Adlam Small Letter U

The Adlam u is the short vowel written inside Fula words.

Fula is also called Fulfulde, Pular, or Pulaar in different communities. The letter’s exact sound shifts by language variety and neighboring sounds.

Brothers Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry created Adlam in Guinea in 1989 because the Arabic alphabet used by some Fula writers did not represent Fula sounds consistently. Their first version joined letters like handwriting; they later separated the forms so readers could distinguish them. A 1994 alphabet table records an early form. Early Adlam books included advice on healthy pregnancies and filtering water, and classes helped the script spread through Fula-speaking communities.

How do you mark a long u?

Write the vowel-length mark after it: 𞤵𞥅.

Short and long vowels are distinct in Fula, so the mark can change a word. This spelling has two characters: 𞤵 followed by the length mark 𞥅.

Adlam text runs right to left, and this sequence follows that order.

Why does the same letter look different?

Font design and cursive joining can change the outline without changing the character.

Adlam letterforms have been refined for legibility. In 2019, Unicode documented a reference-font change prompted by legibility concerns; in 2024, a proposal recorded further refinements meant to make the letters easier to write and recognize.

An empty square means your font cannot draw the letter, or the app cannot lay out Adlam text. An Adlam-capable font and an app that supports the script’s right-to-left layout are needed.