Afaka script

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The Afaka script (afaka sikifi) is a syllabary of 56 letters devised in 1908 for the Ndyuka language, an English-based creole language of Surinam. The script is named after its inventor, Afáka Atumisi. It is still used to write Ndyuka, but the literacy rate for all scripts is under 10%.

Afaka is the only script in use that was designed specifically for a creole or a form of English. (Shavian and the Deseret alphabet are not in current use.)

The origins of many of the glyphs are opaque, though several appear to be rebuses, many of which use symbols brought from Africa. For example, a curl with a dot in it representing a baby in a belly stands for [be]; symbols for come and go are used for [ko] and [go], two linked circles for we stand for [wi], something like II two is [tu] and |||| four is [fo]; and + is [ne], from name, from the practice of signing one's name with an X. The only letters which correspond to the Latin alphabet are the vowels a and o, though it is said that the latter represents the shape of the mouth when pronouncing it.

Afaka is a rather defective script. Tone is phonemic but not written. Final consonants (the nasal [n]) are not written, but long vowels are, by adding a vowel letter. Prenasalized and voiced consonants are written the same, and syllables with the vowels [u] and [o] are seldom distinguished (they are in the cases of [o]/[u], [po]/[pu], and [to]/[tu], but not after the consonants [b, d, dy, f, g, l, m, n, s]). Thus the Afaka form of Ndyuka could be read instead as Joka. In a few cases syllables with [e] and [i] are not distinguished (after the consonants [l, m, s, w]), and a single letter is used for both [ba] and [pa], and another for both [u] and [ku]. Several consonants have only one syllabic symbol assigned to them. These are [ty], which is written only as [tya]; [kw], only as [kwa]; [ny], only as [nya]; and [dy], only as [dyu/dyo]. The only cases where there is no ambiguity are with the consonants [y] (occurs only as [ya], [ye], [yu]) and [t] (which occurs with all five vowels).

There is a single punctuation mark, the pipe (|), which corresponds to a comma and period.

Afaka is not supported by Unicode, and the only available font is poorly designed.