Adlam digit nine

The highest-value digit comes first, at the right edge.

For example, 𞥙𞥐 means 90, with nine first at the right. Arabic text also runs right to left, but its numbers run left to right.

Mixed Adlam and Latin text can be reordered if the paragraph’s main direction is not set right to left.

Why was Adlam created?

To write Fula in a script suited to its sounds.

Brothers Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry began devising Adlam in Guinea in 1989 to write Fula, a West African language, more consistently than Arabic and Latin spellings allowed. Adlam takes its name from the first four letters and abbreviates a Fula phrase meaning “the alphabet that protects a people from disappearing.” Arabic influenced its direction and letter joining, but not its letter shapes.