index_intro.php

<div id="intro" class="tab-content">

<p>
For centuries, Swahili was written in Arabic script, and hundreds of manuscripts in collections around the world testify to its long tradition of written literature.  Over the last century, however, Swahili in Roman script has become the norm.
</p>

<p>
<strong>Andika!</strong> (meaning <em>Write!</em> in Swahili) is a set of tools to make Swahili in Arabic script as easy to use as Swahili in Roman script - it is equally easy to read and write the the language in either script.   The tools, based on the work of Marehemu Mu'allim Sheikh Yahya Ali Omar <strong>[1]</strong>, provide a consistent, standardised transliteration of Swahili in Arabic script, and a one-to-one mapping of this to Swahili in Roman script. 
</p>

<p>
All the tools are available under the Free Software Foundation's <a href="http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html">General Public License</a> and <a href="http://www.fsf.org/licenses/agpl.html">Affero General Public License</a>, which means they can be adapted and extended as required by the user, subject to the same license being used for any new version thus created.
</p>

<p>
The code for the <strong>Andika! </strong> tools (including these webpages) is available from the <a href="https://github.com/donnekgit/andika">GitHub repository</a>.  If you have <a href="http://git-scm.com/">Git</a> installed, you can download the files by running:<br />
<strong>git clone https://github.com/donnekgit/andika.git</strong><br />
If not, you can download the files as a <a href="https://github.com/donnekgit/andika/archive/master.zip">compressed zip file</a>. 
</p>

<p>
Further examples of <strong>Andika!</strong> output, along with detailed information about how to install and use the offline tools to handle manuscripts, are in the detailed <a href="manual_draft.pdf">manual</a>.
</p>

<p>
 I am always happy to receive comments or suggestions about the further development of the <strong>Andika! </strong> tools.
</p>

<p>
<strong>Andika!</strong> is dedicated to the memory of Sheikh Yahya Ali Omar (1924–2008).
<br />
<span class="sm_swahili">مْزٖئٖ أَكِيفَ، مَكتَابَ هُتٖكٖتٖئَ</span>
</p>

<hr />

<p class="footnote">
<strong>[1]</strong> Omar, YA in collaboration with Frankl PJL (1997): "An historical review of the Arabic rendering of Swahili, together with proposals for the development of a Swahili writing system in Arabic script." <em>Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society</em>, Series 3, 7, 1: 55-71.
</p>

</div>