Editing African Reference Alphabet (section)

==Rejected 1982 proposal==
[[File:Linearized tilde.svg|thumb|upright=0.5|Linearized tilde]]
A proposed revision of the alphabet was made in 1982 by Michael Mann and David Dalby, who had attended the Niamey conference. It has 60 letters. Digraphs are retained only for vowel length and geminate consonants, and even there they suggest replacements. A key feature of this proposal is that, like the French proposal of 1978, it consists of only lower-case letters, making it [[unicase]]. It did not meet with acceptance at the follow-up Niamey meeting in 1984.<ref>P. Baker (1997: 115) Developing ways of writing vernaculars, in Tabouret-Keller et al. (eds.) ''Vernacular Literacy''. Clarendon and Oxford Press.</ref>

[[File:African reference alphabet from 1982 according to Mann and Dalby 1987 (2).png|thumb|upright=1.6|African Reference Alphabet (revised version 1982) as proposed by Michael Mann and David Dalby<ref name=Mann&Dalby>Michael Mann & David Dalby 1987 [2017] ''A Thesaurus of African Languages: A Classified and Annotated Inventory of the Spoken Languages of Africa With an Appendix on Their Written Representation.'' London, {{ISBN|0-905450-24-8}}, p. 207</ref>]]

{|class="wikitable Unicode"
|+Mann & Dalby's revised African Reference Alphabet<ref name=Mann&Dalby/>
| [[a]] || [[ɑ]] || [[ʌ]] || [[b]] || [[ɓ]] || [[c]] || [[ꞇ]] || [[ç]] || [[d]] || [[ɗ]] || [[ɖ]] || [[ꝺ]] || [[e]] || [[ɛ]] || [[ǝ]]
|-
| [[f]] || [[ƒ]] || [[g]] || [[ɠ]] || [[ɣ]] || [[h]] || [[ɦ]] || [[i]] || [[ɩ]] || [[j]] || [[ɟ]] || [[k]] || [[ƙ]] || [[l]] || [[Lambda (Latin letter)|λ]]
|-
| [[m]] || [[File:Latin letter Linearized tilde (Mann-Dalby form).svg|8x8px]]|| [[n]] || [[ŋ]] || [[ɲ]] || [[o]] || [[ɔ]] || [[p]] || [[ƥ]] || [[q]] || [[r]] || [[ɽ]] || [[s]] || [[ʃ]] || [[t]]
|-
| [[ƭ]] || [[ʈ]] || [[Latin theta|θ]] || [[u]] || [[Latin omega|ω]] || [[v]] || [[ʋ]] || [[w]] || [[x]] || [[y]] || [[ƴ]] || [[z]] || [[ʒ]] || [[ƹ]] || [[Glottal stop (letter)|ʔ]]
|}

The 32nd letter "[[File:Latin letter Linearized tilde (Mann-Dalby form).svg|8px]]" is called ''linearized [[tilde]]''.<ref>Mann, Michael; Dalby, David: ''A Thesaurus of African Languages'', London 1987, {{ISBN|0-905450-24-8}}, p. 210</ref> It is not specifically supported in Unicode (as of version 15, 2023), but can be represented by {{angbr IPA|[[wikt:ɴ|ɴ]]}} or {{angbr IPA|[[wikt:∿|∿]]}}. {{angbr IPA|&thinsp;ƒ&thinsp;}} and {{angbr IPA|&thinsp;ʃ&thinsp;}} are written without ascenders (thus esh is a mirror of {{angbr IPA|ʅ&thinsp;}}; {{angbr IPA|ƴ}} is written with a right-hooking tail, like the retroflex letters in the IPA; and {{angbr IPA|ɩ}} has a top hook to the left, like a squashed {{angbr IPA|ʅ&thinsp;}}. {{angbr IPA|ꞇ}}, inspired by the shape of Insular t, is meant to complete the series ejective letters with hook {{angbr IPA|ƥ, ƭ, ꞇ, ƙ}}, in practice {{angbr IPA|[[ƈ]]}} is used instead.

Because no language has all the consonants, the consonant letters are used for more than one potential value. They can be reassigned when there are conflicts. For instance, ɦ may be a voiceless pharyngeal, a voiced glottal fricative, or even (in the Khoekhoe table) an alveolar nasal click to avoid the digraph ɖɴ.

{|class="wikitable Unicode"
|+Consonant chart (1982)<ref name=Mann&Dalby/>
|- align=center
! !!bilabial||labio-<br>dental||labio-<br>velar||dental||alveolar||lateral||post-<br>alveolar/<br>retroflex||alveo-<br>palatal||palatal||velar||uvular||pharyn-<br>geal||glottal
|- align=center
!nasal
|m|| ||ɴ|| colspan="2" |n|| ||ɴ||colspan=2|ɲ||ŋ||colspan=3| 
|- align=center
!plosive
|p b|| ||ƥ ɓ||colspan=2|t d|| ||ʈ ɖ|| ||c j||k g||q|| ||ʔ
|- align=center
!implosive
|ɓ|| || || ||ɗ|| || || ||ƴ||ɠ||colspan=3| 
|- align=center
!ejective/<br>aspirate
|ƥ||colspan=2| ||colspan=2|ƭ||colspan=3| ||ꞇ||ƙ||colspan=3| 
|- align=center
!tenuis click
|ω||colspan=2| ||ʈ||ɖ||λ||colspan=2| ||ç||colspan=4| 
|- align=center
![[delayed aspiration]] click<!--in the Nama chart-->
|ωω||colspan=2| ||ʈʈ, λ{{sic}}||ɖɖ, ɽ||λλ, q||colspan=2| ||çç, ɟ||colspan=4| 
|- align=center
!glottalized click<!--in the Nama chart-->
|ωʔ||colspan=2| ||ʈʔ, ƭ||ɖʔ, ɗ||λʔ, ɣ||colspan=2| ||çʔ, ƴ||colspan=4| 
|- align=center
!aspirated click<!--in the Nama chart-->
|ωh||colspan=2| ||ʈh, θ||ɖh, ꝺ||λh, ƹ||colspan=2| ||çh, ꞇ||colspan=4| 
|- align=center
!nasal click<!--in the Nama chart-->
|ωɴ||colspan=2| ||ʈɴ, ɴ||ɖɴ, ɦ||λɴ, ŋ||colspan=2| ||çɴ, ɲ||colspan=4| 
|- align=center
!affricate
|colspan=7| ||c j||colspan=5| 
|- align=center
!fricative
|ƒ ʋ||f v|| ||θ ꝺ||s z||θ ꝺ|| ||ʃ ʒ||ç ɟ||colspan=2|x ɣ||ɦ ƹ||h ɦ
|- align=center
!trill/flap
|colspan=4| ||r|| ||ɽ||colspan=3| ||ɽ||colspan=2| 
|- align=center
!approximant
| ||ʋ||w||colspan=2| ||l||λ|| ||y||colspan=4| 
|}

Where {{angbr IPA|ƥ ɓ}} are needed for both values, {{angbr IPA|ƙ ɠ}} might be chosen for the labiovelar plosives. 

Where dentals contrast with alveolars, {{angbr IPA|ƭ ɗ ɴ}} might be chosen for the dentals.

Where there are aspirated plosives but not voiced, the [[pinyin]] solution might be chosen of using voiced letters (e.g. b) for [[tenuis consonant|tenuis]] and the voiceless letter (e.g. p) for the aspirate. 

Additional affricates should be written with unused letters, or with digraphs in ''y'' or ''w'' where there is morphophonemic justification. 

Where {{Angbr IPA|θ ꝺ}} are needed for both values, the lateral fricatives might be written {{angbr IPA|λ ɽ}}. 

Where velar and uvular fricatives contrast, {{angbr IPA|ɦ ɽ}} might be chosen for the uvulars. 

Where {{angbr IPA|ʋ}} is needed for both values, {{angbr IPA|ω}} might be chosen for the approximant.

The [[click letter]]s are combined with ɴ (before or after) for nasal clicks, followed by g for voiced, and followed by h for aspirated.

{|class="wikitable Unicode"
|+Vowel chart (1982)<ref name=Mann&Dalby/>
|- align=center
! !!front||central||back
|- align=center
!close
|i||ɩ||u
|- align=center
!close-mid
|e||ω||o
|- align=center
!open-mid
|ɛ||ə||ɔ
|- align=center
!open
|a||ʌ||ɑ
|}

Remaining diacritics should be replaced by linearized equivalents. For the tone diacritics are proposed baseline-aligned {{angbr|´ ` ⌟ ⌝}} (not supported by Unicode).