Not to be confused with African reference alphabet.
African Alphabet
Script type
alphabet
Time period
1928–present
Languages
African languages
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 (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.
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.
The AfricaAlphabet (also International AfricanAlphabet or IAI alphabet) is a set of letters designed as the basis for Latin alphabets for the languages...
The African Reference Alphabet is a largely defunct continent-wide guideline for the creation of Latin alphabets for African languages. Two variants of...
The modern Igbo alphabet (Igbo: Mkpụrụ Edemede Igbo), otherwise known as the Igbo alphabet (Mkpụrụ Edemede Igbo), is the alphabet of the Igbo language...
An alphabet is a standard set of letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters correspond to phonemes, the...
Majok for Dinka and other languages of South Sudan. In Southern Africa, the Mwangwego alphabet is used to write Malawian languages. IsiBheqe SoHlamvu (Bheqe...
in Northern Nigeria and the AfricaAlphabet. Post independence African governments decided to retain the Latin alphabet as the basis for transcribing...
The Yoruba alphabet (Yoruba: Álífábẹ́ẹ̀tì Yorùbá) is either of two Latin alphabets used to write the Yoruba language, one in Nigeria and one in neighboring...
see question marks, boxes, or other symbols. The Phoenician alphabet is a consonantal alphabet (or abjad) used across the Mediterranean civilization of Phoenicia...
other symbols instead of phonetic symbols. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the...
The Garay alphabet was designed in 1961, as a transcription system "[marrying] African sociolinguistic characteristics" according to its inventor, Assane...
GREEK CAPITAL LETTER CHI. AfricaAlphabetAfrican reference alphabet Dinka alphabet Pan-Nigerian alphabet Standard Alphabet by Lepsius Osborn, Don; Osborn...
The Goulsse alphabet was created for writing Gur languages of West Africa, such as Mossi and Kasem. It was developed in 2022 by two people, Wenitte Apiou...
system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae...
Persian alphabet, which itself is derived from the Arabic script. It has official status in the republics of Pakistan, India and South Africa. The Urdu...
hieroglyphs. The Semitic alphabet became the ancestor of multiple writing systems across the Middle East, Europe, northern Africa, and Pakistan, mainly through...
other alphabets, such as the Vietnamese alphabet. Its modern repertoire is standardised as the ISO basic Latin alphabet. The term Latin alphabet may refer...
related to Standard Alphabet by Lepsius. AfricaAlphabetAfrican Reference Alphabet Dinka alphabet ISO 6438 Pan-Nigerian alphabet Lepsius 1849 Lepsius...
/j/ and /w/ in the modern Lesotho variant. Sesotho in South Africa uses the following alphabet: One issue which complicates the written language is the two...
best-known song used to recite the English alphabet in alphabetical order. It is commonly used to teach the alphabet to children in English-speaking countries...
Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and...
of sigma (Σ) was re-borrowed into the Latin alphabet—more precisely, the International AfricanAlphabet—to serve as the uppercase of modern esh (lowercase:...
Bulgaria North Africa Arabic Berber languages have often been written in an adaptation of the Arabic alphabet. The use of the Arabic alphabet, as well as...
is an alphabet developed by Berber Academy to adopt Tuareg Tifinagh for use with Kabyle; it has been since modified for use across North Africa. Tifinagh...
The Ugaritic writing system is a Cuneiform Abjad (consonantal alphabet) with syllabic elements used from around either 1400 BCE or 1300 BCE for Ugaritic...
Global Information