Bamum semicolon

It divides related phrases without ending the sentence.

King Njoya and his scribes began developing the Bamum script as a royal project around 1896. By 1910, revisions had produced A-ka-u-ku, a syllabary—a system whose signs represent syllables. Earlier forms used logographs, signs for words or ideas.

Bamum punctuation marks include commas, colons, full stops and question marks, following European conventions. A separate mark called njaemli introduces proper names or clarifies words spelled alike. After colonial suppression, Bamum writing shifted from court and administrative use toward cultural preservation.