Editing Sango language (section)

== Orthography ==
Sango began being written by French missionaries, with Catholic and Protestant conventions differing slightly.<ref name="karan_orthog_pre">{{Harvcoltxt|Karan|2006|loc=12.9 The Sango orthography before 1984}}</ref> The 1966 Bible and 1968 hymnal were highly influential and still used today.<ref name="karan_orthog_pre" />

In 1984, President [[André Kolingba]] signed "Décret No 84.025", establishing an official [[orthography]] for Sango.<ref name="karan_orthog_post">{{Harvcoltxt|Karan|2006|loc=12.9 The 1984 orthography decree}}</ref> The official Sango alphabet consists of 22 letters:

:{|class="wikitable" style="border-collapse:collapse; font-size: 120%;"
|+ Official 1984 orthography<ref name="karan_orthog_post" />
|-
|bgcolor="#EFEFEF" align="center" colspan="33" | <span style="font-size: 90%;">'''22-Letter Sango Alphabet'''</span>
|-
|width=3% align="center"|[[A]]||width=3% align="center"|[[B]]||width=3% align="center"|[[D]]||width=3% align="center"|[[E]]||width=3% align="center"|[[F]]||width=3% align="center"|[[G]]||width=3% align="center"|[[H]]||width=3% align="center"|[[I]]||width=3% align="center"|[[K]]||width=3% align="center"|[[L]]||width=3% align="center"|[[M]]||width=3% align="center"|[[N]]||width=3% align="center"|[[O]]||width=3% align="center"|[[P]]||width=3% align="center"|[[R]]||width=3% align="center"|[[S]]||width=3% align="center"|[[T]]||width=3% align="center"|[[U]]||width=3% align="center"|[[V]]||width=3% align="center"|[[W]]||width=3% align="center"|[[Y]]||width=3% align="center"|[[Z]]
|}

Letters are pronounced as their IPA equivalent except for {{angle bracket|y}}, pronounced as [j]. Also, the digraphs {{angle bracket|kp, gb, mb, mv, nd, ng, ngb, nz}} are pronounced {{IPA|[k͡p]}}, {{IPA|[ɡ͡b]}}, {{IPA|[ᵐb]}}, {{IPA|[(ᶬv)]}}, {{IPA|[ⁿd]}}, {{IPA|[ᵑɡ]}}, {{IPA|[ᵑ͡ᵐɡ͡b]}} and {{IPA|[ⁿz]}}, respectively.

{{angle bracket|’b}}, {{angle bracket|ty}}, and {{angle bracket|dy}} may be used in loan words not fully integrated into Sango's phonological system.<ref name="karan_orthog_post" />

The official orthography contains the following [[consonant]]s: {{angle bracket|p, b, t, d, k, g, kp, gb, mb, mv, nd, ng, ngb, nz, f, v, s, z, h, l, r, y, w}}: some add {{angle bracket|’b}} for the [[implosive]] {{IPA|/ɓ/}}. Sango has seven oral [[vowel]]s, {{IPA|/a e ɛ i o ɔ u/}}, of which five, {{IPA|/ĩ ã ɛ̃ ɔ̃ ũ/}}, occur [[nasal vowel|nasalized]]. In the official orthography, {{angle bracket|e}} stands for both {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/ɛ/}}, and {{angle bracket|o}} stands for both {{IPA|/o/}} and {{IPA|/ɔ/}}; nasal vowels are written {{angle bracket|in, en, an, on, un}}.

Sango has three [[tone (linguistics)|tones]]: low, mid, and high. In standard orthography, low tone is unmarked, {{angle bracket|e}}, mid tone is marked with [[Diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis]], {{angle bracket|ë}}, and high tone with [[circumflex]], {{angle bracket|ê}}: ''do-re-mi'' would be written {{angle bracket|do-rë-mî}}.

Sango has little written material apart from religious literature, but some basic literacy material has been developed.<ref name="karan12.7">{{Harvcoltxt|Karan|2006|loc=12.7 Sango literature}}</ref>