Boko alphabet

Boko (or bookoo) is a Latin-script alphabet used to write the Hausa language. The first boko alphabet was devised by Europeans in the early 19th century,{{Cite book |author1=Awoyale, Yiwola |author2=Planet Phrasebooks, Lonely | title=Africa: Lonely Planet Phrasebook |year=2007 | publisher=Lonely Planet | isbn=978-1-74059-692-3 | pages=79}} and developed in the early 20th century by the British and French colonial authorities. It was made the official Hausa alphabet in 1930.{{Cite book | last=Dalby | first=Andrew | author-link=Andrew Dalby | title=Dictionary of languages: the definitive reference to more than 400 languages | year=1998 | publisher=Columbia University Press | location=New York | isbn=0-231-11568-7 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryoflang00dalb/page/242 242] | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryoflang00dalb/page/242 }} Since the 1950s boko has been the main alphabet for Hausa.[http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hausa.htm omniglot.com] Arabic script (ajami) is now only used in Islamic schools and for Islamic literature. Since the 1980s, Nigerian boko has been based on the Pan-Nigerian alphabet.

The word boko also refers to non-Islamic (usually western) education ('yan boko = "modern school")[http://maguzawa.dyndns.ws/ maguzawa.dyndns.ws (Hausa-English dictionary)] or secularism. The word is often described as being a borrowing from English book.[https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2014/0506/Boko-Haram-doesn-t-really-mean-Western-education-is-a-sin 'Boko Haram' doesn't really mean 'Western education is a sin'], The Christian Science Monitor However, in 2013, leading Hausa expert Paul Newman published "The Etymology of Hausa Boko", in which he presents the view that boko is in fact a native word meaning "sham, fraud", a reference to "Western learning and writing" being seen as deceitful in comparison to traditional Quranic scholarship.{{cite web | last = Newman | first = Paul | author-link = Paul Newman (linguist) | year = 2013 | title = The Etymology of Hausa boko | publisher = Mega-Chad Research Network / Réseau Méga-Tchad | url = http://www.megatchad.net/publications/Newman-2013-Etymology-of-Hausa-boko.pdf | access-date = 2014-04-27 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140427234827/http://www.megatchad.net/publications/Newman-2013-Etymology-of-Hausa-boko.pdf | archive-date = 2014-04-27 | url-status = dead }}

There are some differences in boko used in Niger and Nigeria due to different pronunciations in the French and English languages. The letter {{angbr|ƴ}} is used only in Niger; in Nigeria it is written {{angbr|ʼy}}.

Tone, vowel length, and the distinction between {{IPA|/r/}} and {{IPA|/ɽ/}} (which does not exist for all speakers) are not marked in writing. So, for example, {{IPA|/daɡa/}} "from" and {{IPA|/daːɡaː/}} "battle" are both written daga.