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Mafa alphabet
One row per letter in Mafa alphabetical order, following the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages: ɓ after b, ɗ after d and ə after e. Sounds such as mb, nd, ts, dz, kw, gw and the lateral fricatives sl and zl are written with two of these letters.
Quotation marks
Mafa is written in French-speaking Cameroon, so printed texts often quote « like this », with curly “ ” as the alternative.
Where it's spoken
The Mandara Mountains of Cameroon’s Far North Region, around Mokolo. Money is the Central African CFA franc, written FCFA: it has no currency sign of its own.
Mafa country
The Mandara Mountains, the round thatched houses of a Mafa compound, the millet and sorghum harvest, the bull of the Maray feast and the church where written Mafa is read and sung.
Sur la carte
Chargement…
The Mafa alphabet, letter by letter
Mafa is written in the Latin alphabet following the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages, the shared spelling system agreed in 1979 so that the country’s own languages use the same letter for the same sound. Mafa’s published spelling includes forms such as Ɓ ɓ, Ɗ ɗ and Ə ə, as well as graphemes such as c, j and œ and digraphs such as ng and ngw. In this spelling, ng is a prenasalized velar consonant and is pronounced [ŋ] word-finally; Ŋ/ŋ is not a separate Mafa letter.
Unicode’s CLDR, which most software relies on, does not publish an official Mafa letter inventory, so the grid above is only a selection of characters for Mafa text. The published spelling also uses c and j, digraphs such as dz, ng and ngw, a glottal-stop apostrophe, and acute accents to mark high tone.
What ɓ, ɗ, ə and ng stand for in Mafa
Ɓ ɓ and Ɗ ɗ write implosive consonants: a b or d said while the voice box drops slightly, so that air is drawn inward for a moment instead of pushed out. They are typical of the Chadic languages, and in Mafa they are separate sounds from plain b and d, which is why they get letters of their own. Hausa, a distant Chadic relative, writes the same two sounds with the same two letters.
Ə ə (schwa) is the short, central vowel heard at the start of English about. Mafa spelling uses the digraph ng for a prenasalized velar consonant; word-final ng is pronounced [ŋ], as in English sing. Mafa also writes consonants with digraphs including mb, nd, ts, dz, kw, gw, sl and zl.
Watch the look-alikes when you copy: the capital of ə is Ə , not the turned E Ǝ used in other alphabets; ɓ and ɗ are single letters, not a b or d followed by a stray mark; Mafa writes its prenasalized velar consonant as ng, not ŋ.
How to type ə, ɓ and ɗ on a keyboard, iPhone or Mac
The easiest way on any device is a free Cameroon keyboard from Keyman, made for Windows, Mac, Android and iPhone in AZERTY and QWERTY versions, which puts ɓ, ɗ and ə on keys. Without one, copy these letters from the grid above.
In Microsoft Word on Windows, type the code and press AltX: 0253 ɓ, 0181 Ɓ, 0257 ɗ, 018A Ɗ, 0259 ə, 018F Ə. On a Mac, add the Unicode Hex Input source in Keyboard settings and hold Option while typing the same four-digit codes.
On an iPhone or Android phone the built-in keyboards do not offer these letters; install a keyboard app that does, or copy each letter once and save it as a text replacement with a short trigger. In HTML, write ɓ for ɓ, ɗ for ɗ, ə for ə.
Where the Mafa language is spoken
Mafa is the language of the Mafa people of the Mandara Mountains, in the Mayo-Tsanaga department of Cameroon’s Far North Region, around towns such as Mokolo and Koza. Unicode’s CLDR estimates roughly 230,000 speakers, all counted in Cameroon. It is a mountain farming country of stone-walled terraces, millet and sorghum fields, and family compounds of round houses with conical thatched roofs and granaries.
French is the language of school and administration there, so Mafa writers often know French spelling as well and may print quotations « like this »; money is the Central African CFA franc (XAF), whose currency symbol is FCFA. In the markets of the north many people also speak Fula (Fulfulde), the region’s common language. The Cameroon collection gathers the country’s flag and emoji, the French collection has é è ç for the official language, and the Hausa collection shows ɓ and ɗ in another Chadic language.
How to use them
5 situationsCliquez pour copierMafa Alphabet combos
9À savoir
- The paintings known worldwide as Jesus Mafa, made in northern Cameroon in the 1970s, show Gospel scenes acted out by Mafa Christians, with Jesus and his followers in Mafa dress and villages; they are reproduced in churches and books around the world.
- Mafa families have long kept a bull inside the compound for a year or more, feeding it until the Maray festival, when it is sacrificed and shared; is the emoji people reach for.
- Mafa and Hausa are both Chadic languages, and both use ɓ and ɗ, but they sit on different branches of the family: Hausa is West Chadic, Mafa Central Chadic, and a Hausa speaker will not understand Mafa without learning it.
- The capital schwa Ə has its own code point, U018F, separate from the turned E Ǝ, U018E. They look alike, but mixing them up breaks search and sorting of Mafa words.
Questions fréquentes
7What is the Mafa alphabet?
Mafa is written in Latin script following the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages. Its published spelling includes letters such as ɓ, ɗ and ə, as well as c, j, œ and digraphs such as ng; word-final ng is pronounced [ŋ].
Where is the Mafa language spoken?
In the Mandara Mountains of Cameroon’s Far North Region, in the Mayo-Tsanaga department around Mokolo and Koza, and among Mafa people who have moved to Cameroon’s cities. CLDR estimates roughly 230,000 speakers.
What language family is Mafa?
Mafa is a Chadic language of the Afroasiatic family, from the Central Chadic (Biu-Mandara) branch. Hausa is its best-known, distant relative.
How to type ə on keyboard?
In Word, type 0259 and press AltX (018F for capital Ə). In any program, a free Cameroon keyboard from Keyman puts ə on a key; otherwise copy it from this page. In HTML it is ə.
How to type ɓ?
In Word, type 0253 and press AltX (0181 for capital Ɓ); on a Mac, use Unicode Hex Input and hold Option while typing 0253. In HTML it is ɓ. Or copy ɓ from this page.
Is there a Bible in the Mafa language?
Yes. A Mafa New Testament exists, including audio recordings, and Mafa is used in Christian worship.
What is Jesus Mafa?
A series of paintings of Gospel scenes made in northern Cameroon in the 1970s, based on scenes acted out by Mafa Christians, so Jesus and the people around him are shown as Mafa villagers.
