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 Southern ...
, particularly those of
Mandé,
Hausa and
Swahili
Swahili may refer to:
* Swahili language, a Bantu language official in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes
* Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa
* Swahili culture
Swahili culture is the culture of ...
, 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 consti ...
,
Mooré, and
Pulaar. 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 Turkm ...
,
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
Hausa 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 among the broader populace - Ajami is used ceremonially and for specific purposes, such as for local herbal preparations in the
Jula language.
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 written in the Ajami script, have been discovered recently and some of them describe
constellations and
calendars.
In the following table, some vowels are shown with the Arabic letter for t as an example.
See also
*
Hausa language
*
Wolofal script
*
Aljamiado
*
Jawi script
Jawi (; ace, Jawoë; Kelantan-Pattani: ''Yawi''; ) is a writing system used for writing several languages of Southeast Asia, such as Acehnese, Banjarese, Kerinci, Maguindanaon, Malay, Minangkabau, Tausūg, and Ternate. Jawi is based ...
*
Perso-Arabic script
*
Timbuktu Manuscripts
*
Arwi
Arwi or ArabuTamil (Arabic: , ; ta, அரபுத்தமிழ் ) is an Arabic influenced dialect of the Tamil language, Tamil language written with an Arabic Extended-A, extension of the Arabic alphabet, with extensive Lexicon, lexical a ...
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