Fang Alphabet

Fang is written in the Latin alphabet, but there is no single spelling standard shared by every country where it is spoken, and CLDR has no letter set for Fang; its data for the related Ewondo does list ə, ɛ, ɔ and ŋ among its letters, but that is not a Fang standard. A 2018 Fang-Beti alphabet proposal includes Ə ə, Ɛ ɛ, Ɔ ɔ, Ŋ ŋ and J, among other letters. Fang orthographies vary by region, so this page is a collection of characters rather than a single universal alphabet.

Four letters go beyond an ordinary keyboard. In one Fang-Beti alphabet proposal, Ə ə represents schwa, Ɛ ɛ open e and Ɔ ɔ open o; the proposal distinguishes e, ə and ɛ, and o and ɔ. Ŋ ŋ is the ng of English sing, and in Fang it can begin a syllable. Other sounds are written with two letters: ny for the ny of canyon, ts and dz, and nasal clusters such as mb, nd, nz and ŋg, which is why names like Nguema, Ndong and Nzalang start with a nasal.

Much Fang is still written in older, simpler spellings. In Equatorial Guinea names and places follow Spanish habits, with ñ for the ny sound and Spanish accents, as in the towns of Añisok and Ebebiyín; in Gabon they follow French ones, as in Oyem and Mitzic. Everyday writing, and some older church and school texts, often use plain e and o where these letters would go. For ñ and the Spanish accents see the Spanish collection; for é, è and ç see French.

Fang tone notation: conventions vary

Fang is a tonal Bantu language: the pitch of a syllable is part of the word, and two words with the same letters can differ only in tone. Tone notation varies among Fang writing systems; a 2018 Fang-Beti proposal used the acute for high tone, a macron for mid tone, a separate mark for rising tone and the circumflex for falling tone. The marks go on vowels and on a nasal that forms a syllable of its own, as in ń and ǹ. Dictionaries, primers and linguistic work mark tones; everyday messages usually leave them out.

Unicode has ready-made letters for tone-marked a, e, i, o and u and for ń and ǹ, so they sit in the grid in their own columns. There are no ready-made ə, ɛ, ɔ or ŋ with tones: type the base letter and then a combining mark. ɛ followed by the combining acute ́ gives ɛ́, ɔ followed by the combining grave ̀ gives ɔ̀, and ə followed by the combining circumflex ̂ gives ə̂. The four marks are in the grid under Tone marks; always paste them right after the letter, never before it.

How to type ə, ɛ, ɔ and ŋ on a keyboard, iPhone or Android

The quickest way is to copy them from this page. In Microsoft Word on Windows, type the code and press Alt+X: 0259 for ə, 018F for Ə, 025B for ɛ, 0190 for Ɛ, 0254 for ɔ, 0186 for Ɔ, 014B for ŋ and 014A for Ŋ. The combining tone marks work the same way after the letter: 0301 high, 0300 low, 0302 falling, 030C rising. On a Mac, add the Unicode Hex Input source in Keyboard settings, hold Option and type the same codes, or open the Character Viewer with Control+Command+Space and search for schwa, open e, open o or eng.

For the plain tone vowels, the US-International layout on Windows gives á with ' then a, à with then a and â with ^ then a; Alt codes also work (Alt+0225 á, Alt+0224 à, Alt+0226 â, Alt+0233 é, Alt+0244 ô). On a Mac, Option+E then the vowel gives the acute, Option+ the grave and Option+I the circumflex, and the ABC Extended layout adds Option+V for the caron (ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ). On a phone, long-press a vowel for á, à and â.

For regular writing, a keyboard made for Cameroonian languages, such as SIL's free Keyman keyboards, puts ə ɛ ɔ ŋ and the tone marks on keys, and these are the same letters Fang uses. Without one, set up text replacements once (iPhone: Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement; Android: your keyboard's personal dictionary) with short triggers such as ee, oo, ae and ng. In HTML, write ə for ə, ɛ for ɛ, ɔ for ɔ and ŋ for ŋ.

Watch the look-alikes. The small schwa ə (U+0259) looks exactly like the turned e ǝ (U+01DD) and the Cyrillic ә, but the right capital is Ə, not Ǝ. ɛ is not the Greek ε, and ŋ is not the Greek η. They may look the same on screen but break search, sorting and spell checks.

Where the Fang language is spoken

Fang is the language of the Fang people of the rainforest between the Atlantic coast and the Congo basin. In Equatorial Guinea 🇬🇶 it is spoken by most people on the mainland, Río Muni, around Bata, Mongomo, Ebebiyín and Evinayong, and widely in Malabo too; CLDR estimates about 900,000 speakers there. In Gabon 🇬🇦 it is the most widely spoken African language, strongest in the north around Oyem and Bitam and in the Estuaire province around Libreville, and in Cameroon 🇨🇲 it is spoken in the south along the Ntem. Its dialects include Ntumu and Okak in Equatorial Guinea and Nzaman, Mvaï and Make in Gabon.

Fang belongs to the Beti-Fang group of Bantu languages, with Ewondo, Bulu and Eton in Cameroon, and speakers across the group can follow one another to a large degree. Their shared oral literature is the mvet: long epics sung by a bard to the mvet, a harp-zither with gourd resonators, about the immortal people of Engong and their wars with the mortals of Oku.

Most Fang speakers also use a European language. In Equatorial Guinea that is Spanish, with ¿ ¡ and ñ; in Gabon and Cameroon it is French. All three countries pay in the Central African CFA franc, which has no Unicode sign, so prices are written 5 000 FCFA. The Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Cameroon collections have each country's emoji; Ewondo, Bulu, Spanish and French have the letters of the neighbouring languages.