Bamun script

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Script example from A Ka U Ku (1910)

The Bamun script (also: Bamum , Schümom or Schumom ) is a regional African script for the Bamum language. It was developed in several steps by the young king Njoya Ibrahima in 1896/97 , a development that lasted until 1918 and produced seven writing systems.

From language to writing

The word "Schümom" or "Schumom" is derived from "Schüpamom", which is one of the proper names for the Bamun , but does not refer exactly to the name for the script, but to an artificial language that the same king had previously invented and this then tried to write it down. Therefore, both the term "Schümom script" and Bamun script are used, although the latter is more correct.

Expansion of the kingdom of Njoya Ibrahima in what is now the Republic of Cameroon

Bamun (or Bamum, Bamun) is a branch of the Semibantu languages ​​and is spoken by a smaller language community in Cameroon .

The King's Dream

Legend has it that King Njoya Ibrahima was inspired by a dream and asked his people to draw and name various objects. From this he developed a pictographic font by using a pictogram for each word. In the course of his life the king developed further writing systems from this first - ideographic configuration until the system was transformed into a phonetic one. Njoya practically used the hieroglyphic method, type Rebus, which consists in using the image that stands for a certain word for another word that sounds the same. This ultimately led to the use of symbols that represent sounds and at the same time the meaning of the image.

Njoya knew the Arabic script and was somewhat familiar with the Latin script, but worked out seven entirely different writing systems, the first five of which were pictographs :

  1. Lewa (= book)
  2. Mbima (= mixed)
  3. Nyi Nyi Nfa '(names of the first three characters)
  4. Rii Nyi Nsha Mfw '(names of the first four characters)
  5. Rii Nyi Mfw 'Men
  6. A Ka U Ku (the first four sounds of the alphabet)
  7. Mfemfe (= new)

Inspired by this script, some neighboring peoples who spoke Mengaka developed the Bagam script at the beginning of the 20th century , of which, however, there is no more evidence today with the exception of a text in Cambridge .

The Bamun writing systems in detail

The Lewa system (= book)

Developed 1896-7. Consists of 465 pictograms or, according to other sources, 511 pictograms and 10 characters for numbers. The direction of writing was either from top to bottom or from left to right or from bottom to top, only the writing direction from right to left was avoided because the neighboring Haussa wrote this way and one wanted to avoid the impression that one had the writing system of copied them.

The Mbima system (= mixed)

Designed to 1899 - 1900 . It had 427 characters and 10 number characters. It would be a simplification of the first system. Njoya dropped 72 characters but added 45 new ones. This system was also very pictographic.

The Nyi Nyi Nfa system

Developed by 1902 . This system is a simplification of the previous one. Njoya left out 56 characters, leaving 371 and 10 numerals. With this system he wrote his "History of the Bamun People" and used it in correspondence with his mother.

The Rii Nyi Nfa Mfw

Developed around 1907-8. It has 285 characters and 10 numerals, again a simplification of the previous system.

The Rii Nyi Mfw 'Men system

Also developed around 1907-8; it has 195 characters and 10 numerals. A Bible translation was written in this system .

These five writing systems are closely linked: all of them are pictograms or progressive simplifications of the same.

The A Ka U Ku system

Text in "A Ka U Ku" , 6. Schümom system, 1910

Developed in 1910 . With this system, the step towards phonetic writing took place: it is a mixture of a phonetic syllable alphabet ( monosyllabic ) and an alphabet with 82 syllable characters and 10 numerals and with this Njoya was able to express 160 phonemes. With this script the "marriage code" , the birth and death registers as well as marriages and court hearings / court judgments were written.

The Mfemfe system

In 1918 he developed the seventh and last system "Mfemfe" (= new) or "A Ka U Ku Mfemfe" (new or small A Ka U Ku ). It only has 72 "letters / syllables" and the 10 numerals.

Task of the Schümom / Bamun writing system

By 1913 , Njoya had completed the construction of a printing works for his writing system, which he had initiated around 1906, but the French administration completely destroyed the printing works. Regardless of this, there were already more than twenty schools teaching his writing system in 1916 , spread over the entire Bamum territory, with a total of more than 600 students. Njoya was forced to go into exile in Yaoundé in 1931 , where he died in 1933 at the age of 66. After Njoya's death in 1933, the use of the Bamun script slowly ceased.

Securing the written certificates

At present (2011) there are various initiatives to secure the bibliographical legacy of more than 7,000 texts in the Schümom script, e.g. B. the Bamum Scripts and Archives Preservation Project (BSAPP), headed by Konrad Tuchscherer .

In 2006 the BSAPP initiated the development of word processing fonts for these writing systems with A-Ka-U-Ku as the reference system, since it was used the most and contains most of the published texts. The documents of King Njoya and his collaborators Nji Mama and Njoya Ibrahimou are used in particular for its elaboration.

UNICODE

Unicode block Bamum

Unicode encodes the Bamunschrift (system 6 and 7; A Ka U Ku and (A Ka U Ku) Mfemfe) from version 5.2 in the range U + A6A0 to U + A6FF ( Unicode block Bamum ). 88 characters were included in the Unicode Standard in October 2009 with the release of Version 5.2.

Unicode block Bamum, supplement

With Unicode 6.0 (October 2010) historical stages of Bamumschrift were included in the Unicode standard. These are encoded in the Unicode block Bamum, supplement of U + 16800-U + 16A3F. The various stages of font development are marked with "Phase-A" to "Phase-E". The designation of the characters record the LAST appearance phase. For example:

U + 168EE BAMUM LETTER PHASE-C PIN is confirmed in phase C, but not in phase D.

Designation of the characters in Unicode

The spelling for the designation of the characters has been brought closer to ASCII in the charts :

  • ae for / ⁠ ɛ ⁠ / (French E),
  • ee for / ⁠ e ⁠ / (French E)
  • ae for / ⁠ ə ⁠ / (queen s)
  • o for / ⁠ ɔ ⁠ / ,
  • eu for / ⁠ ɯ ⁠ / (French eu)
  • ue for / ⁠ y ⁠ / (French u) and
  • q for [glottal voiceless plosive | larynx glottal stop] at (syllables) End / ⁠ ʔ ⁠ / (French ').

The syllable alphabet (Unicode) of the 6th writing system "A Ka U Ku"

Bamum syllable alphabet: fewer diacritical marks, with digraphs and the nʒɛmli symbol (capitalization)

The 80 glyphs of modern Bamum are not sufficient for all C - V syllables of the language. This deficiency is remedied by using diacritical marks and combining the glyphs.

Combining glyphs

happens by means of CV 1 and V 2 values ​​(instead of CV 2 ), which makes the writing alphabetical for syllables that are not directly covered by the syllable alphabet (English: "The deficiency is made up for with diacritics and by combining glyphs with CV 1 and V 2 values, for CV 2 , making the script alphabetic for syllables not directly covered by the syllabary. "). Adding the inherent vowel of a syllable makes the consonant voiced:

The use of diacritical marks

The two diacritical marks are the accent circumflex (^) (Bamun: ko'ndon ), which can be added to any of the 80 glyphs, and the macron (¯) (Bamun: tukwentis ), which is used in around a dozen of the glyphs.

The circumflex (^)

The circumflex generally adds a crack of the larynx to the syllable, e.g. B. will

like / kaʔ / read, although the vowel is shortened and any final consonant is omitted, as for example in:

pûə / puʔ / and kɛ̂t / kɛʔ / .

Prenasalization is also lost:

ɲʃâ / ʃaʔ / , ntê / teʔ / , ntûu / tuʔ / .

However, sometimes the circumflex nasalizes:

/ nɛn / , / pin / , / rɛn / , jûʔ / jun / , mɔ̂ / mɔn / , ɲʒûə / jun / (loss of the nasal consonant (NC) as with the crack of the larynx).

More idiosyncrasies: ɲʒəm / jəm / (loss of nasal consonants), tə / tɔʔ / (umlaut), ɲî / ɲe / , RIE / ⁠ z ⁠ / , m / n ⁠ / , ʃɯx / jɯx / , nûə / ŋuə / , kɯ̂x / ɣɯ / , rə̂ / rɔ / , ŋkwə̂n / ŋuət / , fɔ̂m / mvɔp / , mbɛ̂n / pɛn / , / tɯ / , kpâ / ŋma / , / fy / , ɣɔ̂m / ŋɡɔm /

The macron (¯)

is a ' killer stroke / virama ' which eliminates the syllable vowel and thus forms consonant and nasal consonant clusters (e.g. / nd, ŋɡ / ) that can be used for syllable codas . Konsonanteisches / ⁠ n ⁠ / is used both as Koda used as well as for Pränasalisierung of initial consonants.

Exceptions to the macron are

ɲʒūə read as/ ⁠ j ⁠ /and ɔ read as/ ⁠ ə ⁠ /.

The font has differentiated punctuation including a capitalization marker ( nʒɛmli ), which resembles an inverted question mark, for proper names, and a decimal system with ten digits, whereby the previous glyph for “10” now means “0”.

Fonts

There are fonts from different sides, u. a. by Jason Glavy (JG Bamum Arial, JG Bamum Calligraphic, and JG Bamum Courier), whose fonts have not been available on the Internet since February 2011. These fonts do not (yet) conform to the Unicode standard, as they were developed before the Bamoum font was included in Unicode.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Konrad Tuchscherer, The Lost Script of the Bagam
  2. The end of King Njoya and the Bamun script
  3. ^ Bamum Font Initiative
  4. Michael Everson and Charles Riley: "Preliminary proposal for encoding the Bamum script in the BMP of the UCS" (German: "Preliminary proposal for coding the Bamun script in the BMP of the UCS"; PDF; 256 kB)

literature

  • Saki Mafundikwa: African alphabets. The story of writing in Africa . Batty Press, New York 2007, ISBN 0-9772827-6-7 .
  • Alfred Schmitt: The Bamun script, Volume I: Text, Volume II, Tables Volume III: Documents, Wiesbaden, 1963

Web links