Because Classical Arabic doesn't have the vowel ___.
The shadda marks…
…the ___.
Mini-quiz
The Kamar-Eddine system dates from the…
…___.
Hands-on exercise
Final lesson of the module: a complete exercise on two authentic fragments of Comorian tales — an Anjouanese tale and a Ngazidja tale, to transcribe in 2019 notation.