Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Zarma language
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===Latin alphabet=== Table below illustrates the letters used in the Zarma Latin alphabet: {|class="wikitable" |+ Zarma Songhay Latin Alphabet (Niger) |- | A a || B b || C c || D d || E e || F f || G g || H h || I i || J j || K k || L l || M m |- | {{IPAblink|a}} || {{IPAblink|b}} || {{IPAblink|t͡ʃ}} || {{IPAblink|d}} || {{IPAblink|e}} || {{IPAblink|f}} || {{IPAblink|ɡ}} || {{IPAblink|h}} || {{IPAblink|i}} || {{IPAblink|ɟ}} || {{IPAblink|k}} || {{IPAblink|l}} || {{IPAblink|m}} |- | N n || Ɲ ɲ || Ŋ ŋ || O o || P p || R r || S s || T t || U u || W w || Y y || Z z |- | {{IPAblink|n}} || {{IPAblink|ɲ}} || {{IPAblink|ŋ}} || {{IPAblink|o}} || {{IPAblink|p}} || {{IPAblink|r}} || {{IPAblink|s}} || {{IPAblink|t}} || {{IPAblink|u}} || {{IPAblink|w}} || {{IPAblink|j}} || {{IPAblink|z}} |} Nasal vowels are written with a tilde or a following {{angbr|n}} or {{angbr|ŋ}}. Officially, the tilde should go under the vowel (''so̰ho̰''), but many current works write the tilde over the vowel (''sõhõ'').<ref name=arrete1999>{{cite web |url=http://www.songhay.org/fr/documents/grammaire/Guide_Niger.pdf |title=Arrêté n°0215/MEN/SP-CNRE du 19 octobre 1999 fixant l'orthographe de la langue soŋay-zarma |last=Hamidou |first= Seydou Hanafiou |date= 19 October 1999 |publisher=Département de linguistique et des langues nationales, Institut de Recherches en Sciences Humaines, Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey |access-date=22 August 2019}}</ref> Also, [[v]] may be used in a few words of foreign origin, but many Zarma cannot pronounce it. Most of the letters are pronounced with the same values as the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)]], the exceptions being {{angbr|j}} {{IPAblink|ɟ}} (approximately English ''j'' but more palatalized), {{angbr|y}} {{IPAblink|j}}, {{angbr|r}} {{IPAblink|ɾ}} (a flap). The letter {{IPAalink|c}} is approximately like English ''ch'' but more palatalized. The palatal nasal {{IPAalink|ɲ}} is spelled {{angbr|ny}} in older works. Long consonants are written with double letters; {{angbr|rr}} is a trilled {{IPAblink|r}}. Long vowels are sometimes but inconsistently written with double letter. In older works, {{IPA|/c/}} was spelled {{angbr|ky}} or {{angbr|ty}}. Both {{angbr|n}} and {{angbr|m}} are pronounced as a labiodental nasal {{IPAblink|ɱ}} before {{angbr|f}}. [[Tone (linguistics)|Tone]] is not written unless the word is ambiguous. Then, the standard IPA diacritics are used: ''bá'' ("to be a lot": high tone), ''bà'' ("to share": low tone), ''bâ'' ("to want" or "even": falling tone) and ''bǎ'' ("to be better": rising tone). However, the meaning is almost always unambiguous in the context so the words are usually all written ''ba''.
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)