“Laway muk doren!”

This paper critically evaluates the academic orthography of Iraqw by examining emerging spelling conventions in social media. Iraqw (Southern Cushitic) is a primarily oral minority language spoken in Tanzania. Community-oriented language resources are produced using a standard orthography, which has not been tested for readability. This paper analyzes the spelling of the phonemes /x/, /ŋ/, and /ɬ/, as well as the representation of grammatical tone and vowel length in written Iraqw in social media. By examining the differences between the standard orthography and the emerging orthographic conventions in social media, this paper aims to reflect on the orthographic standardization of minority languages. It shows how language use in social media can contribute to the creation of accessible linguistic and cultural resources for minority language communities.