African Reference Alphabet

Separate versions of the conference's report were produced in English and French. Different images of the alphabet were used in the two versions, and there are a number of differences between the two.

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 underline mark. Some (the uppercase letters alpha, eth (x12px), esh, and both lower- and upper-case 20px, 20px) cannot be accurately represented in Unicode (as of version 15, 2023). Others do not correspond to the upper- and lower-case identities in Unicode, or (e.g. Ʒ) require character variants in the font.{{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}}

This version also listed eight diacritical marks (acute accent (´), grave accent (`), circumflex (ˆ), caron (ˇ), macron (¯), tilde (˜), trema (¨), and a superscript dot (˙) and nine punctuation marks (? ! ( ) « » , ; .).

The letters presented in the Annex 1 of the 1978 Niamey meeting report are slightly different from the ones presented on page 34 (page 32 in the French version) which omitted the hooktop-z but included two apostrophe-like letters (for ʔ and ʕ). 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). The French and English sets are otherwise identical.

File:African reference alphabet as presented 1978 on the Niamey meeting.png

File:African reference alphabet as presented 1978 on the Niamey meeting (French).png

File:African reference alphabet as presented 1978 on the Niamey meeting (English).png

Notes:

• Ɑ/ɑ is "Latin alpha" (x15pxx15px) not "Latin script a" (x15pxx15px). In Unicode, Latin alpha and {{nowrap|script a}} are not considered as separate characters.
• The upper case I, the counterpart of the lower case i, does not have crossbars (x15px) while the upper case counterpart of the lower case ɪ has them (x15px).
• The letter "Z with tophook" (20px) is not included in Unicode.
• c̠, q̠, x̠ represent click consonants (ǀ, ǃ, ǁ respectively), but the line under is optional, and usually not used.{{Cite web|title=Niamey 1978 report|url=http://www.bisharat.net/Documents/Niamey78en.htm|access-date=2021-08-18|website=www.bisharat.net}}
• The pharyngeal ḥ and pharyngealized ḍ, ṣ, ṭ, ẓ are presented with lines below as h̠ and d̠, s̱, t̠, z̠ in the Annex 1 but with dots in the other parts of the 1978 Niamey meeting report (both in the French and English versions) These represent Arabic-style emphatic consonants.
• c, j represent either palatal stops or postalveolar affricates. ɖ, ʈ are the retroflex stops, as in the IPA.
• ƒ, ʋ represent bilabial fricatives.
• ө is a dental fricative, not a vowel.
• 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, ө, ɣ...
• Digraphs with m or n are used for prenasalized consonants, with w and y for labialized and palatalized consonants; kp and gb are used for labial-velar stops; hl and dl are used for lateral fricatives.
• ɓ, ɗ are used for implosives, and ƭ, ƙ for either ejectives or voiceless implosives. ƴ is used for [ʔʲ].
• Nasalization is either written with a nasal consonant following the vowel, or with a tilde. Tone is indicated using the acute accent, grave accent, caron, macron, and circumflex. Diaeresis is used for centralized vowels, and vowel length is indicated by doubling the vowel.
• Segmentation should be done according to each language's own phonology and morphology.

File:Linearized tilde.svg

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

File:African reference alphabet from 1982 according to Mann and Dalby 1987 (2).png

The 32nd letter "8px" is called linearized tilde.Mann, Michael; Dalby, David: A Thesaurus of African Languages, London 1987, {{ISBN|0-905450-24-8}}, p. 210 It is not specifically supported in Unicode (as of version 15, 2023), but can be represented by {{angbr IPA|ɴ}} or {{angbr IPA|∿}}. {{angbr IPA| ƒ }} and {{angbr IPA| ʃ }} are written without ascenders (thus esh is a mirror of {{angbr IPA|ʅ }}; {{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 }}. {{angbr IPA|ꞇ}}, inspired by the shape of Insular t, is meant to complete the series ejective letters with hook {{angbr IPA|ƥ, ƭ, ꞇ, ƙ}}, in practice {{angbr IPA|ƈ}} is used instead.

Because no language has all the consonants, the consonant letters are used for more than one potential value. They can be reassigned when there are conflicts. For instance, ɦ may be a voiceless pharyngeal, a voiced glottal fricative, or even (in the Khoekhoe table) an alveolar nasal click to avoid the digraph ɖɴ.

Where {{angbr IPA|ƥ ɓ}} are needed for both values, {{angbr IPA|ƙ ɠ}} might be chosen for the labiovelar plosives.

Where dentals contrast with alveolars, {{angbr IPA|ƭ ɗ ɴ}} might be chosen for the dentals.

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

Additional affricates should be written with unused letters, or with digraphs in y or w where there is morphophonemic justification.

Where {{Angbr IPA|θ ꝺ}} are needed for both values, the lateral fricatives might be written {{angbr IPA|λ ɽ}}.

Where velar and uvular fricatives contrast, {{angbr IPA|ɦ ɽ}} might be chosen for the uvulars.

Where {{angbr IPA|ʋ}} is needed for both values, {{angbr IPA|ω}} might be chosen for the approximant.

The click letters are combined with ɴ (before or after) for nasal clicks, followed by g for voiced, and followed by h for aspirated.

Remaining diacritics should be replaced by linearized equivalents. For the tone diacritics are proposed baseline-aligned {{angbr|´ ` ⌟ ⌝}} (not supported by Unicode).

• Africa Alphabet
• Dinka alphabet
• ISO 6438
• Pan-Nigerian alphabet
• Lepsius Standard Alphabet

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Mann |first1=Michael |last2=Dalby |first2=David |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=0-905450-24-8}}

• [http://www.bisharat.net/Documents/Niamey78en.htm African Languages: Proceedings of the meeting of experts on the transcription and harmonization of African languages, Niamey (Niger), 17–21 July 1978], Paris: UNESCO, 1981
• http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=IntlNiameyKybd
• http://www.bisharat.net/Documents/Niamey78annex.htm

Category:Latin alphabets

Category:Writing systems of Africa

Category:Latin-script letters

Category:Writing systems introduced in 1978

Category:Phonetic alphabets