Fur Language Alphabet

Fur, the language of the Fur people of Darfur in western Sudan, uses a Latin-based orthography. The Fur Language Committee's agreed consonant list is b d g h j k l m n ŋ ny p r s t w y z; special vowels include a̱, ɨ and ʉ. Most of them sound much as an English reader expects, with a few rules to know. G is always hard, as in go. J is the j of jam. Y is the consonant of yes. R is tapped or rolled.

Two sounds have no single English letter. The ny of canyon, the same as Spanish ñ, is written as the pair ny. The ng of sing is written with its own letter, ŋ, called eng. In Fur, as in many African languages, ŋ is a letter in its own right, not just the "ng" spelling it has in English. Unicode encodes it as U+014B (small ŋ) and U+014A (capital Ŋ), in the Latin Extended-A block.

Letters such as p, v, x and z are not part of the native sound system, so they are left out here. Spelling conventions differ between sources, because Fur has been written down only recently and has never had an official standard. If you are typing a Fur text, the letter you will hunt for is ŋ.

Fur tone marks: acute, circumflex and caron

Fur is a tonal language. The pitch of a syllable, high or low (and gliding between them), can be the only thing that tells two words apart. The Fur Language Committee's orthography marks high tone with an acute (á é í ó ú), falling tone with a circumflex (â ê î ô û), and rising tone with a caron (ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ); low tone is unmarked. Long vowels are written double.

Everyday writing, such as texts and social media posts, often leaves the accents out and relies on context. Use the precomposed Unicode forms when available; the caron letters are outside Latin-1: ě is in Latin Extended-A, while ǎ ǐ ǒ ǔ are in Latin Extended-B.

How to type ŋ and the tone accents

The quickest way is to copy ŋ and Ŋ from this page. In Microsoft Word on Windows, type 014B and press Alt+X for ŋ, or 014A and Alt+X for Ŋ. On a Mac, add the Unicode Hex Input source in Keyboard settings, hold Option and type 014B. In HTML, write ŋ and Ŋ, or ŋ and Ŋ.

For the tone vowels on Windows, switch to the US-International layout: press ' then a for á. The Alt codes also work: Alt+0225 for á, 0233 é, 0237 í, 0243 ó, 0250 ú. On a Mac, press Option+E and then the vowel for an acute. On iPhone and Android, hold down a vowel key and pick the accent.

Some Android keyboards expose ŋ on a long-press of n; if yours does not, set up a text replacement once. On an iPhone, go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement. On Android, use your keyboard's personal dictionary. Paste ŋ as the phrase and choose a short trigger such as ngg. Watch the look-alikes: ŋ is not Greek η (eta), and it is not ɲ, the IPA symbol linguists use for the ny sound.

Where Fur is spoken

Fur is the language of Darfur, whose name means land of the Fur (dār is Arabic for home or land). Its heartland is Jebel Marra, the volcanic massif in the middle of the region, and the farming country around it. Unicode's CLDR estimates about 1.4 million speakers in Sudan. Small communities live across the border in Chad, and the wars since 2003 have scattered many Fur families into refugee camps and cities.

Fur gave its name to the Fur Sultanate, which ruled Darfur from the 17th century until 1874. It was restored in 1898 under Sultan Ali Dinar and lasted until 1916, when Darfur was joined to Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Arabic was the written language of the sultans' court; today Arabic is widely spoken, while Arabic and English are official working languages of Sudan's national government. Most Fur speakers also speak Sudanese Arabic, and some have used Arabic-script Ajami, a poorly documented tradition that never became widespread.

Fur is usually classed as Nilo-Saharan. Its only close relative is Amdang, spoken in Chad. Darfur's other languages include Masalit and Zaghawa, and Sudan as a whole also speaks Beja and Nobiin. Each has its own collection, and the Sudan collection has the flag and the country's emoji.