Nuer Alphabet

Nuer, called Thok Naath by its speakers (the Nuer call themselves Naath), is written in the Latin script, and two sort orders are used: a Latin order and a distinct Nuer order. A text in Nuer is recognisable at a glance by its open vowels and its dotted ones: Ɛ ɛ, Ɔ ɔ, Ɣ ɣ, Ŋ ŋ, Ä ä, Ë ë, Ï ï, Ö ö.

The four extra letters come from the shared set of letters used across African languages. ɛ (open e) is the vowel of English bed, and ɔ (open o) the vowel of law, so e and ɛ, o and ɔ are separate vowels that make separate words. In Nuer, ɣ represents a voiced velar fricative [ɣ] in some varieties and a voiced velar approximant [ɰ] in others. ŋ (eng) is the ng of English sing, but in Nuer it can stand at the start of a word, where English never puts it.

Some sounds take two letters. dh and th are d and t made with the tongue against the teeth (the language's own name, Thok, starts with th), and ny is the ny of canyon, the same sound as Spanish ñ. These pairs are written with ordinary letters, so they have no cells of their own in the grid. Long vowels are written double, as in Naath.

Unicode's CLDR list for Nuer also includes f, q, s, v, x and z. They are not part of the native sound system and turn up in foreign names and borrowed words, so the grid keeps them in a separate row group rather than among the Nuer letters.

Two dots and a line below: the Nuer vowels

Nuer has more vowels than the five Latin letters can show. Besides the open ɛ and ɔ, it tells vowels apart by voice quality, the plain clear voice against a breathier one, and by length, and these differences change the meaning of words. The spelling marks the extra vowels in two ways: with diaereses, ä ë ï ö ɛ̈ ɔ̈, and with underbars, a̱ e̱ ɛ̱ i̱ o̱ ɔ̱; ɛ̱̈ combines both marks. Treat each marked vowel as a letter of its own: dropping the dots or the line writes a different vowel, and often a different word.

Four of these vowels have single ready-made characters: ä ë ï ö (and their capitals Ä Ë Ï Ö). Other marked forms use one combining mark after the base letter, or two marks in ɛ̱̈. ɛ̈ is ɛ plus the combining diaeresis U+0308, and ɔ̈ is ɔ plus U+0308. The underbar forms a̱ e̱ ɛ̱ i̱ o̱ ɔ̱ use the combining macron below U+0331; ɛ̱̈ combines U+0331 and U+0308. Both marks are in the grid; paste the base letter first and each combining mark after it.

Tone, which also matters in Nuer, is not written in everyday spelling, so there are no acute or grave accents to look for. Readers rely on context, much as English readers do with read (present) and read (past).

How to type ɛ, ɔ, ɣ, ŋ and the Nuer vowels

The dotted vowels are on every system. On Windows, hold Alt and type 0228 on the number pad for ä, 0235 for ë, 0239 for ï, 0246 for ö (0196, 0203, 0207, 0214 for the capitals); with the US-International layout, type " and then the vowel. On a Mac, press Option+U, then the vowel. On iPhone and Android keyboards, long-press a, e, i or o and slide to the two-dot version. In HTML, write ä, ë, ï, ö.

The four African letters need their code. In Microsoft Word, type the code and press Alt+X: 025B for ɛ and 0190 for Ɛ, 0254 for ɔ and 0186 for Ɔ, 0263 for ɣ and 0194 for Ɣ, 014B for ŋ and 014A for Ŋ. The two marks work the same way after the base letter: 0308 for the two dots of ɛ̈ ɔ̈, 0331 for the line under a̱ e̱ i̱ o̱. On a Mac, add the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type the same codes. In HTML, use ɛ ɛ, ɔ ɔ, ɣ ɣ, ŋ ŋ, ̈ for the dots and ̱ for the line below.

On a phone, copy the letters from this page once and save them as text replacements (iPhone: Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement; Android: your keyboard's personal dictionary or shortcuts), for example ee → ɛ, oo → ɔ, gg → ɣ, ngg → ŋ. For daily typing, a dedicated layout is easier: Keyman and other free keyboard tools host layouts for South Sudanese languages, so it is worth searching them for Nuer.

Watch the look-alikes. ɛ is not Greek ε (epsilon) and ɔ is not a backwards c. Latin ɣ is officially named LATIN SMALL LETTER GAMMA, but it is a different character from Greek γ, and its capital is Ɣ, not Greek Γ. ŋ is not Greek η. A text with the Greek letters may look right but breaks search, sorting and spell-checking.

Where the Nuer language is spoken

Nuer is spoken in South Sudan, in the plains of the Upper Nile, Jonglei and Unity regions along the White Nile, the Sobat and the swamps of the Sudd, around towns such as Bentiu, Leer, Nasir and Akobo, and across the border in the Gambela region of western Ethiopia. Unicode's CLDR estimates roughly 700,000 speakers in South Sudan; with Ethiopia and the diaspora the community is larger, and Nuer is the second-largest home language of South Sudan after Dinka.

Wars since the 1980s carried many Nuer families abroad, and there are sizeable communities in refugee settlements in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda and in the United States, Canada and Australia; in the US they are known especially in Nebraska and Minnesota. Many there text, preach and post in Nuer, so being able to type its letters on a phone matters in daily life.

Nuer is a Nilotic language, and its closest relative is Dinka, which uses the same extra letters ɛ ɔ ɣ ŋ and dotted vowels. Many Nuer speakers also use other languages: English, South Sudan's official language, Juba Arabic, the common lingua franca of South Sudan, or Amharic in Ethiopia; the English, Arabic and Amharic letter pages and the South Sudan and Ethiopia collections have the rest.