Abdillahi Diiriye Guled also known as Arale/Caraale ( so, Cabdillaahi Diiriye Guuleed) is a Somali

literary scholar Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. T ...

, Prosodist and is credited with the discovery of the Somali

Scansion Scansion ( , rhymes with ''mansion''; verb: ''to scan''), or a system of scansion, is the method or practice of determining and (usually) graphically representing the metrical pattern of a line of verse. In classical poetry, these patterns are ...

system.

Biography and career

Arale was the son of Aw Diiriye Guled, a famed poet who participated in the ''Silsilada Xaydha'' serial poems and who founded the town of

Gashamo Gashamo ( so, Gaashaamo) is a town and the capital of the Misraq Gashamo woreda, in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. It is frequently considered part of the Haud. It is approximately 45km south of the border with Somaliland. Demographics Based o ...

. Arale studied and majored in English at the

Somali National University Somali National University (SNU) ( so, Jaamacadda Ummadda Soomaaliyeed, ar, الجامعة الوطنية الصومالية, it, Università Nazionale Somala) is a national university in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Its campus grounds w ...

.While working as an English teacher, in his free time he studied Somali scansion. He also contributed to the Somali curriculum by writing the first Somali text books for the first generation of primary and secondary students that were to be taught in Somali, as opposed to English or Arabic. In 1978 he became a lecturer in the Somali department of language and literature of the Somali National university.

Somali scansion discovery

Arale discovered that the classical Somali genres of Geerar, Gabay, Jiifto and Hees, were not to be scanned by tones or stress patterns like the prosodic systems of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

poetry. He shed light on the fact that Somali poetry should be scanned quantitatively and that the key unit in Somali prosody is not the placement of the

syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...

or the tonal accent but in fact the

Mora Mora may refer to: People * Mora (surname) Places Sweden * Mora, Säter, Sweden * Mora, Sweden, the seat of Mora Municipality * Mora Municipality, Sweden United States * Mora, Louisiana, an unincorporated community * Mora, Minnesota, a city * M ...

. The Mora is properly defined as a unit on the line of poetry which is the temporal duration of a syllable containing a vowel. Arale first published his findings in the October star (Xidigta october) and later published his book ''Miisaanka Maansada'' which contained the first in depth theory of Somali prosody. Arale is considered a pioneer in Somali scansion and metre. His discoveries revolutionized Somali studies and numerous other scholars such as John William Johnson and Francesco Antinucci built on and revised his theories.Voice and Power , R. J. Hayward, I. M. Lewis · 2005 pp.87 Around the same time poet

Gaariye Mohamed Hashi Dhamac ( so, Maxamed Xaashi Dhamac, 1949 – 30 September 2012) better known as Gaarriye, was a Somali poet and political activist. He belonged to the Sa'ad Musa sub-division of the Habr Awal Isaaq clan. Biography Gaariye was born in ...

, a friend of Arale, independently made the same discovery.

Works

*''Miisaanka Maansada'' (1975) *''Gabaygeena Miisaan'' (1978) *''Jiiftadeena Miisaan'' (1978) *''Gibil Xidh: Miisaanka Maansada Soomaaliyeed'' (2016)

References

{{Improve categories, date=February 2021 Living people Year of birth missing (living people)