Garay_alphabet

Garay alphabet

Garay alphabet

Arabic-like alphabet for Wolof

The Garay alphabet was designed in 1961, as a transcription system "[marrying] African sociolinguistic characteristics" according to its inventor, Assane Faye. This alphabet has 25 consonants and 14 vowels.[1] It is used in particular for the writing of the Wolof language, spoken mostly in Senegal, although it is more often written in the Latin alphabet and to a lesser extent in the Arabic (Wolofal) alphabet. It is written from right to left, and distinguishes letter case.

Quick Facts Garay, Script type ...

A proposal to encode Garay in Unicode was submitted in 2012.

Letters

Consonants

The consonants are written as standalone letters and are not joined as in Arabic.

There is a mark above some letters to show pre-nasalization. The letter labeled alif is used like its counterpart in Arabic, coming before an initial vowel. Extra to the standard Wolof set is /ħ/, available for Arabic loan words. Lacking is /q/, but /k/ may suffice for that. Also lacking is /nk/, but that may easily be formed with a mark above, like /mb/ etc.[2]

In Garay, uppercase letters are distinguished from lowercase letters by a swash added to one side or the other of the letter. Each sentence begins with a capital letter. Personal names are likewise capitalized.[3]

More information Nasals, IPA ...

Vowels

a ⟨a⟩ i ⟨i⟩ ɛ ⟨e⟩ ɔ ⟨o⟩
ə ⟨ë⟩ ü e ⟨é⟩ u ⟨u⟩

Numbers

References

  1. [1]
    The Garay alphabet can contribute to the rebirth of Africa, according to its inventor , Birane Hady Cissé, on fr.allafrica.com (April 21, 2009, accessed November 7, 2018).
  2. [2]
    Garay script for Wolof, Ian James, March 2012
  3. [3]
    Garay Alphabet: a Wolof Script, 6 May 2019

Bibliography

  • Everson, Michael (April 26, 2012). Preliminary proposal for encoding the Garay script in the SMP of the UCS (PDF).
  • Pandey, Anshuman (May 9, 2011). Introducing the Wolof Alphabet of Assane Faye (PDF).


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