African Reference Alphabet

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The African Reference Alphabet is a largely defunct continent-wide guideline for the creation of Latin alphabets for African languages. Two variants of the initial proposal (one in English and a second in French) were made at a 1978 UNESCO-organized conference held in Niamey, Niger. They were based on the results of several earlier conferences on the harmonization of established Latin alphabets of individual languages. The 1978 conference recommended the use of single letters for speech sounds rather than of letter sequences or of letters with diacritics. A substantial overhaul was proposed in 1982 but was rejected in a follow-up conference held in Niamey in 1984. Since then, continent-wide harmonization has been largely abandoned, because regional needs, practices and thus preferences differ greatly across Africa. [1]

Contents

Through the individual languages that were its basis, the African Reference Alphabet inherits from the Africa Alphabet, and like the latter uses a number of IPA letters. The Niamey conference built on the work of a previous UNESCO-organized meeting, on harmonizing the transcriptions of African languages, that was held in Bamako, Mali, in 1966.

1978 proposals

Separate versions of the conference's report were produced in English and French. Different images of the alphabet were used in the two versions, and there are a number of differences between the two.

The English version was a set of 57 letters, given in both upper-case and lower-case forms. Eight of these are formed from common Latin letters with the addition of an underline mark. Some (the uppercase letters alpha, eth ( Latin capital letter african Eth.svg ), esh, and both lower- and upper-case Latin capital letter Z with tophook.svg , Latin small letter Z with tophook.svg ) cannot be accurately represented in Unicode (as of version 15, 2023). Others do not correspond to the upper- and lower-case identities in Unicode, or (e.g. Ʒ) require character variants in the font. [2]

This version also listed eight diacritical marks (acute accent (´), grave accent (`), circumflex (ˆ), caron (ˇ), macron (¯), tilde (˜), trema (¨), and a superscript dot (˙) and nine punctuation marks (? ! ( ) « » , ; .).

In the French version, the letters were hand-printed in lower case only. Only 56 of the letters in the English version were listed – omitting the hooktop-z – and two further apostrophe-like letters were included (for ʔ and ʕ); although as small as punctuation marks, they are placed lower than punctuation marks would be. Five of the letters were written with a subscript dot instead of a subscript dash as in the English version (ḍ ḥ ṣ ṭ and ẓ). (These represent Arabic-style emphatic consonants; the other underlined letters (c̠, q̠ and x̠) remain underlined; they represent click consonants.) Diacritical marks and punctuation are not shown. The French and English sets are otherwise identical.

African Reference Alphabet, as presented on the 1978 Niamey conference (English version) African reference alphabet as presented 1978 on the Niamey meeting.png
African Reference Alphabet, as presented on the 1978 Niamey conference (English version)
African Reference Alphabet, as presented on the 1978 Niamey conference (French version) African reference alphabet as presented 1978 on the Niamey meeting (French).png
African Reference Alphabet, as presented on the 1978 Niamey conference (French version)
English variant of 1978 proposal [2]
lowercaseaɑbɓcc̠dd̠ɖɗð
uppercase A Ɑ B Ɓ C C̠ D D̠ Ɖ Ɗ Ꝺ
lowercaseeɛǝfƒɡɣhh̠iɪ
uppercase E Ɛ Ǝ F Ғ G Ɣ H H̠ I Ɪ
lowercasejkƙlmnŋoɔpq
uppercase J K Ƙ L M N Ŋ O Ɔ P Q
lowercaseq̠rɍss̠ʃtt̠ƭʈөu
uppercaseQ̠ R Ɍ S S̠ Ʃ T T̠ Unicode 0x01AC alt.svg Ŧ ϴ U
lowercaseᴜvʋwxx̠yƴzz̠ Latin small letter Z with tophook.svg ʒ
uppercase Ʊ V Ʋ W X X̠ Y Ƴ Z Z̠ Latin capital letter Z with tophook.svg Unicode 0x01B7 reversed sigma character variant.svg
French variant of 1978 proposal [2]
aɑbɓcc̱dḍɖɗð
eɛǝfƒɡɣhḥiɪ
jkƙlmnŋoɔpqq̱
rɍsṣʃtṭʈƭөuᴜ
vʋwxx̱yƴzẓʒʼʻ

Notes:

Rejected 1982 proposal

Linearized tilde Linearized tilde.svg
Linearized tilde

A proposed revision of the alphabet was made in 1982 by Michael Mann and David Dalby, who had attended the Niamey conference. It has 60 letters. Digraphs are retained only for vowel length and geminate consonants, and even there they suggest replacements. A key feature of this proposal is that, like the French proposal of 1978, it consists of only lower-case letters, making it unicase. It did not meet with acceptance at the follow-up Niamey meeting in 1984. [4]

African Reference Alphabet (revised version 1982) as proposed by Michael Mann and David Dalby African reference alphabet from 1982 according to Mann and Dalby 1987 (2).png
African Reference Alphabet (revised version 1982) as proposed by Michael Mann and David Dalby
Mann & Dalby's revised African Reference Alphabet [5]
a ɑ ʌ b ɓ c ꞇ ç d ɗ ɖ ꝺ e ɛ ǝ
f ƒ g ɠ ɣ h ɦ i ɩ j ɟ k ƙ l λ
m Latin letter Linearized tilde (Mann-Dalby form).svg n ŋ ɲ o ɔ p ƥ q r ɽ s ʃ t
ƭ ʈ θ u ω v ʋ w x y ƴ z ʒ ƹ ʔ

The 32nd letter “ Latin letter Linearized tilde (Mann-Dalby form).svg ” is called linearized tilde . [6] It is not specifically supported in Unicode (as of version 15, 2023), but can be represented by ⟨ ɴ ⟩ or ⟨ ∿ ⟩. ⟨ ƒ ⟩ and ⟨ ʃ ⟩ are written without ascenders (thus esh is a mirror of ⟨ʅ ⟩; ⟨ƴ⟩ is written with a right-hooking tail, like the retroflex letters in the IPA; and ⟨ɩ⟩ has a top hook to the left, like a squashed ⟨ʅ ⟩.

Because no language has all the consonants, the consonant letters are used for more than one potential value. They can be reassigned when there are conflicts. For instance, ɦ may be either a voiceless pharyngeal or a voiced glottal fricative.

Consonant chart (1982) [5]
bilabiallabio-
dental		labio-
velar		dentalalveolarlateralpost-
alveolar/
retroflex		alveo-
palatal		palatalvelaruvularpharyn-
geal		glottal
nasalm Latin letter Linearized tilde (Mann-Dalby form).svg nɴɲŋ
plosivep bƥ ɓt dʈ ɖc jk gqʔ
implosiveɓɗƴɠ
ejective/
aspirate		ƥƭꞇƙ
clickωʈɖλç
affricatec j
fricativeƒ ʋf vθ ꝺs zθ ꝺʃ ʒç ɟx ɣɦ ƹh ɦ
trill/flaprɽɽ
approximantʋwlλy

Where ⟨ƥ ɓ⟩ are needed for both values, ⟨ƙ ɠ⟩ might be chosen for the labiovelar plosives.

Where dentals contrast with alveolars, ⟨ƭ ɗ ɴ⟩ might be chosen for the dentals.

Where there are aspirated plosives but not voiced, the pinyin solution might be chosen of using voiced letters (e.g. b) for tenuis and the voiceless letter (e.g. p) for the aspirate.

Additional affricates should be written with unused letters, or with digraphs in y or w where there is morphophonemic justification.

Where ⟨θ ꝺ⟩ are needed for both values, the lateral fricatives might be written ⟨λ ɽ⟩.

Where velar and uvular fricatives contrast, ⟨ɦ ɽ⟩ might be chosen for the uvulars.

Where ⟨ʋ⟩ is needed for both values, ⟨ω⟩ might be chosen for the approximant.

The click letters are combined with ɴ (before or after) for nasal clicks, followed by g for voiced, and followed by h for aspirated.

Vowel chart (1982) [5]
frontcentralback
closeiɩu
close-mideωo
open-midɛəɔ
openaʌɑ

Remaining diacritics should be replaced by linearized equivalents. For the tone diacritics are proposed baseline-aligned ⟨´ ` ⌟ ⌝⟩ (not supported by Unicode).

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Karan & Roberts (2020: 925) Orthography standardization. In Dimmendaal & Vossen (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of African Languages.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Presentation of the "African Reference Alphabet" (in 4 images) from the Niamey 1978 meeting". www.bisharat.net. Retrieved 2013-05-10.
  3. 1 2 3 "Niamey 1978 report". www.bisharat.net. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
  4. ↑ P. Baker (1997: 115) Developing ways of writing vernaculars, in Tabouret-Keller et al. (eds.) Vernacular Literacy. Clarendon and Oxford Press.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Michael Mann & David Dalby 1987 [2017] A Thesaurus of African Languages: A Classified and Annotated Inventory of the Spoken Languages of Africa With an Appendix on Their Written Representation. London, ISBN   0-905450-24-8, p. 207
  6. ↑ Mann, Michael; Dalby, David: A Thesaurus of African Languages, London 1987, ISBN   0-905450-24-8, p. 210

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