Adlam script

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

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. On computers running Microsoft Windows, the Adlam script received native support beginning with Windows 10 version 1903, which was released in May 2019. On macOS, the Adlam script received support beginning with Ventura in 2022.

Development

While they were teenagers in the late 1980s, brothers Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry devised the alphabetic script to transcribe the Fulani language. 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. 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. In 2019, the character shapes were refined after practical usage.

Letters

Adlam has both upper and lower cases.

They are written from right to left.

CapitalMinusculeLatinArabicLetter nameIPA𞤀𞤢aعَ / اَ / ا‎a/a/𞤁𞤣dد‎da/d/𞤂𞤤lل‎la/l/𞤃𞤥mم‎ma/m/𞤄𞤦bب‎ba/b/𞤅𞤧sس‎sa/s/𞤆𞤨pݒ‎pa/p/𞤇𞤩ɓ (bh)ࢠ‎bha/ɓ/𞤈𞤪rر‎ra/r/ or /ɾ/𞤉𞤫eعٜ / اࣹ‎è/e/𞤊𞤬fڢfa/f/𞤋𞤭iعِ / اِi/i/𞤌𞤮oعࣾ / اࣷö/ɔ/𞤍𞤯ɗ (dh)ط‎dha/ɗ/𞤎𞤰ƴ (yh)ڃ‎yha/ˀj/ or /jˤ/𞤏𞤱wوwâ/w/𞤐𞤲n, any syllable-final nasalنna/n/𞤑𞤳kک‎ka/k/𞤒𞤴yيya/j/𞤓𞤵uعُ / اࣷou/u/𞤔𞤶jجdja/dʒ/𞤕𞤷cݖ‎tcha/tʃ/𞤖𞤸hه‎ha/h/𞤗𞤹ɠ (q)قgha/q/𞤘𞤺gگ‎ga/ɡ/𞤙𞤻ñ (ny)ݧ‎gna/ɲ/𞤚𞤼tتta/t/𞤛𞤽ŋ (nh)ݝ‎nha/ŋ/Supplemental: for other languages or for loanwords𞤜𞤾vva/v/𞤝𞤿x (kh)خkha/x/𞤞𞥀ɡbگبgbe/ɡ͡b/𞤟𞥁zزzal/z/𞤠𞥂kpکݒ‎kpo/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.

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 letter𞤧𞥈ص𞤣𞥈ض𞤼𞥈ط𞤶𞥈ظ𞤢𞥈ع𞤺𞥈غ𞤸𞥈ح Usage of the dot to represent sounds borrowed from Arabic: Adlam letter with dotCorresponding Arabic letter𞤧𞥊ث𞤶𞥊ز Use of the dot with native letters: Adlam letter with dotPronunciation𞤫𞥊e, as opposed to è or ɛ; dot above𞤫𞥊𞥅long e; dot below and vowel lengthener above𞤮𞥊o, as opposed to ɔ𞤮𞥊𞥅long 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.

Adlam Hindu-Arabic𞥐0𞥑1𞥒2𞥓3𞥔4𞥕5𞥖6𞥗7𞥘8𞥙9

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. The shape of the initial marks changed in 2019 as part of the efforts for Unicode standardization.

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:

References

Adlam script

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