Adlam script

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Adlam Pular
𞤀𞤣𞤤𞤢𞤥 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤢𞤪
ADLaM.png
"Adlam" written in Adlam script
Script type
Alphabet
CreatorIbrahima Barry and Abdoulaye Barry
Time period
1989–present [1]
Direction Right-to-left script   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Languages Fula
ISO 15924
ISO 15924 Adlm(166),Adlam
Unicode
Unicode alias
Adlam
U+1E900U+1E95F

The Adlam script is a script used to write Fulani. [2] 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 (𞤀𞤤𞤳𞤵𞤤𞤫 𞤁𞤢𞤲𞤣𞤢𞤴𞤯𞤫 𞤂𞤫𞤻𞤮𞤤 𞤃𞤵𞤤𞤵𞤺𞤮𞤤 [3] ), which means "the alphabet that protects the peoples from vanishing". It is one of many indigenous scripts developed for specific languages in West Africa. [4]

Contents

Adlam is supported in Google's Android and Chrome operating systems. There are also Android apps to send SMS in Adlam and to learn the alphabet. [5] On computers running Microsoft Windows, the Adlam script was natively supported beginning with Windows 10 version 1903, which was released in May 2019. On macOS, the Adlam script was natively supported beginning with Ventura in 2022.

Development

ADLaM acronym Adlam acronym.png
ADLaM acronym

While they were teenagers in the late 1980s, brothers Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry devised the alphabetic script to transcribe the Fulani language. [3] [6] One method they used involved them closing their eyes and drawing lines. After looking at their drawn shapes, they would pick which ones would look the most to them like a good glyph for a letter, and associate it with whatever sound they felt it would represent. Another method involved is thinking of a sound, imagining the look of a glyph for that sound, and drawing said glyph. [7] After several years of development it began to be widely adopted among Fulani communities, and is currently taught not only regionally in Guinea, Nigeria, and Liberia but even as far as Europe and North America. [1] In 2019, the character shapes were refined after practical usage. [8]

Letters

Adlam has both upper and lower cases. They are written from right to left. [9]

CapitalMinusculeLatinArabicLetter name [3] IPA [10]
𞤀𞤢aاa/a/
𞤁𞤣dدda/d/
𞤂𞤤lلla/l/
𞤃𞤥mمma/m/
𞤄𞤦bبba/b/
𞤅𞤧sسsa/s/
𞤆𞤨ppa/p/
𞤇𞤩ɓ (bh)bha/ɓ/
𞤈𞤪rرra/r/ɾ/
𞤉𞤫eè/e/
𞤊𞤬fفfa/f/
𞤋𞤭ii/i/
𞤌𞤮oö/ɔ/
𞤍𞤯ɗ (dh)dha/ɗ/
𞤎𞤰ƴ (yh)yha/ʔʲ/
𞤏𞤱wو/w/
𞤐𞤲n, any syllable-final nasalنna/n/
𞤑𞤳kكka/k/
𞤒𞤴yيya/j/
𞤓𞤵uou/u/
𞤔𞤶jجdja/dʒ/
𞤕𞤷ctcha/tʃ/
𞤖𞤸hحha/h/
𞤗𞤹ɠ (q)قgha/q/
𞤘𞤺gga/ɡ/
𞤙𞤻ñ (ny)gna/ɲ/
𞤚𞤼tتta/t/
𞤛𞤽ŋ (nh)nha/ŋ/
Supplemental: for other languages or for loanwords
𞤜𞤾vva/v/
𞤝𞤿x (kh)خkha/x/
𞤞𞥀ɡbgbe/ɡ͡b/
𞤟𞥁zزzal/z/
𞤠𞥂kpkpo/k͡p/
𞤡𞥃shشsha/ʃ/

The letters are found either joined (akin to Arabic) or separate. The joined form is commonly used in a cursive manner; however, separate or block forms are also used as primarily for educational content. [11]

Diacritics

Adlam has a number of diacritics. The 'consonant' modifier is used to derive additional consonants, mostly from Arabic, similar to e.g. s > š in Latin script.

DiacriticDescription
◌𞥄long 'ā'; may be placed over the letter 'a', in which case 'ā' simply takes a different diacritic than other vowels do, or over a consonant, in which case the alif letter is not written at all
◌𞥅long vowel (vowels except alif)
◌𞥆long consonant (gemination)
◌𞥇 glottal stop, hamza (between the consonant it is placed over and the following vowel)
◌𞥈consonant modifier (see the table below)
◌𞥉long modified consonant
◌𞥊dot (see the tables below)
𞥋Used between n and another consonant to indicate that they constitute a prenasalized consonant

Usage of the consonant modifier:

Adlam letter with modifierCorresponding Arabic letter
𞤧𞥈ص
𞤣𞥈ض
𞤼𞥈ط
𞤶𞥈ظ
𞤢𞥈ع
𞤺𞥈غ
𞤸𞥈ه

Usage of the dot to represent sounds borrowed from Arabic:

Adlam letter with dotCorresponding Arabic letter
𞤧𞥊ث
𞤶𞥊ز

Use of the dot with native letters:

Adlam letter with dotPronunciation
𞤫𞥊e, as opposed to è or ɛ; dot above
𞤫𞥊𞥅long e; dot below and vowel lengthener above
𞤮𞥊o, as opposed to ɔ
𞤮𞥊𞥅long o, dot below and vowel lengthener above

Digits

Unlike the Arabic script, Adlam digits go in the same direction (right to left) as letters, as in the N'Ko script.

AdlamHindu-Arabic
𞥐0
𞥑1
𞥒2
𞥓3
𞥔4
𞥕5
𞥖6
𞥗7
𞥘8
𞥙9

Punctuation

Adlam punctuation is like Spanish in that there are initial and final forms of the question mark and exclamation mark, which are placed before and after the questioned or exclaimed clause or phrase. The final forms are taken from the Arabic script. [12] [ better source needed ] The shape of the initial marks changed in 2019 as part of the efforts for Unicode standardization. [8]

AdlamLatin
..
,
::
;
𞥟 … ؟¿ … ?
! … 𞥞¡ … !

The hyphen is used for word breaks, and there are both parentheses and double parentheses.

Unicode

The Adlam alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2016 with the release of version 9.0. The Unicode block for Adlam is U+1E900–U+1E95F:

Adlam [1] [2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
 0123456789ABCDEF
U+1E90x𞤀𞤁𞤂𞤃𞤄𞤅𞤆𞤇𞤈𞤉𞤊𞤋𞤌𞤍𞤎𞤏
U+1E91x𞤐𞤑𞤒𞤓𞤔𞤕𞤖𞤗𞤘𞤙𞤚𞤛𞤜𞤝𞤞𞤟
U+1E92x𞤠𞤡𞤢𞤣𞤤𞤥𞤦𞤧𞤨𞤩𞤪𞤫𞤬𞤭𞤮𞤯
U+1E93x𞤰𞤱𞤲𞤳𞤴𞤵𞤶𞤷𞤸𞤹𞤺𞤻𞤼𞤽𞤾𞤿
U+1E94x𞥀𞥁𞥂𞥃𞥊𞥄𞥅𞥆𞥇𞥈𞥉𞥋
U+1E95x𞥐𞥑𞥒𞥓𞥔𞥕𞥖𞥗𞥘𞥙𞥞𞥟
Notes
1. ^ As of Unicode version 15.1
2. ^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. 1 2 Bach, Deborah; Lerner, Sara (July 29, 2019). "Adlam Comes Online". Microsoft . Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  2. Dalby, Andrew (1998). Dictionary of Languages. Columbia University Press.
  3. 1 2 3 Everson, Michael (28 October 2014). "N4628R: Revised proposal for encoding the Adlam script in the SMP of the UCS" (PDF). Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  4. Unseth, Peter. 2011. Invention of Scripts in West Africa for Ethnic Revitalization. In The Success-Failure Continuum in Language and Ethnic Identity Efforts, ed. by Joshua A. Fishman and Ofelia García, pp. 23–32. New York: Oxford University Press.
  5. Winden Jangen Adlam: Cellphone Applications
  6. Waddell, Kaveh (16 November 2016). "The Alphabet That Will Save a People From Disappearing". The Atlantic .
  7. The ADLaM Alphabet for Our People | Abdoulaye + More | Talks at Google , retrieved 2023-01-27
  8. 1 2 Patel, Neil; Jamra, Mark; Cornelius, Craig; Barry, Ibrahima; Barry, Abdoulaye (19 April 2019). "Replacement of Adlam Reference Font in Codesheet to Updated Design" (PDF). Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  9. "Can an alphabet save a culture?". Microsoft Unlocked. Retrieved 2022-08-26.
  10. "Adlam alphabet". skyknowledge.com. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  11. "Adlam/Pular script notes". r12a.github.io.
  12. "Adlam/Pular orthography notes". r12a.github.io. 5 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

Further reading