Fula alphabets

The Fula language (Fula: Fulfulde or Pulaar or Pular) is written primarily in the Latin script,[1] but in some areas is still written in an older Arabic script called the Ajami script or with its own script called Adlam.

Latin-based alphabets

Background

The Latin script was introduced to Fula-speaking regions of West and Central Africa by Europeans during, and in some cases immediately before, invasion. Various people — missionaries, colonial administrators, and scholarly researchers — devised various ways of writing . One issue similar to other efforts by Europeans to use their alphabet and home orthographic conventions was how to write African languages with unfamiliar sounds. In the case of Fula, these included how to represent sounds such as the implosive b and d, the ejective y, the velar n (the latter being present in European languages, but never in initial position), prenasalised consonants, and long vowels, all of which are can change meaning.

Major influences on the current forms used for writing Fula were decisions made by colonial administrators in Northern Nigeria and the Africa Alphabet. Post independence African governments decided to retain the Latin alphabet as the basis for transcribing their languages. Major UNESCO-sponsored conference on harmonizing African language orthographies in Bamako in 1966 and Niamey in 1978 confirmed this trend.

Nevertheless, orthographies for the language and its variants are determined at the country level. So while Fula writing uses basically the same character sets and rules across the region, there are some minor variations.

Orthography

Some general rules:

Alphabets by country

Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania

a, aa, b, mb, ɓ, c, d, nd, ɗ, e, ee, f, g, ng, h, i, ii, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ŋ, ñ, o, oo, p, r, s, t, u, uu, w, x, y, ƴ

Guinea

a, b, ɓ, nb, c, d, ɗ, e, f, g, ɠ, ng, h, i, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, o, p, r, s, t, u, w, y, ƴ
 Prior to adoption of this system in 1989, the Guinean languages alphabet was used. This was based on the simple Latin alphabet with digraphs for the sounds particular to Pular, and is still used by some Pular speakers (in part because it can be typed using commmercial keyboards). The character equivalents include: bh = ɓ ; dh = ɗ ; q = ɠ ; ny = ɲ (the French digraph gn is also used); nh = ŋ ; yh = ƴ. The old system also included: ty = c ; dy = j.

Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia

a, b, ɓ, c, d, ɗ, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, mb, n, nd, ng, nj, ŋ, ñ, o, p, r, s, t, u, w, y, ƴ, '

Mali, Burkina Faso

a, aa, b, mb, ɓ, c, d, nd, ɗ, e, ee, f, g, ng, h, i, ii, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ŋ, ɲ, o, oo, p, r, s, t, u, uu, w, x, y, ƴ

Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic

a, aa, b, mb, ɓ, c, d, nd, ɗ, e, ee, f, g, ng, h, i, ii, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ŋ, ny, o, oo, p, r, s, t, u, uu, w, x, y, ƴ

Arabic (Ajami) alphabet

The Arabic script was introduced into the West African Sahel with Islam several centuries before European colonization. As was the case with other languages such as Hausa, Muslim Fulas who went through Koranic education adapted the script to writing their language. This practice, while never formally standardized, followed some patterns of customary use in various regions. These usages differ on some details, mainly on how to represent certain consonants and vowels not present in the Arabic language.

Adlam alphabet

Adlam
Type
Alphabet
Languages Fula
Creator Ibrahima Barry and Abdoulaye Barry
Time period
 Invented 1980s
Direction Right-to-left
ISO 15924 Adlm, 166
Unicode alias
 Adlam
U+1E900–U+1E95F

During the late 1980s an alphabetic script was devised by the teenaged brothers Ibrahima Barry and Abdoulaye Barry, in order to represent the Fulani language.[2][3] After several years of development it started to be widely adopted among Fulani communities, and is currently taught in Guinea, Nigeria, Liberia and other nearby countries. The name Adlam is an acronym derived from the first four letters of the alphabet (A, D, L, M), standing for Alkule Dandayɗe Leñol Mulugol ("the alphabet that protects the peoples from vanishing"). There are Android apps to send SMS in Adlam and to learn the alphabet.[4]

Unicode

The extended Latin characters used in the Latin transcription of Fula were incorporated since an early version of the Unicode Standard.

The Adlam alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2016 with the release of version 9.0; the proposal was authored by Michael Everson.[3] The next version of the Noto fonts will implement it.[3]

The Unicode block for Adlam is U+1E900–U+1E95F:

Adlam[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+1E90x 𞤀 𞤁 𞤂 𞤃 𞤄 𞤅 𞤆 𞤇 𞤈 𞤉 𞤊 𞤋 𞤌 𞤍 𞤎 𞤏
U+1E91x 𞤐 𞤑 𞤒 𞤓 𞤔 𞤕 𞤖 𞤗 𞤘 𞤙 𞤚 𞤛 𞤜 𞤝 𞤞 𞤟
U+1E92x 𞤠 𞤡 𞤢 𞤣 𞤤 𞤥 𞤦 𞤧 𞤨 𞤩 𞤪 𞤫 𞤬 𞤭 𞤮 𞤯
U+1E93x 𞤰 𞤱 𞤲 𞤳 𞤴 𞤵 𞤶 𞤷 𞤸 𞤹 𞤺 𞤻 𞤼 𞤽 𞤾 𞤿
U+1E94x 𞥀 𞥁 𞥂 𞥃 𞥄 𞥅 𞥆 𞥇 𞥈 𞥉 𞥊
U+1E95x 𞥐 𞥑 𞥒 𞥓 𞥔 𞥕 𞥖 𞥗 𞥘 𞥙 𞥞 𞥟
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 9.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Other scripts

There has been at least one effort to adapt the N'Ko alphabet to the Pular language of Guinea.

References

  1. ↑ Dalby, Andrew (1998). Dictionary of Languages. Columbia University Press.
  2. ↑ Everson, Michael (2014-10-28). "N4628R: Revised proposal for encoding the Adlam script in the SMP of the UCS" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-06-22.
  3. 1 2 3 The Alphabet That Will Save a People From Disappearing, Kaveh Waddell, Nov 16, 2016, The Atlantic
  4. ↑ Winden Jangen ADLaM: Cellphone Applications
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