Boko (alphabet)
Boko (or bookoo, according to some, derived from the English word for book, book ) is a variant of the Latin alphabet that was developed by Europeans in the early 19th century to give the Hausa language a written form.
history
In the early 20th century, Boko was further developed by the mostly British, but also French colonial rulers and introduced as the official Hausa language. In 1930 it was made the official alphabet. Since the 1950s, Boko has established itself as the most widely used Hausa alphabet.
The Arabic-based Ajami script is only used in Islamic schools and large parts of Islamic literature. Since the 1980s, Boko has been written using the Pannigerian alphabet in Nigeria .
alphabet
Boko consists of the following characters:
| A a | B b | Ɓ | C c | D d | Ɗ | E e | F f | G g | H h | I i | J j | K k | Ƙ ƙ | L l |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| / a / | / b / | / ɓ / | / tʃ / | / d / | / ɗ / | / e / | / ɸ / | / ɡ / | /H/ | / i / | / (d) ʒ / | / k / | / kʼ / | / l / |
| M m | N n | O o | R r | S s | Sh sh | T t | Ts ts | U u | W w | Y y | Ƴ ƴ | Z z | ʼ | |
| / m / | / n / | /O/ | / r /, / ɽ / | / s / | / ʃ / | / t / | / (t) sʼ / | / u / | / w / | / y / | / ʔʲ / | / z / | / ʔ / |
There are small differences between the boko used in Niger and Nigeria as the pronunciation is different in French and English. The letter ƴ is only used in Niger; in Nigeria this sound is written as ʼy .
Pitch , vowel length, and the distinction between / r / and / ɽ / , which is not made by all speakers, are not evident from the typeface. For example, / daɡa / (“out”) and / daːɡaː / (“battle line”) are both written daga .
As a term for Western education
Derived from the name of the alphabet, "Boko" can also refer to non-Islamic (mostly Western) education ('yan boko = "modern school") or secularism . In this sense, the term is used in the name of the terrorist group Boko Haram .
See also
Bibliography
- Florian Coulmas : The Blackwell encyclopedia of writing systems . Wiley-Blackwell, 1999, ISBN 0-631-21481-X , p. 196.
- Peter K. Austin : One Thousand Languages: Living, Endangered, and Lost . University of California Press , ISBN 0-520-25560-7 , p 64th
- History of Africa - Literatures and Cultures - Languages of Africa: The Origins of the Hausa Writings and His Literature Seminar for African Studies, Institute for Asian and African Studies, Philosophical Faculty III of the Humboldt University in Berlin
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rejecting, however, P. Newman, The etymology of Hausa boko, 2013, http://www.megatchad.net/publications/Newman-2013-Etymology-of-Hausa-boko.pdf
- ↑ Awoyale, Yiwola; Planet Phrasebooks, Lonely: Africa: Lonely Planet Phrasebook . Lonely Planet ,, ISBN 1-74059-692-7 , p. 79.
- ^ Andrew Dalby : Dictionary of languages: the definitive reference to more than 400 languages . Columbia University Press, New York 1998, ISBN 0-231-11568-7 , p. 242.
- ↑ omniglot.com
- ↑ a b maguzawa.dyndns.ws (Hausa-English dictionary)