Boko (or bookoo) is a

Latin-script alphabet A Latin-script alphabet (Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet) is an alphabet that uses Letter (alphabet), letters of the Latin script. The 21-letter archaic Latin alphabet and the 23-letter classical Latin alphabet belong to the oldest of this gr ...

used to write the

Hausa language Hausa (; / ; Hausa Ajami, Ajami: ) is a Chadic language spoken primarily by the Hausa people in the northern parts of Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Benin and Togo, and the southern parts of Niger, and Chad, with significant minorities in Ivory Coas ...

. The first boko alphabet was devised by Europeans in the early 19th century, and developed in the early 20th century by the British and French colonial authorities. It was made the official Hausa alphabet in 1930. Since the 1950s boko has been the main alphabet for Hausa. Arabic script ('' ajami'') is now only used in Islamic schools and for Islamic literature. Since the 1980s, Nigerian boko has been based on the

Pan-Nigerian alphabet The Pan-Nigerian alphabet is a set of 33 Latin letters standardised by the National Language Centre of Nigeria in the 1980s. It is intended to be sufficient to write all the languages of Nigeria without using digraphs. History Several hundred ...

. The word ''boko'' also refers to non-Islamic (usually western) education ('yan boko = "modern school") or

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened ...

. The word is often described as being a borrowing from English ''book''. However, in 2013, leading Hausa expert

Paul Newman Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, race car driver, philanthropist, and activist. He was the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Paul Newman, numerous awards ...

published "The Etymology of Hausa Boko", in which he presents the view that boko is in fact a native word meaning "sham, fraud", a reference to "

Western learning Western education is the form of education that mainly originated in or is characteristic of the Western world. History Ancient era Medieval era Modern era Pre-contemporary history outside of the West The introduction of Western ...

and writing" being seen as deceitful in comparison to traditional

Quranic The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

scholarship. There are some differences in boko used in

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

and

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

due to different pronunciations in the French and English languages. The letter is used only in

; in

it is written . Tone, vowel length, and the distinction between and (which does not exist for all speakers) are not marked in writing. So, for example, "from" and "battle" are both written ''daga''.

Bibliography

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References

Hausa language Latin alphabets {{WestChadic-lang-stub

See also

Bibliography

References