Garay alphabet
| Garay | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | alphabet
|
| Creator | Assane Faye |
| Created | 1961 |
| Direction | Right to left |
| Languages | Wolof |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Gara (164), Garay |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Garay |
| U+10D40–U+10D8F | |
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.
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]
| Nasals | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | m ⟨m⟩ | n ⟨n⟩ | ɲ ⟨ñ⟩ | ŋ ⟨ŋ⟩ |
| Lowercase |  |
 |
 |
|
| Uppercase |  |
 |
 |
|
| Prenasalized plosives | ||||
| IPA | mb ⟨mb⟩ | nd ⟨nd⟩ | ɲɟ ⟨nj⟩ | ŋɡ ⟨ng⟩ |
| Lowercase |  |
 |
 |
|
| Uppercase |  |
 |
 |
|
| Voiced plosives | ||||
| IPA | b ⟨b⟩ | d ⟨d⟩ | ɟ ⟨j⟩ | ɡ ⟨g⟩ |
| Lowercase |  |
 |
 |
|
| Uppercase |  |
 |
 |
|
| Voiceless plosives | ||||
| IPA | p ⟨p⟩ | t ⟨t⟩ | c ⟨c⟩ | k ⟨k⟩ |
| Lowercase |  |
 |
 |
|
| Uppercase |  |
 |
 |
|
| Fricatives | ||||
| IPA | f ⟨f⟩ | s ⟨s⟩ | x~χ ⟨x⟩ | ħ ⟨h⟩ |
| Lowercase |  |
 |
 |
|
| Uppercase |  |
 |
 |
|
| Liquids and semivowels | ||||
| IPA | r ⟨r⟩ | w ⟨w⟩ | l ⟨l⟩ | j ⟨y⟩ |
| Lowercase |  |
 |
 |
|
| Uppercase |  |
 |
 |
|
| Misc. | ||||
| Alif | ||||
| Lowercase |  |
|||
| Uppercase |  |
Vowels
| a ⟨a⟩ | i ⟨i⟩ | ɛ ⟨e⟩ | ɔ ⟨o⟩ |
|
|
|
|
| ə ⟨ë⟩ | ü | e ⟨é⟩ | u ⟨u⟩ |
|
|
|
|
Numbers
Unicode
The Garay alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in September, 2024 with the release of version 16.0.
The Unicode block for Garay is U+10D40–U+10D8F:
| Garay[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+10D4x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+10D5x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+10D6x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |||
| U+10D7x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+10D8x | | | | | | | | | ||||||||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
References
- ^ 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).
- ^ Garay script for Wolof, Ian James, March 2012
- ^ 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).
External links
- Discover Garay[permanent dead link], Movement of Teachers of African Languages in Senegal (MELAS).
- James, Ian (March 2012). "Garay script of Wolof". SkyKnowledge.com.
- "Wolof (Wollof)". Omniglot.