The Hanifi Rohingya script is a unified script for the Rohingya language. It is one of three scripts currently used to write the Rohingya language, the other two being the Rohingya Arabic alphabet and the Rohingya Latin script. The Rohingya language was first written in the 19th century with a version of the Perso-Arabic script. In 1975, an orthographic Arabic script was developed and approved by the community leaders, based on the Urdu alphabet but with unique innovations to make the script suitable to Rohingya.

In the 1980s, Mohammad Hanif and his colleagues created a suitable phonetic script based on the Arabic alphabet; it has been compared to the N’ko script.

This script, unlike the Arabic script, is alphabetical, meaning that all vowels are independent letters, as opposed to diacritics as is the case in Arabic. However, vowels cannot stand on their own and always need to be connected to a consonant similar to diacritics. Therefore, diphthongs cannot be written as vowel-vowel combination even though typographically this is possible. Tone markers are shown as diacritics in Hanifi script. It is written from right to left, following the direction of the Arabic script.

Characters The Rohingya script has 28 consonant letters and 10 vowel markers. +Letters 𐴅𐴄𐴃𐴂𐴁𐴀 𐴋𐴊𐴉𐴈𐴇𐴆 𐴑𐴐𐴏𐴎𐴍𐴌 𐴗𐴖𐴕𐴔𐴓𐴒 𐴛𐴚𐴙𐴘 The script has 10 vowel letters. +Vowels𐴡𐴠𐴞𐴟𐴝𐴧𐴦𐴥𐴤𐴣The script has three tone markers that are shown as diacritics above the vowel letters. The tone markers indicate high, low or falling tones. +Tone marks ◌𐴦◌𐴥◌𐴤

Letters, their pronunciations, and their equivalents Consonants

+ Character This table can be viewed correctly using Firefox and the font Noto Sans Rohingya. Name Final Medial Latin Script Arabic Script Pronunciation Unicode 𐴀 A 𐴀 ـ𐴀ـ - ا, ع, U+10D00 𐴁 BA 𐴁𐴢 ـ𐴁ـ b ب U+10D01 𐴂 PA 𐴂𐴢 ـ𐴂ـ p پ U+10D02 𐴃 TA 𐴃𐴢 ـ𐴃ـ t ت, ط U+10D03 𐴄 TTA 𐴄𐴢 ـ𐴄ـ th ٹ U+10D04 𐴅 JA 𐴅 ـ𐴅ـ j ج U+10D05 𐴆 CA 𐴆 ـ𐴆ـ ch چ U+10D06 𐴇 HA 𐴇𐴢 ـ𐴇ـ h, h' ح, ه U+10D07 𐴈 KHA 𐴈𐴢 ـ𐴈ـ h, kh خ U+10D08 𐴉 FA 𐴉𐴢 ـ𐴉ـ f‌‌ ف U+10D09 𐴊 DA 𐴊𐴢 ـ𐴊ـ d ‌د, ض U+10D0A 𐴋 DDA 𐴋 ـ𐴋ـ dh ڈ U+10D0B 𐴌 RA 𐴌ـ𐴌ـ r ر U+10D0C 𐴍 RRA 𐴍ـ𐴍ـ ç ڑ U+10D0D 𐴎 ZA 𐴎ـ𐴎ـ z ‌ ز, ذ, ظ U+10D0E 𐴏 SA 𐴏𐴢ـ𐴏ـ s س, ث, ص U+10D0F 𐴐 SHA 𐴐𐴢ـ𐴐ـ c ‌ش U+10D10 𐴑 KA 𐴑 ـ𐴑ـ k ‌ ک‌, ق U+10D11 𐴒 GA 𐴒𐴢ـ𐴒ـ g ‌ گ U+10D12 𐴓 LA 𐴓𐴢 ـ𐴓ـ l ‌ ل U+10D13 𐴔 MA 𐴔ـ𐴔ـ m م U+10D14 𐴕 NA 𐴕ـ𐴕ـ n ن U+10D15 𐴖 WA 𐴖𐴢ـ𐴖ـ v ‌ و , U+10D16 𐴗 KINNA WA 𐴗𐴢ـ𐴗ـ u ‌ و (for cluster or diphthong) U+10D17 𐴘 YA 𐴘ـ𐴘ـ y ‌ ي U+10D18 𐴙 KINNA YA 𐴙𐴢ـ𐴙ـ i ‌ ي (for cluster or diphthong) U+10D19 𐴚 NGA = gan 𐴚ـ𐴚ـ ng ڠ U+10D1A 𐴛 NYA = nayya 𐴛ـ𐴛ـ ny ني U+10D1B

Vowels and tone markers

Character Name Latin Script Arabic Script Pronunciation Unicode Character Name Latin Script Arabic Script Type IPA Unicode 𐴝 aa-for a ◌َ U+10D1D 𐴢 Sakin (Ttura/Les) none ◌ۡ Vowel silencer none U+10D22 𐴞 i-for i‌ ◌ِ U+10D1E 𐴣 Na-Khonna ñ (full letter) ں, ◌ً, ◌ࣧ, ◌ٍ, ◌ࣩ, ◌ٌ, ◌ࣨ Nasalization mark U+10D23 𐴟 u-for u‌ ◌ُ U+10D1F ◌𐴤 Harbai á (acute accent)‌ ◌࣪ / ◌࣭ Short high tone U+10D24 𐴠 e-for e ◌ࣦ U+10D20 ◌𐴥 Tela áa (double, acute at first) ◌࣫ / ◌࣮ Long falling tone U+10D25 𐴡 o-for o ◌ࣤ, ◌ࣥ U+10D21 ◌𐴦 Tana aá (double, acute at second) ◌࣬ / ◌࣯ Long rising tone U+10D26𐴧TassiU+10D27double consonant (gemination)

Numbers Mohammad Hanif and his colleagues also created a set of numerals for the Rohingya language, The numbers are based on the Hindu–Arabic numerals but with some modifications. Name sifírekduitinsairfañssóháñtañcthono 𐴏𐴞𐴉𐴞𐴥𐴌 𐴀𐴠𐴑 𐴊𐴟𐴘 𐴃𐴞𐴕 𐴏𐴝𐴙𐴌 𐴉𐴝𐴣𐴏𐴢 𐴏𐴡𐴥 𐴇𐴝𐴥𐴣𐴃𐴢 𐴀𐴝𐴣𐴐𐴄𐴡 𐴕𐴡 سِفِ࣭رۡ اࣦكۡ دُيۡ تِنۡ سَيۡرۡ فَنسۡ سࣤ࣪ حَ࣪نتۡ اَنشۡٹࣤ نࣤ Digit 𐴰 𐴱 𐴲 𐴳 𐴴 𐴵 𐴶 𐴷 𐴸 𐴹Number0123456789UnicodeU+10D30U+10D31U+10D32U+10D33U+10D34U+10D35U+10D36U+10D37U+10D38U+10D39

Four lines

The Rohingya script is written from right to left, similar to the Arabic script. There are 28 consonants and 10 vowel markers in the Rohingya language.

Each letter sits differently on the four-line writing system: 21 letters are written above the middle three lines 6 letters are written within the middle two lines 1 letters is written below the middle two lines

Understanding these positions is important for learning proper handwriting and preserving the beauty of the Rohingya script.

Above the middle three lines 𐴀 𐴁 𐴃 𐴄 𐴅 𐴆 𐴈 𐴋 𐴌 𐴍 𐴎 𐴑 𐴓 𐴔 𐴕 𐴖 𐴗 𐴘 𐴚 𐴛

Within the middle two lines 𐴂 𐴇 𐴉 𐴊 𐴏 𐴐 𐴒

Below the middle two lines 𐴙

Unicode

The Hanifi Rohingya script was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2018 with the release of version 11.0. Proposals to include it in Unicode were written by linguist Anshuman Pandey.

The Unicode block for Hanifi Rohingya is U+10D00–U+10D3F and contains 50 characters:

Fonts Google's Noto Sans has developed a Rohingya script font called Noto Sans Hanifi Rohingya, available at GitHub. Rohingya Hanifi Script font styles Google Playstore Rohingya Hanifi Script font styles App Store

Rohingya keyboard

A virtual keyboard was developed by Google for the Rohingya language in 2019 and allows users to type in the Rohingya script. Ahkter Husin, a Rohingya software developer developed a keyboard for Android phones which is available on Google Play Store. Users can download here. Ahkter Husin and Kyaw Zay Ya Lin Tun developed a keyboard app for iOS which can be found here. The Rohingya Unicode keyboard layout can be found here.

Sample text The following is a Rohingya translation of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, comparing the Hanifi and Arabic scripts.

Rohingya in Hanifi Script.Rohingya in Rohingya Arabic ScriptEnglish original:"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

References

External links English-Rohingya dictionary application Google Playstore Rohingya Picture Dictionary application Google Playstore Rohingya Keyboard App with auto suggestion Google Playstore Rohingya Books App with 1000 plus books in Hanifi Script Google Playstore Rohingya Hanifi Script font styles Google Playstore

Rohingya Language Council