Africa Alphabet

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The Africa Alphabet (also International African Alphabet or IAI alphabet) is a set of letters designed as the basis for Latin alphabets for the languages of Africa. It was initially developed in 1928 by the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures from a combination of the English alphabet and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Development was assisted by native speakers of African languages and led by Diedrich Hermann Westermann, who served as director of the organization from 1926 to 1939. The aim of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, later renamed the International African Institute (IAI), was to enable people to write for practical and scientific purposes in all African languages without the need of diacritics.

African Alphabet
Script type
alphabet
Time period
1928–present
LanguagesLanguages of Africa
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

The Africa Alphabet influenced the development of orthographies of many African languages, serving "as the basis for the transcription" of about 60 by one count.[1] Discussion of how to harmonize these with other systems led to several largely abortive proposals such as the African Reference Alphabet and the World Orthography.

Overview

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The Africa Alphabet was built from the consonant letters of the English alphabet and the vowel letters, and any additional consonants, of the IPA. Capital forms of IPA letters were invented as necessary. Thus J and Y are pronounced [d͡ʒ] and [j] as in English, while Ɔ, Ɛ and Ŋ are pronounced [ɔ], [ɛ] and [ŋ] as in the IPA.[citation needed]

Characters

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International African Alphabet
Aa
Bb
Ɓɓ
Cc
Dd
Ɖɖ
Ee
Ɛɛ
Əə
Ff
Ƒƒ
Gg
Ɣɣ
Hh
Xx
Ii
Jj
Kk
Ll
Mm
Nn
Ŋŋ
Oo
Ɔɔ
Pp
Rr
Ss
Ʃʃ
Tt
Uu
Vv
Ʋʋ
Ww
Yy
Zz
Ʒʒ
  1. ^ The capital Ɓ has the form of Ƃ in the original document, which is not the current standard in most languages, but is still preferred for Dan and Kpelle languages of Liberia. Some fonts, such as Gentium, provide for this via character variants.
  2. ^ In the original document, the capital Ʒ has the form of a reversed Σ, which is still preferred for Dagbani language in Ghana. Some fonts, such as Gentium, provide for this via character variants.

See also

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Notes

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References

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  • Coulmas, Florian (1996). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems. Oxford: Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9781118932667. ISBN 9780631194460.
  • International Institute of African Languages and Cultures (1930). Practical Orthography of African Languages (Revised ed.). London: Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 2023-09-28.
  • Sow, Alfa I.; Abdulaziz, Mohamed H. (1993). "Language and Social Change". In Mazrui, Ali A. (ed.). General History of Africa. Vol. 8. University of California Press.