Ajami ( ar, عجمي, ) or Ajamiyya ( ar, عجمية, ), which comes from the Arabic root for ''foreign'' or ''stranger'', is an Arabic-derived script used for writing

African languages The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families: * Niger–Congo or perhaps Atlantic–Congo languages (includes Bantu and non-Bantu, and possibly Mande and others) are spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Souther ...

, particularly those of Mandé,

Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also ...

and Swahili, although many other African languages are written using the script, including

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

Mooré The Mossi language (Mooré) is a Gur language of the Oti–Volta branch and one of two official regional languages of Burkina Faso. It is the language of the Mossi people, spoken by approximately 8 million people in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cote d ...

, and

Pulaar Pulaar (in Adlam: , in Ajami: ) is a Fula language spoken primarily as a first language by the Fula and Toucouleur peoples in the Senegal River valley area traditionally known as Futa Tooro and further south and east. Pulaar speakers, known ...

. It is considered an Arabic-derived African writing system. Since many African languages include phonetic sounds and systems not found in the standard Arabic language, an adapted Arabic script is used to transcribe those sounds not normally found in Arabic. Similar modified Arabic scripts exist in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...

, and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

. The West African

is an example of a language written using Ajami, especially during the pre-colonial period when Qur'anic schools taught Muslim children Arabic and, by extension, Ajami. Following Western colonization, a Latin orthography for Hausa was adopted and the Ajami script declined in popularity. Ajami remains in widespread use among Islamic circles, but exists in

digraphia In sociolinguistics, digraphia refers to the use of more than one writing system for the same language. Synchronic digraphia is the coexistence of two or more writing systems for the same language, while diachronic digraphia (or sequential digra ...

among the broader populace - Ajami is used ceremonially and for specific purposes, such as for local herbal preparations in the

Jula language Dyula (or Jula, Dioula, ''Julakan'' ߖߎ߬ߟߊ߬ߞߊ߲) is a language of the Mande language family spoken mainly in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Mali, and also in some other countries, including Ghana, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. It is one of ...

Hausa Ajami Script

There is no standard system of using Ajami, and different writers may use letters with different values. Short vowels are written regularly with the help of vowel marks (which are seldom used in Arabic texts other than the Quran). Many medieval Hausa manuscripts, similar to the

Timbuktu Manuscripts Timbuktu Manuscripts (or Tombouctou Manuscripts) is a blanket term for the large number of historically significant manuscripts that have been preserved for centuries in private households in Timbuktu, a city in northern Mali. The collections in ...

written in the Ajami script, have been discovered recently and some of them describe

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

s and

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...

s. In the following table, some vowels are shown with the Arabic letter for t as an example.

References

Literature

* Bonate, Liazzat JK. "The use of the Arabic script in northern Mozambique." ''Tydskrif vir letterkunde'' 45, no. 1 (2008): 133-142. * Dobronravine, Nikolai, and John E. Philips. "Hausa ajami literature and script: Colonial innovations and post-colonial myths in northern Nigeria." ''Sudanic Africa'' 15 (2004): 85-110. * * Lüpke, Friederike. "Language planning in West Africa-who writes the script?." ''Language documentation and description'' 2 (2004): 90-107. * Mumin, Meikal. "The Arabic Script in Africa: Understudied Literacy." In ''The Arabic Script in Africa'', pp. 41-76. Brill, 2014. * Naim, Mohammed C. "Arabic Orthography and Some Non-Semitic Languages." ''Islam and its Cultural Divergence.'' Ed. Girdhari L. Tikku. University of Illinois Press: Chicago (1971). * Ngom, Fallou. "Ajami scripts in the Senegalese speech community." ''Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies'' 10 (2010): 1-23. * Robinson, David. "Fulfulde literature in Arabic script." ''History in Africa'' 9 (1982): 251-261.

External links

* , a research blog associated with the Ajami Lab at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures at the Universität Hamburg
PanAfrican L10n page on Arabic script and "Ajami"
{{Authority control Arabic alphabets Writing systems of Africa