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Adamawa Fulfulde

Ajamiya orthography notes

Updated 10 December, 2024 • recent changes scripts/arab/ff • leave a comment

This page brings together basic information about the Arabic script and its use for the Adamawa Fulfulde variant of the Fula language. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write Fulfulde using Unicode.

The orthography described is largely reliant on Scott Clark's description for SIL in 2007,2 and relates to usage for Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and the Central African Republic.

Note: Due to the difficulty in finding lists of Fulfulde Ajamiya words that are associated with IPA pronunciations, most of the examples shown here show the equivalent Latin spelling as the transcription. In a small number of cases, IPA transcriptions were generated from that.

Referencing this document

Richard Ishida, Adamawa Fulfulde (Ajamiya) Orthography Notes, 10-Dec-2024, https://r12a.github.io/scripts/arab/ff

 

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Phonological transcriptions should be treated as a guide, only. They are taken from the sources consulted, and may be narrow or broad, phonemic or phonetic, depending on what is available. They mostly represent pronunciation of words in isolation. For more detailed information about allophones, alternations, sandhi, dialectal differences, and so on, follow the links to cited references.

This is an interactive document. Click/tap on the following to reveal detailed information and examples for each character: (a) coloured characters in examples and lists; (b) link text on character names. If your browser supports it, your cursor will change to look like as you hover over these items.

More about using this page

Character names. The names of characters in codepoint markup drop the initial ARABIC label (purely to reduce the length of the examples). In other places the full name can be found.

Navigation. The Toggle images icon opens the table of contents in a popup window. Dismiss it by clicking on the X alongside it, or by hitting the ESC key.

Detailed character notes. Clicking on coloured characters in lists or on character names opens panels that give detailed information about each character. This information is taken from the companion document, Arabic Character Notes. (Those panels can be dismissed by pressing on the ESC key.)

Transcriptions & transliterations. Phonological transcriptions are surrounded by ⌈corner brackets⌋, to indicate that they vary between narrow, [phonetic] and broad, /phonemic/ transcriptions.
Latin transcriptions between <angle brackets>, represent the letters as commonly written in the Latin script.
A transliteration has also been developed especially for this orthography, and is generally based on the sound of a letter where possible, but where a letter has multiple pronunciations, the transliteration represents only one.
Transliterations provide perfect round-trip conversion between the native script and Latin, whereas Latin transcriptions rarely do.
When you click on an example to see its composition, the top of the panel that opens contains a transliteration, followed by the native text, then (if available) an IPA transcription.

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Languages using the Arabic scriptAdamawa Fulfulde pickerTerms listCharacter notesArabic linksOther orthography notes

Sample

Select part of this sample text to show a list of characters, with links to more details.
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عِنَّمَ عَادٜىٰجِ ڢٛڢ ݠٛتِ، ندِمْطِدِ عٜ جِبِنَنْندٜ تٛ بَنْنغٜ حَکّٜىٰجِ ⸫ عٜࢡٜ نغٛودِ مِيجٛ عٜ حَکِّلَنْتَاغَلْ عٜتٜ عٜࢡٜ ݠٛتِ حُوڢٛ ندِرْدٜ عٜ ندٜرْ ࢡ عِينغُيُمَّاغُ ⸫

Source: UDHR in Wikipedia, Fula Language (transliterated from Latin).

Usage & history

Origins of the Arabic script, 6thC – today.

Phoenician

└ Aramaic

└ Nabataean

└ Arabic

Fulfulde can be written in the Latin script, but also (less commonly) using the Arabic ajami script. Use of ajami tends to be restricted to Muslim contexts.

The Arabic script was introduced to Africa between the 10th to 16th centuries, and was the precursor to many Latin orthographies in pre-colonial times. Different languages have developed slightly different implementations of the Arabic script, and often the usage is not fully standardised. The Arabic language, being Semitic, is built on consonant patterns and therefore usually omits vowel diacritics and gemination marks, but African languages typically need to show all diacritics, including some additional marks to represent their full phonetics.

In 1998, at the JCMWA/MICCAO conference in Ngaoundéré, Cameroon, over 100 representatives from 14 West African countries agreed that the orthography described here would be a good standard for writing the Fulfulde language with Arabic script (called Ajamiya).2

For information about the script in general, see the Arabic overview.

Script codearabd
Language codeff-arab
Script typealphabet
Originwasia
Native speakers5,673,600
  
Total characters79
Letters36
Combining marks11
Punctuation10
Numbers10
Other12
Possible other0
Unicode blocks7
  
Character counts above are for this
orthography but exclude ASCII.
  
Text directionrtl
Post-consonant vowelsletters
marks
Standalone vowels
Case distinctionno
Cursive scriptyes
Combining marks>1 per base
Clusters markedyes
Consonant
Clusters
diacritics
Other ligaturesyes
Word separatorspace
Wraps atword
Hyphenationfalse
G Clusters OK?yes
Justificationspaces
baseline stretching
Baselineromn

Basic features

The Arabic script is commonly used as an abjad, which means that in normal use the script represents only consonant and long vowel sounds. However, since Fulfulde Ajamiya normally shows all the vowel diacritics, it actually functions as an alphabet. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for Fulfulde using the Arabic script.

Fulfulde is written right to left in horizontal lines, but numbers and embedded Latin text are read left-to-right.

Letters are joined (cursive) as is usual for the Arabic script. There is no case distinction. Words are separated by spaces.

❯ Consonant summary table

The orthography for Fulfulde described here has 22 basic consonants. 8 more consonants are applied to write Arabic loan words or names from the Qur'an.

Fulfulde has prenasalised consonants, but they are spelled out using normal consonant letters (as in the Latin orthography). Doubled consonants are indicated using the diacritic ◌ّU+0651 SHADDA.

❯ Vowel summary table

Fulfulde is an alphabet where vowel sounds are written using a mixture of combining marks and letters. Unlike Semitic languages such as Arabic that build words on consonant patterns and so normally hide vowel diacritics in the Arabic script, it can be difficult to read Fulfulde text without the full vowel information, and therefore Fulfulde retains all vowel diacritics in the text. Fulfulde has more vowel sounds than Arabic, so additional diacritics are used to write those.

The way a given vowel is written depends on its joining behaviour (initial, medial, or final). In some cases a vowel is written using just a diacritic, in others it is via combinations of letters and diacritics. Most of the letters also double as consonants. 8 combining marks are used to write vowels, and 6 letters, only 1 of which is a dedicated vowel letter.

Standalone vowels are written by adding vowel characters to عU+0639 LETTER AIN, rather than the alef used for the Arabic language, apart from a small number of exceptions for Arabic loans or names from the Qur'an.

Vowel absence is indicated using the diacritic ◌ْU+0652 SUKUN.

Fulfulde uses Arabic script digits.

Fula uses a mixture of punctuation from the ASCII, Arabic and other ranges.

Joining forms

Because the Arabic script is 'cursive' (ie. joined-up) writing, letters tend to have different shapes depending on whether they join with adjacent letters or not (see Cursive script). In addition, vowels can be represented using different characters, depending on where in a word they appear.

In scripts such as Arabic, several characters have no left-joining form. In what follows we'll use the characters يU+064A LETTER YEH and دU+062F LETTER DAL to illustrate shapes. The former can join on both sides, but the latter can only join on the right.

Left-joining glyphs are commonly called initial; dual-joining are called medial; and right-joining are called final. Glyphs that don't join on either side are called isolated. However, these glyph shapes can be found in various places within a single word.

Word-initial characters usually have initial glyph shapes (eg. ي‍ ). However, characters that only join to the right will use an isolated glyph shape (eg. د ). Furthermore, words beginning with a vowel are always preceded by a vowel carrier, which is normally اU+0627 LETTER ALEF (eg. ای‍ or اَ ).

Word-medial characters will typically join on both sides (eg. ‍ي‍ ) but those that only join to the right will use a final glyph (eg. ‍د ). However, if either of those is preceded by another character that only joins to the right, the glyph shapes rendered will be initial (eg. ي‍ ) and isolated (eg. د ), respectively.

Word-final characters will typically use a final glyph shape (eg. ‍ي and ‍د ). However, if the previous character joins only to the right, they will use isolated glyph shapes (eg.ي and د ).

In all this contextual glyph shaping the basic shapes used for a character can vary significantly in a script like Arabic. This also includes some characters that only have ijam dots in certain contexts.

Character index

The index points to locations where a character is mentioned in this page, and indicates whether it is used by the Arabic orthography described here.

Manage characters.

Click on the image to the left to view all the 'main' and 'infrequent' characters in the index in various groupings or open related apps.

Letters

Show

Basic consonants

list all 23
ب0628
ARABIC LETTER BEHconsonant b b
ت062A
ARABIC LETTER TEHconsonant t t
ج062C
ARABIC LETTER JEEMconsonant d͡ʒ j
ح062D
ARABIC LETTER HAHconsonant h h
د062F
ARABIC LETTER DALconsonant d d
ر0631
ARABIC LETTER REHconsonant ɾ r
س0633
ARABIC LETTER SEENconsonant s s
ش0634
ARABIC LETTER SHEENconsonant t͡ʃ ʃ c
ط0637
ARABIC LETTER TAHconsonant ɗ
ع0639
ARABIC LETTER AINglottal stop before standalone a, i, u ʔ-
غ063A
ARABIC LETTER GHAINconsonant ɡ g
ل0644
ARABIC LETTER LAMconsonant l l
م0645
ARABIC LETTER MEEMconsonant m m
ن0646
ARABIC LETTER NOONconsonant n n
ه0647
(rare)    ARABIC LETTER HEHconsonant important Qur'anic names only h h
ي064A
ARABIC LETTER YEHconsonant j y
ڢ06A2
ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH DOT MOVED BELOWconsonant f f
ک06A9
ARABIC LETTER KEHEHconsonant k k
ݠ0760
ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH TWO DOTS BELOWconsonant p p
08A1
ARABIC LETTER BEH WITH HAMZA ABOVEconsonant ɓ ɓ
08A8
ARABIC LETTER YEH WITH TWO DOTS BELOW AND HAMZA ABOVEconsonant Cameroon ʔʲ ƴ
08A9
ARABIC LETTER YEH WITH TWO DOTS BELOW AND DOT ABOVEconsonant ɲ ny

Consonants in loan words

list all 11
ء0621
(loan)    ARABIC LETTER HAMZAglottal stop Arabic loan words or Qur'anic names only ʔ
أ0623
(loan)    ARABIC LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA ABOVEglottal stop ʔ a u
إ0625
(loan)    ARABIC LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA BELOWglottal stop ʔ i
ث062B
(loan)    ARABIC LETTER THEHconsonant Arabic loan words only θ th
خ062E
(loan)    ARABIC LETTER KHAHconsonant Arabic loan words only x kh
ذ0630
(loan)    ARABIC LETTER THALconsonant Arabic loan words only d͡ʒ j
ز0632
(loan)    ARABIC LETTER ZAINconsonant Arabic loan words only d͡ʒ j
ص0635
(loan)    ARABIC LETTER SADconsonant Arabic loan words only s sˤ s
ض0636
(loan)    ARABIC LETTER DADconsonant d d
ظ0638
(loan)    ARABIC LETTER ZAHconsonant Arabic loan words only d͡ʒ j
ق0642
(loan)    ARABIC LETTER QAFconsonant Arabic loan words or Qur'anic names only χ k g

Vowels

list all 3
ا0627
ARABIC LETTER ALEFvowel lengthener
و0648
ARABIC LETTER WAWconsonant w w
ى0649
ARABIC LETTER ALEF MAKSURAlong vowel

Combining marks

Show

Vowels

list all 6
َ064E
ARABIC FATHAvowel a a
ُ064F
ARABIC DAMMAvowel u u
ِ0650
ARABIC KASRAvowel i i
ٰ0670
ARABIC LETTER SUPERSCRIPT ALEFvowel used as part of ٜىٰ
ٜ065C
ARABIC VOWEL SIGN DOT BELOWvowel e e
ٛ065B
ARABIC VOWEL SIGN INVERTED SMALL V ABOVEvowel o o

Other

list all 3
͏034F
COMBINING GRAPHEME JOINERcombining grapheme joiner
ّ0651
ARABIC SHADDAgemination mark
ْ0652
ARABIC SUKUNvowel absence marker

Loan words

list both
ٔ0654
(rare)    ARABIC HAMZA ABOVEhamza ʔ
ٕ0655
(rare)    ARABIC HAMZA BELOWhamza ʔ

Numbers

Show
list all 10
٠0660
ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT ZEROdigit 0
١0661
ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT ONEdigit 1 1
٢0662
ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT TWOdigit 2 2
٣0663
ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT THREEdigit 3 3
٤0664
ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT FOURdigit 4 4
٥0665
ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT FIVEdigit 5 5
٦0666
ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT SIXdigit 6 6
٧0667
ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT SEVENdigit 7 7
٨0668
ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT EIGHTdigit 8 8
٩0669
ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT NINEdigit 9 9

Punctuation

Show
list all 10
«00AB
LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARKquotation mark
»00BB
RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARKquotation mark
،060C
ARABIC COMMAcomma ,
؛061B
ARABIC SEMICOLONsemicolon
؟061F
ARABIC QUESTION MARKquestion mark ?
2E2B
ONE DOT OVER TWO DOTS PUNCTUATIONfull stop .
2011
NON-BREAKING HYPHENnon-breaking hyphen
2013
EN DASHen dash
2014
EM DASHem dash
2026
HORIZONTAL ELLIPSISellipsis

ASCII

list all 9
!0021
EXCLAMATION MARKexclamation mark !
(0028
LEFT PARENTHESISparenthesis (
)0029
RIGHT PARENTHESISparenthesis )
.002E
FULL STOPfull stop .
:003A
COLONcolon :
%0025
PERCENT SIGNpercentage mark
-002D
HYPHENhyphen -
[005B
LEFT SQUARE BRACKETbracket [
]005D
RIGHT SQUARE BRACKETbracket ]

Other

Show
list all 12
ZWNJ200C
ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINERzero-width non-joiner
ZWJ200D
ZERO WIDTH JOINERzero-width joiner
RLI2067
RIGHT-TO-LEFT ISOLATErtl isolate
RLE202B
RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDINGrtl embed
LRI2066
LEFT-TO-RIGHT ISOLATEltr isolate
LRE202A
LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDINGltr embed
FSI2068
FIRST STRONG ISOLATEfirst-strong isolate
PDI2069
POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATEpop direction isolate
PDF202C
POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTINGpop direction
RLM200F
RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARKrtl mark
LRM200E
LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARKltr mark
؜ALM061C
ARABIC LETTER MARKarabic letter mark

Phonology

These are sounds for the Fula language in text written with the Fulfulde orthography.

Click on the sounds to reveal locations in this document where they are mentioned.

Phones in a lighter colour are non-native or allophones.

Vowel sounds

Plain vowels

ɪ ʊ o ɛ ɔ ɔː a a

Whether the script is Adlam, Latin, or Arabic, the sources of information found for Fula don't provide a great deal of clarity around the precise phonetic pronunciation of the vowel sounds, and, unfortunately, there is no IPA-transcribed data in Wiktionary to help clarify actual pronunciation.

Most sources simply transcribe all vowel sounds as a i e o u, which are the phonemically distinct vowels. However, some sources make a distinction in their transcriptions between short vowels pronounced ɪ ʊ ɛ ɔ a, and long vowels pronounced iː uː eː oː aː.

Furthermore, the phonetic sounds of a vowel may be influenced by the following consonant.6

Examples in this page are drawn from various sources, and may or may not use broad phonemic or narrow(er) transcriptions.

Diphthongs

Fula/Fulfulde diphthongs are all vowels followed by a -j or a -w glide. They include the following.5

iw
uj
ey ew
oj ow
aj aw

uj doesn't occur in word-final position.528

Consonant sounds

labial alveolar post-alveolar palatal velar glottal
stop p b t d t͡ʃ d͡ʒ   k ɡ ʔ ʔʲ
pre-nasalised ᵐb ⁿd ᶮd͡ʒ   ᵑɡ  
implosive ɓ ɗ        
fricative f s z       h
nasal m n   ɲ ŋ
approximant w l   j  
trill/flap   r ɾ

Fula is reported to be one of only 3 languages that contrast prenasalized consonants and their corresponding clusters (eg. ᵐb versus mb).§

Observation: A few sources mention a letter that represents the sound ɠ, found in Guinea, and written in the Latin orthography with the same symbol (though previously written using q). No examples of this sound have been encountered in my research.

Tone

Languages in the Atlantic group of the Niger-Congo family, of which Fula is one, are unusual in that they are not tonal.

Structure

Fula has 2 regular syllable types: CV and CVC, where V can be a short or long vowel, and an initial C may be a glottal stop. Only a small number of sounds can occur as a coda, and closed syllables are much less common than open ones.

The distinction between long and short vowels is phonemically distinctive.

Consonant clusters only occur where a syllable follows a closed syllable. Gemination is, however, a distinctive feature.

A syllable can only contain a single vowel.6

Vowels

Fulfulde is an alphabet where vowel sounds are written using a mixture of combining marks and letters. Unlike Semitic languages such as Arabic that build words on consonant patterns and so normally hide vowel diacritics in the Arabic script, it can be difficult to read Fulfulde text without the full vowel information, and therefore Fulfulde retains all vowel diacritics in the text. Fulfulde has more vowel sounds than Arabic, so additional diacritics are used to write those.

The way a given vowel is written depends on its joining behaviour (initial, medial, or final). In some cases a vowel is written using just a diacritic, in others it is via combinations of letters and diacritics. Most of the letters also double as consonants. 8 combining marks are used to write vowels, and 6 letters, only 1 of which is a dedicated vowel letter.

Standalone vowels are written by adding vowel characters to عU+0639 LETTER AIN, rather than the alef used for the Arabic language, apart from a small number of exceptions for Arabic loans or names from the Qur'an.

Vowel absence is indicated using the diacritic ◌ْU+0652 SUKUN.

Vowel summary table

The following table summarises the main vowel to character assignments.

Each table cell shows word-initial, word-medial, and word-final forms from right to left. The glyphs shown are illustrative; alternative shapes may occur (see Joining forms). Click/tap on items to see a list of the components for that cell.

i عِ‍ ◌ِ ◌ِ
عِي‍ ◌ِ‍ي‍ ◌ِ‍ي
u عُ‍ ◌ُ ◌ُ
عُو ◌‍ُو ◌‍ُو
e عٜ‍ ‍◌ٜ‍ ◌ٜ
عٜىٰ‍ ◌ٜ‍ىٰ‍ ◌ٜ‍ى
o عٛ‍ ◌ٛ ◌ٛ
عٛو ◌ٛ‍و ◌ٛ‍و
a عَ‍ ◌َ ◌َ
عَ‍ا ◌َ‍ا ◌َ‍ا
Basic Fulfulde vowels.

In word-initial position vowels are attached to a consonant letter which acts as a vowel carrier (see Standalone vowels). Otherwise, unlike orthographies for languages such as Arabic and Urdu, the characters used to represent a vowel are normally the same, regardless of the position within a word. The one exception is the word-final , which breaks the regular pattern by dropping the superscript alef.

Note that is written using ىU+0649 LETTER ALEF MAKSURA, rather than يU+064A LETTER YEH.

Post-consonant vowels

Vowels that follow consonants are written using a mixture of combining marks and letters. Vowel diacritics are not hidden.

The way a given vowel is written depends on its joining behaviour (initial, medial, or final). In some cases a vowel is written using just a diacritic, in others it is via combinations of letters and diacritics. Most of the letters also double as consonants. 8 combining marks are used to write vowels, and 6 letters, only 1 of which is a dedicated vowel letter.

Combining marks used for vowels

Fulfulde uses the following combining characters for vowels.


8
َ aaa064E
ُ uuu064F
ِ iii0650
ٛ ooo065B
ٜ eee065C
ٰ   ̍0670
ٔrareʔ ʿ0654
ٕrareʔ ˓0655

ٰU+0670 LETTER SUPERSCRIPT ALEF is never used alone, and is one of 2 diacritics used to write (in initial and medial forms only).

The diacritics ٔU+0654 HAMZA ABOVE and ٕU+0655 HAMZA BELOW are only used where إU+0625 LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA BELOW and أU+0623 LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA ABOVE are decomposed. Since the latter characters are themselves only used for a few borrowed names or words, these diacritics are very rare.

Vowel letter, alef maksura


ى 0649

ىU+0649 LETTER ALEF MAKSURA is the only dedicated letter used for writing vowels in Fulfulde, but it is only used in combination with other diacritics to write the sound .

Word initially and medially, is written ٜىٰU+065C VOWEL SIGN DOT BELOW + U+0649 LETTER ALEF MAKSURA + U+0670 LETTER SUPERSCRIPT ALEF. Word-finally, the ٰU+0670 LETTER SUPERSCRIPT ALEF is dropped.

عٜىٰنغتُغٛ eeŋgtugo to go up

بٜى bee and, with

Consonant letters used for vowels

Fulfulde uses the following consonant characters to write vowels in combination with diacritics.


6
ا  ā0627
ع ʔ-ʔ0639
و www0648
ى  0649
ي jyy064A
ءloanʔʔ̣0621

In a standard Arabic orthography some of these characters would be regarded as matres lectionis, but since Fulfulde shows all vowel diacritics they don't have the same role here. Instead, they form part of a composite that distinguishes one vowel from another (see Composite vowel signs).

ىU+0649 LETTER ALEF MAKSURA is actually not used as a consonant in Fulfulde, and is only used for the sound .

عU+0639 LETTER AIN and sometimes اU+0627 LETTER ALEF, and rarely ءU+0621 LETTER HAMZA are used as vowel carriers (see Standalone vowels).

Diphthongs & glides

Diphthongs ending with -i follow the initial vowel diacritic with يْU+064A LETTER YEH + U+0652 SUKUN.

يَيْنَنغٛ yaynango to shine

Diphthongs ending with -u follow the initial vowel diacritic with وْU+0648 LETTER WAW + U+0652 SUKUN.

جَوْدِ jawdi wealth

Vowel length


4
ي064A
و0648
08A8
ا0627

Vowel length is indicated by adding one of the above letters after the vowel diacritic. For details, see the table at Vowel summary table.

These letters don't carry any diacritic, except for , where non-final positions use ىٰU+0649 LETTER ALEF MAKSURA + U+0670 LETTER SUPERSCRIPT ALEF.

بِرِيجِ biriiji peanuts

يٜىٰطُغٛ yeeɗugo to live

Composite vowel signs

A composite vowel sign is a single vowel sound or diphthong that is represented by more than one code point from the set of vowel signs, repurposed consonants, and diacritics available. It is the opposite of a circumgraph.

The 6 composite vowel signs listed here all indicate long versions of the vowels. The vowel diacritic is followed by a letter (and in one case another diacritic). Diphthongs and glides are not included here.

Click on the letters for examples.


6
ِيiiiy0650
064A
ُوuuuw064F
0648
ٜىٰeeē065C
0649
0670
ٜىeeē065C
0649
ٛوooow065B
0648
َاa064E
0627

Vowel absence

How is the inherent vowel killed? What other mechanisms are used to indicate consonant clusters? When are they used and not used?

Fulfulde uses ْU+0652 SUKUN to indicate that there is no vowel after a consonant. Vowel absence is usually marked (unlike Standard Arabic), including over the YEH or WAW that signal the final part of a diphthong, and at the end of a word.

غِلْطِ gilɗi worms

لٜࢩٛلْ lenyol family, clan

Exceptions are letters used to lengthen vowels and nasal letters indicating prenasalisation. This provides a simple way to tell the pronunciation of the relevant sequences.

نٛوغَسْ noogas twenty

ندِيَمْ ndiyam water

Standalone vowels

Standalone vowels in Fulfulde normally use عU+0639 LETTER AIN followed by the relevant vowel characters.

عَسَرْ asar waste

مٛعّٜرٜ mo’’ere grace

Occasionally, loan words or names from the Qur'an will use اU+0627 LETTER ALEF, أU+0623 LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA ABOVE, or إU+0625 LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA BELOW as the vowel carrier, which are conventional ways of writing the standalone vowels in Arabic. ءU+0621 LETTER HAMZA may also be used.

إِبْرَاهِيمَ Ibraahiima Abraham

الْمَسِيحُ almasiihu Christ

ءَادَمُ Aadamu Adam

Vowel sounds to characters

This section maps Fulfulde vowel sounds to common graphemes in the Arabic orthography.

The columns run right to left and indicate typical word-initial, word-medial, and word-final usage. The joining forms shown are illustrative; alternative shapes may occur (see Joining forms).

Plain vowels

i

initial عِ‍ U+0639 LETTER AIN + U+0650 KASRA eg. عِتُّغٛ ittugo to take out

medial ◌ِU+0650 KASRA eg. کِرْکٜ kirke saddle

final ◌ِU+0650 KASRA eg. لٜکِّ lekki tree

initial عِي‍ U+0639 LETTER AIN + U+0650 KASRA + U+064A LETTER YEH eg. عِينَاطٛ iinaaɗo promised one

medial ◌‍ِ‍ي‍ U+0650 KASRA + U+064A LETTER YEH eg. بِرِيجِ biriiji peanuts

final ◌‍ِ‍يU+0650 KASRA + U+064A LETTER YEH eg. ࢡِي ɓii son of...

u

initial عُ‍ U+0639 LETTER AIN + U+064F DAMMA eg. عُرْدِ urdi perfume

medial ◌ُU+064F DAMMA eg. وُجَاغٛ wujaago to rub

final ◌ُU+064F DAMMA eg. ݠُشُّ puccu horse

initial عُوU+0639 LETTER AIN + U+064F DAMMA + U+0648 LETTER WAW eg. عُورْغٛ uurgo to smell good

medial ◌ُ‍وU+064F DAMMA + U+0648 LETTER WAW eg. مِحُووِ mi huuwi I worked

final ◌ُ‍وU+064F DAMMA + U+0648 LETTER WAW eg. ڢُو fuu all

e

initial عٜ‍ U+0639 LETTER AIN + U+065C VOWEL SIGN DOT BELOW eg. عٜنْطَمْ enɗam mercy

medial ◌ٜU+065C VOWEL SIGN DOT BELOW eg. جٜمَّ jemma night

final ◌ٜU+065C VOWEL SIGN DOT BELOW eg. دٜڢْتٜرٜ deftere book

o

initial عٛ‍ U+0639 LETTER AIN + U+065B VOWEL SIGN INVERTED SMALL V ABOVE eg. عٛݠّٜرٜ oppere fever

medial ◌ٛU+065B VOWEL SIGN INVERTED SMALL V ABOVE eg. دٛکَّلْ dokkal gift

final ◌ٛU+065B VOWEL SIGN INVERTED SMALL V ABOVE eg. حٛکُّغٛ hokkugo to give

initial عٛو‍ U+0639 LETTER AIN + U+065B VOWEL SIGN INVERTED SMALL V ABOVE + U+0648 LETTER WAW eg. عٛورُغٛ oorugo to graze

medial ◌ٛ‍و‍ U+065B VOWEL SIGN INVERTED SMALL V ABOVE + U+0648 LETTER WAW eg. کِيتٛووٛ kiitoowo judge

final ◌ٛ‍وU+065B VOWEL SIGN INVERTED SMALL V ABOVE + U+0648 LETTER WAW eg. بٛو boo also

a

initial عَ‍ U+0639 LETTER AIN + U+064E FATHA eg. عَلْکَوَلْ alkawal promise

medial ◌َU+064E FATHA eg. عَسَرْ asar waste

final ◌َU+064E FATHA eg. رٜىٰتَ reeta half

initial عَا‍ U+0639 LETTER AIN + U+064E FATHA + U+0627 LETTER ALEF

medial ◌َ‍ا‍ U+064E FATHA + U+0627 LETTER ALEF eg. نَانٜ naane previously

final ◌َ‍اU+064E FATHA + U+0627 LETTER ALEF eg. ندَا ndaa here

Diphthongs

aj

medial ◌َ‍يْ‍ U+064E FATHA + U+064A LETTER YEH + U+0652 SUKUN eg. يَيْنَنغٛ yaynango to shine

final ◌َ‍يْU+064E FATHA + U+064A LETTER YEH + U+0652 SUKUN

aw

medial ◌َ‍وْ‍ U+064E FATHA + U+0648 LETTER WAW + U+0652 SUKUN eg. جَوْدِ jawdi wealth

final ◌َ‍وْU+064E FATHA + U+0648 LETTER WAW + U+0652 SUKUN

Consonants

The orthography for Fulfulde described here has 22 basic consonants. 8 more consonants are applied to write Arabic loan words or names from the Qur'an.

Fulfulde has prenasalised consonants, but they are spelled out using normal consonant letters (as in the Latin orthography). Doubled consonants are indicated using the diacritic ◌ّU+0651 SHADDA.

Consonant summary table

The following table summarises the main consonant to character assigments.

The consonants in the right column include letters used for Arabic loan words and names from the Qur'an, but not usually used for native Fulfulde text. In some cases, Fulfulde text may substitute basic Fulfulde letters for these.

Stops

11
ݠppp0760
بbbb0628
ɓɓɓ08A1
تttt062A
دddd062F
طɗ ɗ0637
کkkk06A9
غɡgg063A
عʔ-ʔ0639
 
شt͡ʃ ʃcc0634
جd͡ʒjʤ062C

3
ذloand͡ʒjʤ̣0630
زloand͡ʒjz0632
ظloand͡ʒj0638

4
مبᵐbmbmb0645
0628
ندⁿdndnd0646
062F
نغᵑɡŋng0646
063A
نجᶮd͡ʒnj0646
062C
 
Fricatives

3
ڢfff06A2
سsss0633
حhhh062D

5
ثloanθthθ062B
صloans sˤs0635
خloanxkhx062E
قloanχk gχ0642
هrarehh0647
Nasals

4
مmmm0645
نnnn0646
ɲnyɲ08A9
نغɲŋng0646
063A
 
Other

6
وwww0648
رɾrɾ0631
رّrrrr0631
0651
لlll0644
يjyy064A
ʔʲƴƴ08A8
 

For additional details see Consonant sounds to characters.

Basic set

These consonants are a basic set used for the native Fulfulde orthography.


22
ݠppp0760
بbbb0628
ɓɓɓ08A1
تttt062A
دddd062F
طɗ ɗ0637
کkkk06A9
غɡgg063A
عʔ-ʔ0639
شt͡ʃ ʃcc0634
جd͡ʒjʤ062C
ڢfff06A2
سsss0633
حhhh062D
مmmm0645
نnnn0646
ɲnyɲ08A9
وwww0648
رɾrɾ0631
لlll0644
يjyy064A
ʔʲƴƴ08A8

Some sounds are represented by combinations of characters. The trilled r is written رّU+0631 LETTER REH + U+0651 SHADDA.

تٛرَّاغٛ torrago to trouble

The sound ŋ is written as the combination نغU+0646 LETTER NOON + U+063A LETTER GHAIN. That combination is also used to indicate the prenasalised sound ᵑɡ. See Prenasalised consonants for other prenasalised combinations.

نغَرٛلْ ŋarol beauty

نغَيْنَاکَ ngaynaaka pasture

Other consonants

Arabic loan words and names from the Qur'an may be written with addtional letters shown below, but they are not usually used for native Fulfulde text. In some cases, Fulfulde text may substitute basic Fulfulde letters for these.


8
ذloand͡ʒjʤ̣0630
زloand͡ʒjz0632
ظloand͡ʒj0638
ثloanθthθ062B
صloans sˤs0635
خloanxkhx062E
قloanχk gχ0642
هrarehh0647

Onsets

Word-initial consonant clusters are not common in Fulfulde, with the exception of those involving prenasalisation.

Prenasalised consonants

Do syllable onsets support consonant clusters, or other features (such as prenasalisation, aspiration, devoicing, etc.)? If so, how are these managed by the orthography

Fulfulde has the following prenasalised consonants. They are simply written using a sequence of letters, in both the Arabic and Latin orthographies. Note that there is no sukun over the initial nasal letter; this distinguishes the prenasalised sound from a consonant cluster.


4
مبᵐbmbmb0645
0628
ندⁿdndnd0646
062F
نغᵑɡ ŋŋng0646
063A
نجᶮd͡ʒnj0646
062C

مبَرُغٛ mbarugo to kill

نجَارٜىٰندِ njaareendi sand

Finals


ْ0652

Syllable- and word-final consonants are written as a normal consonant with ْU+0652 SUKUN above.

عَلْکَوَلْ alkawal promise

The syllable-final sukun also distinguishes nasal phonemes from prenasalised sounds (see Prenasalised consonants), and diphthongs from long vowels (see Diphthongs & glides).

دِمْبَاغٛ dimbaago to shake

جَوْدِ jawdi wealth

Consonant clusters

Consonant clusters are written by adding ْU+0652 SUKUN, over the consonant letters that are not followed by a vowel.

جَرْنٜ jarne garden

دٜڢْتٜرٜ deftere book

Consonant length


ّ0651

Geminated consonants are indicated using ◌ّU+0651 SHADDA.

دٛکَّلْ dokkal gift

جٜمَّ jemma night

Consonant sounds to characters

This section maps Fulfulde consonant sounds to common graphemes in the Arabic orthography.

The right-hand column shows the various joining forms.

Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc. Light coloured characters occur infrequently.

p

ݠ‍ݠ‍ݠ‍ ݠ‍ consonant ݠU+0760 LETTER FEH WITH TWO DOTS BELOW

b

ب‍ب‍ب‍ ب‍ consonant بU+0628 LETTER BEH

ɓ

‍ࢡ‍ࢡ‍ ࢡ‍ consonant U+08A1 LETTER BEH WITH HAMZA ABOVE

t

ت‍ت‍ت‍ ت‍ consonant تU+062A LETTER TEH

t͡ʃ

ش‍ش‍ش‍ ش‍ consonant شU+0634 LETTER SHEEN

ʃ

ش‍ش‍ش‍ ش‍ consonant شU+0634 LETTER SHEEN

d

د‍ ‍د consonant دU+062F LETTER DAL

ض‍ض‍ض‍ ض‍ consonant ضU+0636 LETTER DAD Arabic loan words only.

d͡ʒ

ج‍ج‍ج‍ ج‍ consonant جU+062C LETTER JEEM

ذ‍ ‍ذ consonant ذU+0630 LETTER THAL Arabic loan words only

ز‍ ‍ز consonant زU+0632 LETTER ZAIN Arabic loan words only

ظ‍ظ‍ظ‍ ظ‍ consonant ظU+0638 LETTER ZAH Arabic loan words only

ɗ

ط‍ط‍ط‍ ط‍ consonant طU+0637 LETTER TAH

k

ک‍ک‍ک‍ ک‍ consonant کU+06A9 LETTER KEHEH

ɡ

غ‍غ‍غ‍ غ‍ consonant غU+063A LETTER GHAIN

ʔʲ

‍ࢨ‍ࢨ‍ ࢨ‍ consonant U+08A8 LETTER YEH WITH TWO DOTS BELOW AND HAMZA ABOVE Cameroon

ʔ-

ع‍ع‍ع‍ ع‍ glottal stop عU+0639 LETTER AIN Before standalone a, i, u

glottal stop ءU+0621 LETTER HAMZA Arabic loan words or Qur'anic names only

أ‍ ‍أ glottal stop أU+0623 LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA ABOVE Loan words or names from the Qur'an.

إ‍ ‍إ glottal stop إU+0625 LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA BELOW Loan words or names from the Qur'an.

ᵐb

‍مب‍مب‍ مب‍ pre-nasalised consonant مبU+0645 LETTER MEEM + U+0628 LETTER BEH

ⁿd

‍ندند‍ pre-nasalised consonant ندU+0646 LETTER NOON + U+062F LETTER DAL

ᶮd͡ʒ

‍نج‍نج‍ نج‍ pre-nasalised consonant نجU+0646 LETTER NOON + U+062C LETTER JEEM

ᵑɡ

‍نغ‍نغ‍ نغ‍ consonant نغU+0646 LETTER NOON + U+063A LETTER GHAIN Note that this is distinct from , which is written with a sukun, ie. نغْU+0646 LETTER NOON + U+063A LETTER GHAIN + U+0652 SUKUN.

f

ڢ‍ڢ‍ڢ‍ ڢ‍ consonant ڢU+06A2 LETTER FEH WITH DOT MOVED BELOW

θ

ث‍ث‍ث‍ ث‍ consonant ثU+062B LETTER THEH Arabic loan words only.

s

س‍س‍س‍ س‍ consonant سU+0633 LETTER SEEN

ث‍ث‍ث‍ ث‍ consonant ثU+062B LETTER THEH Arabic loan words only.

ص‍ص‍ص‍ ص‍ consonant صU+0635 LETTER SAD Arabic loan words only.

ص‍ص‍ص‍ ص‍ consonant صU+0635 LETTER SAD Arabic loan words only.

ʃ

ش‍ش‍ش‍ ش‍ consonant شU+0634 LETTER SHEEN

x

خ‍خ‍خ‍ خ‍ consonant خU+062E LETTER KHAH Arabic loan words only.

χ

ق‍ق‍ق‍ ق‍ consonant قU+0642 LETTER QAF Arabic loan words or Qur'anic names only.

h

ح‍ح‍ح‍ ح‍ consonant حU+062D LETTER HAH

ه‍ه‍ه‍ ه‍ consonant هU+0647 LETTER HEH Rare, and mostly used for important Qur'anic names only.

m

م‍م‍م‍ م‍ consonant مU+0645 LETTER MEEM

n

ن‍ن‍ن‍ ن‍ consonant نU+0646 LETTER NOON

ɲ

‍ࢩ‍ࢩ‍ ࢩ‍ consonant U+08A9 LETTER YEH WITH TWO DOTS BELOW AND DOT ABOVE

ŋ

‍نغ‍نغ‍ نغ‍ consonant نغU+0646 LETTER NOON + U+063A LETTER GHAIN

w

و‍ ‍و consonant وU+0648 LETTER WAW

ɾ

ر‍ ‍ر consonant رU+0631 LETTER REH

r

‍رّرّ‍ consonant رّU+0631 LETTER REH + U+0651 SHADDA

l

ل‍ل‍ل‍ ل‍ consonant لU+0644 LETTER LAM

j

ي‍ي‍ي‍ ي‍ consonant يU+064A LETTER YEH

Encoding choices

In the Fulfulde orthography different sequences of Unicode characters may produce the same visual result. Here we look at those, and make notes on usage.

Hamza & precomposed characters

Unicode support for the various uses of the hamza is complicated.undefined384 In general, the Unicode Standard recommends to use ◌ٔU+0654 HAMZA ABOVE in combination with a base character. However, there are a few exceptions to consider.

Canonically-equivalent alternatives

A number of combinations with the hamza diacritic can be represented as either an atomic character or a decomposed sequence, where the parts are separated in Unicode Normalisation Form D (NFD) and recomposed in Unicode Normalisation Form C (NFC), so both approaches are canonically equivalent. These include the following:

Atomic Decomposed
أU+0623 LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA ABOVE أU+0627 LETTER ALEF + U+0654 HAMZA ABOVE
إU+0625 LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA BELOW إU+0627 LETTER ALEF + U+0655 HAMZA BELOW

The single code point per vowel-sign is the form preferred by the Unicode Standard but is rarely used in Fula text, and the decomposed form is even rarer.

Codepoint sequences

When typing and in storage, combining marks always follow the base character they are associated with.

Special rendering rules

In principle, if more than one combining mark appears on the same side of the base character, Unicode expects applications to render the marks such that those marks closer to the base character in memory appear closer to the base character when rendered. (This is called the inside-out rule.) However, due to the reordering applied by the Unicode normalisation forms, some of the Arabic script diacritics end up in an inappropriate order on display.

For example, if a user types the sequence of characters in Figure 2, the order of the marks will be changed such that applying the inside-out rule would render the shadda above the vowel (which is incorrect). (In fact, most application renderers have special rules to correct this.)

The Unicode Standard formally addresses this anomaly in the Technical Annex Unicode® Arabic Mark Rendering (AMTRA), with a set of rules for how to render sequences of Arabic characters. The rules generally move shadda, hamza, round dots, etc. so that they are close to the base character.

User inputPost-normalisation output

بُّ

بU+0628 LETTER BEH

ّU+0651 SHADDA

ُU+064F DAMMA

بُ͏ّ

بU+0628 LETTER BEH

ُU+064F DAMMA

ّU+0651 SHADDA

A sequence of shadda and damma as the user is likely to input it (left), and how it could potentially be arranged after normalisation (right).

In the rare exceptions where the AMTRA rules should not change the rendering, this can be achieved by placing an invisible ͏U+034F COMBINING GRAPHEME JOINER character between the combining marks. (In fact, this is what was done to simulate the incorrect appearance in Figure 2, because otherwise the browser rendering engine would have automatically produced the same output as in the first column. Clicking on the example will show the sequence used.)

Numbers, dates, currency, etc

This section describes typographic features related to digits, dates, currencies, etc.

Fulfulde uses the following Arabic digits.


10
٠0660
١0661
٢0662
٣0663
٤0664
٥0665
٦0666
٧0667
٨0668
٩0669

Text direction

Fulfulde Ajamiya text is written horizontally and right to left in the main but, as in most right-to-left scripts, numbers and embedded text in other scripts are written left to right (producing 'bidirectional' text).

العاشر ليونيكود (Unicode Conference)،الذي سيعقد في 10-12 آذار 1997 مبدينة
In this example of Arabic language text Arabic words are read right-to-left, starting from the right of this line, but numbers and Latin text (highlighted) are read left-to-right.

The Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm automatically takes care of the ordering for all the text in Figure 3, as long as the 'base direction' (ie. the surrounding directional context) is set to right-to-left (RTL).

Characters are all stored in the order in which they are spoken (and typed). This so-called 'logical' order is then rendered as bidirectional flows by the application at run time, as the text is displayed or printed. The relative placement of characters within a single directional flow is based on strong directional properties (RTL or LTR) assigned to each Unicode character by the Unicode Standard. There exist, however a set of neutral direction property values, mostly for punctuation, where the placement of characters depends on the base direction.

Show default bidi_class properties for characters in this orthography.

If the base direction is not set appropriately, the directional runs will be ordered incorrectly as shown in Figure 4, making it very difficult to get the meaning.

في XHMTL 1.0 يتم تحقيق ذلك بإضافة العنصر المضمن bdo.
More Arabic language text, where this time the exact same sequence of characters with the base direction set to RTL (top), and with no base direction set on this LTR page (bottom). The arrows show how items are relocated.

In some circumstances the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm requires additional assistance to correctly render the directionality of bidirectional text. For such cases the Unicode Standard provides invisible formatting characters for use in plain text. See Managing text direction.

In HTML the base direction and higher level controls can be set using the dir or bdi attributes. CSS should not be used to control direction. Unicode formatting codes should also not be used where markup is available.

For more information about how directionality and base direction work, see Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm basics. For information about plain text formatting characters see How to use Unicode controls for bidi text. And for working with markup in HTML, see Creating HTML Pages in Arabic, Hebrew and Other Right-to-left Scripts.

For authoring HTML pages, one of the most important things to remember is to use <html dir="rtl" … > at the top of a right-to-left page, and then use the dir attribute or bdi tag for ranges within the page, but only when you need to change the base direction. Also, use markup to manage direction, and do not use CSS styling.

For other aspects of dealing with right-to-left writing systems see the following sections:

Managing text direction

Unicode provides a set of 10 formatting characters that can be used to control the direction of text when displayed. These characters have no visual form in the rendered text, however text editing applications may have a way to show their location.

‫U+202B RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING (RLE), ‪U+202A LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING (LRE), and ‬U+202C POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING (PDF) are in widespread use to set the base direction of a range of characters. RLE/LRE comes at the start, and PDF at the end of a range of characters for which the base direction is to be set.

In Unicode 6.1, the Unicode Standard added a set of characters which do the same thing but also isolate the content from surrounding characters, in order to avoid spillover effects. They are ⁧U+2067 RIGHT-TO-LEFT ISOLATE (RLI), ⁦U+2066 LEFT-TO-RIGHT ISOLATE (LRI), and ⁦U+2066 LEFT-TO-RIGHT ISOLATE (PDI). The Unicode Standard recommends that these be used instead.

There is also ⁨U+2068 FIRST STRONG ISOLATE (FSI), used initially to set the base direction according to the first recognised strongly-directional character.

؜U+061C LETTER MARK (ALM) is used to produce correct sequencing of numeric data. Follow the link and see expressions for details.

‏U+200F RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK (RLM) and ‎U+200E LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK (LRM) are invisible characters with strong directional properties that are also sometimes used to produce the correct ordering of text.

For more information about how to use these formatting characters see How to use Unicode controls for bidi text. Note, however, that when writing HTML you should generally use markup rather than these control codes. For information about that, see Creating HTML Pages in Arabic, Hebrew and Other Right-to-left Scripts.

Glyph shaping & positioning

This section describes typographic features related to font/writing styles, cursive text, context-based shaping, context-based positioning, letterform slopes, weights & italics, and case & other character transforms.

This section brings together information about the following topics: writing styles; cursive text; context-based shaping; context-based positioning; baselines, line height, etc.; font styles; case & other character transforms.

You can experiment with examples using the Fulfulde ajami character app.

The orthography has no case distinction, and no special transforms are needed to convert between characters.

Cursive script

Do letters in this script join with each other by default? Is the basic shape of a letter radically changed? Is it sometimes not cursive? Are there any special features to note? Are Unicode joiner and non-joiner characters needed to override default joining behaviours?

See type samples.

Arabic script is always cursive, ie. letters in a word are joined up. Fonts need to produce the appropriate joining form for a letter, according to its visual context, but the code point used doesn't change. This results in four different shapes for most letters (including an isolated shape). Ligated forms also join with characters alongside them.

The highlights in the example below show the same letter, عU+0639 LETTER AIN, with three different joining forms.

على • متعددة • وسيجمع

The letter ع (ain) in 3 different joining contexts.

Most Arabic script letters join on both sides. A few only join on the right-hand side: this involves 4 basic shapes for Fulfulde Ajamiya.

ءU+0621 LETTER HAMZA doesn't join on either side.

Cursive joining forms

Most dual-joining characters add or become a swash when they don't join to the left. A number of characters, however, undergo additional shape changes across the joining forms. Figure 6 and Figure 7 show the basic shapes in Modern Standard Arabic and what their joining forms look like. Significant variations are highlighted.

isolatedright-joineddual-joinleft-joined Fulfulde letters
ب ـب ـبـ بـ

4
ت 062A
ب 0628
 08A1
ثloan062B
ن ـن ـنـ نـ

ن0646
ق ـق ـقـ قـ

قloan0642
ف ـف ـفـ فـ

both
ݠ0760
ڢ06A2
س ـس ـسـ سـ

both
س0633
ش0634
ص ـص ـصـ صـ

both
صloan0635
ضloan0636
ط ـط ـطـ طـ

both
ط 0637
ظloan0638
ک ـک ـكـ كـ

ک06A9
ل ـل ـلـ لـ

ل0644
ه ـه ـهـ هـ

هrare0647
م ـم ـمـ مـ

م0645
ع ـع ـعـ عـ

both
ع0639
غ063A
ح ـح ـحـ حـ

3
ح 062D
خloan062E
ج 062C
ي ـي ـيـ يـ

4
ي064A
08A8
08A9
ى0649
Joining forms for shapes that join on both sides..
isolatedright-joined Fulfulde letters
ا ـا

3
ا 0627
أloan0623
إloan0625
ر ـر

both
ر 0631
زloan0632
د ـد

both
د 062F
ذloan0630
و ـو

و0648
Joining forms for shapes that join on the right only.

Managing glyph shaping

‍U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER (ZWJ) and ‌U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER (ZWNJ) are used to control the joining behaviour of cursive glyphs. They are particularly useful in educational contexts, but also have real world applications.

ZWJ permits a letter to form a cursive connection without a visible neighbour. For example, the marker for hijri dates is an initial form of heh, even though it doesn't join to the left, ie. ه‍. For this, use ZWJ immediately after the heh, eg. الاثنين 10 رجب 1415 ه‍..

ZWNJ prevents two adjacent letters forming a cursive connection with each other when rendered. For example, it is used in Persian for plural suffixes, some proper names, and Ottoman Turkish vowels. Ignoring or removing the ZWNJ will result in text with a different meaning or meaningless text, eg, تن‌ها is the plural of body, whereas تنها is the adjective alone.2 The only difference is the presence or absence of ZWNJ after noon.

͏U+034F COMBINING GRAPHEME JOINER is used in Arabic to produce special ordering of diacritics. The name is a misnomer, as it is generally used to break the normal sequence of diacritics.

Context-based shaping & positioning

Are special glyph forms needed, depending on the context in which a character is used? Do glyphs interact in some circumstances? Are there requirements to position diacritics or other items specially, depending on context? Does the script have multiple diacritics competing for the same location relative to the base?

In addition to the cursive shaping, Arabic script glyphs also require context-dependent shaping and positioning. For more information, see the Arabic language orthography notes.

The usual mandatory ligature applies for لاU+0644 LETTER LAM + U+0627 LETTER ALEF.

لَامُ laamu kingdom, rule

سِلَاوٛ silaawo basket

Typographic units

Word boundaries

Are words separated by spaces, or other characters? Are there special requirements when double-clicking on the text? Are words hyphenated?

The concept of 'word' is difficult to define in any language (see What is a word?). Here, a word is a vaguely-defined, but recognisable semantic unit that is typically smaller than a phrase and may comprise one or more syllables.

Words are separated by spaces.

A number of small words, such as pronouns, may be attached to a following word in the ajamiya orthography (whereas they are separate in the Latin orthography).

مِࢩَوِ mi nyawi I am sick

عٛوَنغْغَ o waŋga he shows

Graphemes

A grapheme is a user-perceived unit of text. Text operations that use graphemes as a unit of text include line-breaking, forwards deletion, cursor movement & selection, character counts, text spacing, text insertion, justification, case conversions, and sorting. The Unicode Standard uses generalised rules to define 'grapheme clusters', which approximate the likely grapheme boundaries in a writing system, however they don't work well with many complex scripts.

tbd

Punctuation & inline features

This section describes typographic features related to word boundaries, phrase & section boundaries, bracketed text, quotations & citations, emphasis, abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition, inline notes & annotations, other punctuation, and other inline text decoration.

Phrase & section boundaries

What characters are used to indicate the boundaries of phrases, sentences, and sections?


7
،060C
؛061B
:003A
.002E
2E2B
؟061F
!0021

Fulfulde uses a mixture of ASCII and Arabic punctuation.

phrase

،U+060C COMMA

؛U+061B SEMICOLON

:U+003A COLON

sentence

.U+002E FULL STOP

U+2E2B ONE DOT OVER TWO DOTS PUNCTUATION

؟U+061F QUESTION MARK

!U+0021 EXCLAMATION MARK

Bracketed text


both
(0028
)0029

Fulfulde commonly uses ASCII parentheses to insert parenthetical information into text.

  start end
standard

(U+0028 LEFT PARENTHESIS

)U+0029 RIGHT PARENTHESIS

Mirrored characters

The words 'left' and 'right' in the Unicode names for parentheses, brackets, and other paired characters should be ignored. LEFT should be read as if it said START, and RIGHT as END. The direction in which the glyphs point will be automatically determined according to the base direction of the text.

a > b > c
ا > ب > ج
Both of these lines use > U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN, but the direction it faces depends on the base direction at the point of display.

The number of characters that are mirrored in this way is around 550, most of which are mathematical symbols. Some are single characters, rather than pairs. The following are some of the more common ones.


12
( 0028
) 0029
< 003C
> 003E
[ 005B
] 005D
{ 007B
} 007D
« 00AB
» 00BB
unused2039
unused203A

Other punctuation

Punctuation not already mentioned, such as dashes, connectors, separators, scare quotes, etc.


8
2011
2013
2014
2026
%0025
-002D
[005B
]005D

Quotations & citations

What characters are used to indicate quotations? Do quotations within quotations use different characters? What characters are used to indicate dialogue? Are the same mechanisms used to cite words, or for scare quotes, etc? What about citing book or article names?


both
«00AB
»00BB

The following quotation marks can be found in Fulfulde texts. (Depending on ease of input, quotations may alternatively be surrounded by ASCII double and single quote marks.)

  start end
primary

« [U+00AB LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK]

» [U+00BB RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK]

Because they are mirrored, when using these quotation marks, LEFT should be read as if it said START, and RIGHT as END.

Line & paragraph layout

This section describes typographic features related to line breaking & hyphenation, text alignment & justification, text spacing, baselines, line height, counters, lists, and styling initials.

Line breaking & hyphenation

Are there special rules about the way text wraps when it hits the end of a line? Does line-breaking wrap whole 'words' at a time, or characters, or something else (such as syllables in Tibetan and Javanese)? What characters should not appear at the end or start of a line, and what should be done to prevent that? Is hyphenation used, or something else? What rules are used? What difficulties exist?

Lines are normally broken at word boundaries.

They are not broken at the small gaps that appear where a character doesn't join on the left.

Line-edge rules

As in almost all writing systems, certain punctuation characters should not appear at the end or the start of a line. The Unicode line-break properties help applications decide whether a character should appear at the start or end of a line.

Show default line-breaking properties for characters in the Fulfulde language.

The following list gives examples of typical behaviours for characters used in Fulfulde. Context may affect the behaviour of some of these and other characters.

Click on the characters to show what they are.

  • « (   should not be the last character on a line
  • » ) ، . : ؛ ؟ %   should not begin a new line

Breaking between Latin words

When a line break occurs in the middle of an embedded left-to-right sequence, the items in that sequence need to be rearranged visually so that it isn't necessary to read lines upwards.

Figure 9 shows how two Latin words are apparently reordered in the flow of text to accommodate this rule. Of course, the rearragement is only that of the visual glyphs: nothing affects the order of the characters in memory.

Text with no line break in Latin text.

Text with line break in Latin text.

Arabic text where the lower of these two images shows the result of decreasing the line width, so that text wraps between a sequence of Latin words.

Baselines, line height, etc.

Does the script have special requirements for baseline alignment between mixed scripts and in general? Is line height special for this script? Are there other aspects that affect line spacing, or positioning of items vertically within a line?

tbd

Fulfulde ajami uses the so-called 'alphabetic' baseline, which is the same as for Latin and many other scripts.

Fulfulde characters have ascenders and descenders, and combining marks appear above and below the lettters. These stretch beyond the ascenders and descenders of Latin text.

To give an approximate idea, Figure 10 compares Latin and Fulfulde glyphs from Noto fonts. The basic height of Fulfulde letters is typically around the Latin x-height, however extenders and combining marks reach well beyond the Latin ascenders and descenders, creating a need for larger line spacing.

Hhqxکَّحِ‌شٛولٛ‌عٜ‌رّٜىٰ Hhqxکَّحِ‌شٛولٛ‌عٜ‌رّٜىٰ
Font metrics for Latin text compared with Fulfulde glyphs in the Noto Naskh Arabic (top) and Noto Sans Arabic (bottom) fonts.

Figure 11 shows similar comparisons for the Scheherazade font.

Hhqxکَّحِ‌شٛولٛ‌عٜ‌رّٜىٰ
Latin font metrics compared with Fulfulde glyphs in the Scheherazade font.

Page & book layout

This section describes typographic features related to general page layout & progression; grids & tables, notes, footnotes, etc, forms & user interaction, and page numbering, running headers, etc.

General page layout & progression

How are the main text area and ancilliary areas positioned and defined? Are there any special requirements here, such as dimensions in characters for the Japanese kihon hanmen? The book cover for scripts that are read right-to-left scripts is on the right of the spine, rather than the left. When content can flow vertically and to the left or right, how to specify the location of objects, text, etc. relative to the flow? Do tables and grid layouts work as expected? How do columns work in vertical text? Can you mix block of vertical and horizontal text? Does text scroll in a different direction?

Arabic script books, magazines, etc., are bound on the right-hand side, and pages progress from right to left.

عنوان كتاب

Binding configuration for Arabic script books, magazines, etc.

Columns are vertical but run right-to-left across the page.

Grids & tables

Does the script have special requirements for character grids or tables?

Tables, grids, and other 2-dimensional arrangements progress from right to left across a page.

Forms & user interaction

Are vertical form controls needed? Are scroll bars in an unusual position? Other special requirements for user interaction?

Form controls should display Arabic text from right to left, starting at the right side of the input field. Form controls should also usually be arranged from right to left.

Figure 13 shows some form fields from an Arabic language web page. Note the position of the labels relative to the input fields and the checkbox, mirror-imaging a similar page in English. Note also that the input text in the first field appears to the right of the box.

A set of form fields on an Arabic language web page

The position of a scrollbar should depend on the user's environment, not on the content of a page. A non-Arab user viewing a web page in Arabic shouldn't have to look for the scroll bar on the left side of the window. In a system that is set up for an Arab user, however, the scrollbar can appear on the left.

Online resources

References & sources

1Bernard Comrie, The World's Major Languages, ISBN 978-1138184824

2Scott Clark (2007), Alphabet and Orthography Statement for Fulfulde [FUB] Ajamiya, Found in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Central African Republic, SIL

3Wikipedia, Fula language (retr. Nov 2021)

4Ahmed Sosal (2012), Contrastive Analysis: Fulfulde and English Languages, University of Khartoum

5Mary Hollis McIntosh, Aspects of Fulfulde Syntax and Morphology, subtitle, SOAS

6Leslie H Stennes (1967), A Reference Grammar of Adamawa Fulani, subtitle, African Studies Center, Michigan State University

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