African Reference Alphabet: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|AlphabetDefunct proposedorthographic inguideline 1978for Africa}}

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 [[macron below|underline mark]]. Some (the three uppercase letters alpha, eth ([[Image:Latin capital letter african Eth.svg|x12px]]), esh, and both lower- and upper-case [[ImageFile:LATINLatin SMALLcapital LETTERletter Z WITHwith TOPHOOKtophook.svg|x12px20px]], and the lowercase letter [[ImageFile:LATINLatin SMALLsmall LETTERletter Z WITHwith TOPHOOKtophook.svg|x12px20px]]) cannot be accurately represented in [[Unicode]] (as of version 1315, March2023). 2020Others do not correspond to the upper- and lower-case identities in Unicode, or (e.g. Ʒ) require [[character variant]]s in the font.<ref name=Niamey1978>{{cite web |publisher=www.bisharat.net |title=Presentation of the "African Reference Alphabet" (in 4 images) from the Niamey 1978 meeting|url=http://www.bisharat.net/Documents/Niamey78annex.htm |access-date=2013-05-10 |language=en}}</ref>

This version also listed eight accentsdiacritical marks ([[acute accent]] (´), [[grave accent]] (`), [[circumflex]] (ˆ), [[caron]] (ˇ), [[Macron (diacritic)|macron]] (¯), [[tilde]] (˜), [[umlaut (diacritic)|trema]] (¨), and a [[Overdot|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 (ʾ and ʿ) were included (for [ʔ and ʕ].); Alsoalthough as small as punctuation marks, fivethey 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 consonant]]s while; the remainingother underlined letters (c̠, q̠ and x̠) remain underlined; they represent [[Clickclick consonant|clicks]]s.) AccentsDiacritical marks and punctuation doare not appearshown. The French and English sets are otherwise identical.

[[File:African reference alphabet as presented 1978 on the Niamey meeting.png|thumb|upright=1.6|African referenceReference alphabetAlphabet, as presented on the 1978 Niamey conference (English version)<ref name=Niamey1978 />]]

|+English variant of 1978 proposal<ref name=Niamey1978/>

| '''lowercase''' || a || αɑ || b || ɓ || c || c̠ || d || d̠ || ɖ || ɗ || ð

| '''lowercase''' || e || ɛ || ǝ || f|| ƒ || gɡ || ɣ || h || h̠ || i || ɪ

| '''uppercase''' || [[E]] || [[Ɛ]] || [[Ǝ]] || [[F]] || [[Ƒ|Ғ]] || [[G]] || [[Latin gamma|Ɣ]] || [[H]] || H̠ || [[I]] || [[Ɪ]]

| '''uppercase''' || Q̠ || [[R]] || [[Ɍ]] || [[S]] || S̠ || [[Esh (letter)|Ʃ]] || [[T]] || T̠ || [[File:Unicode 0x01AC alt.svg|17x17px|link=Ƭ]] || [[Ʈ|Ŧ]] || {{not a typo|[[ΘLatin theta|Өϴ]]}}

| '''lowercase''' || ᴜ || v || ʋ || w || x || x̠ || y || ƴ || z || z̠ || [[file:Latin ȥsmall letter Z with tophook.svg|16x16px]] || ʒ

| '''uppercase''' || [[Ʊ]] || [[V]] || [[Ʋ]] || [[W]] || [[X]] || X̠ || [[Y]] || [[Ƴ]] || [[Z]] || Z̠ || Ȥ| [[file:Latin capital letter Z with tophook.svg|18x18px]] || [[EzhFile:Unicode 0x01B7 reversed sigma character variant.svg|18x18px|link=Ʒ]]

|+French variant of 1978 proposal<ref name=Niamey1978/>

| a || αɑ || b || ɓ || c || c̱ || d || ḍ || ɖ || ɗ || ð

| e || ɛ || ǝ || f || ƒ || ɡ || ɣ || h || ḥ || i || ɪ

* The letter “Z"Z with tophook”tophook" ([[Image:LATIN SMALL LETTER Z WITH TOPHOOK.svg|12px20px]]) is not included in [[Unicode]].

*Although digraphs using h are normally used to represent aspirated consonants, in languages in which those are absent, the digraphs can be used instead of ʒ, ʃ, θө, ɣ...<ref name=":0" />

==Rejected 1982 proposal==

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.<ref>P. Baker (1997: 115) Developing ways of writing vernaculars, in Tabouret-Keller et al. (eds.) ''Vernacular Literacy''. Clarendon and Oxford Press.</ref>

[[File:African reference alphabet from 1982 according to Mann and Dalby 1987 (2).png|thumb|upright=1.6|African referenceReference alphabetAlphabet (revised version 1982) as proposed by Michael Mann and David Dalby<ref name=Mann&Dalby>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</ref>]]

|+Unicode approximation of Mann & Dalby's revised African Reference Alphabet<ref name=Mann&Dalby/>

| [[a]] || [[αɑ]] || [[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]] || [[Lambda (Latin letter)|λ]]

| [[m]] || [[ɴFile:Latin letter Linearized tilde (Mann-Dalby form).svg|8x8px]] || [[n]] || [[ŋ]] || [[ɲ]] || [[o]] || [[ɔ]] || [[p]] || [[ƥ]] || [[q]] || [[r]] || [[ɽ]] || [[s]] || [[ʃ]] || [[t]]

| [[ƭ]] || [[ʈ]] || [[Latin theta|θ]] || [[u]] || [[Latin omega|ω]] || [[v]] || [[ʋ]] || [[w]] || [[x]] || [[y]] || [[ƴ]] || [[z]] || [[ʒ]] || [[ƹ]] || [[Glottal stop (letter)|ʔ]]

The 32nd letter “"[[File:Latin letter Linearized tilde (Mann-Dalby form).svg|8px]]”" is called ''linearized [[tilde]]''.<ref>Mann, Michael; Dalby, David: ''A Thesaurus of African Languages'', London 1987, {{ISBN|0-905450-24-8}}, p. 210</ref> It is not specifically supported in Unicode (as of version 15, 2023), but can be represented by {{angbr IPA|[[wikt:ɴ|ɴ]]}} or {{angbr IPA|[[wikt:∿|∿]]}}. {{angbr IPA|&thinsp;ƒ&thinsp;}} and {{angbr IPA|&thinsp;ʃ&thinsp;}} are written without ascenders (thus esh is a mirror of {{angbr IPA|ʅ&thinsp;}}; {{angbr IPA|ƴ}} is written with a right-hooking tail, like the retroflex letters in the IPA; and {{angbr IPA|ɩ}} has a top hook to the left, like a squashed {{angbr IPA|ʅ&thinsp;}}.

Because no language has all the consonants, the consonant letterletters 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)<ref name=Mann&Dalby/>

|m|| ||ɴ[[File:Latin letter Linearized tilde (Mann-Dalby form).svg|8x8px]]|| colspan="2" |n|| ||ɴ||colspan=2|ɲ||ŋ||colspan=3|

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

|+Vowel chart (1982)<ref name=Mann&Dalby/>

|a||ʌ||αɑ

*[[Lepsius Standard Alphabet by Lepsius]]

*{{cite book |last1=Mann, |first1=Michael, and|last2=Dalby |first2=David Dalby. |year=1987. ''|title=A thesaurus of African languages: A classified and annotated inventory of the spoken languages of Africa with an appendix on their written representation''. |location=London: |publisher=Hans Zell Publishers. {{ISBN|isbn=0-905450-24-8}}