Nzema Alphabet (Nzima)

The people call themselves and their language Nzema; language lists and Unicode's CLDR use the alternative spelling Nzima (code nzi). It is one of the Ghanaian languages taught in schools and published by the Bureau of Ghana Languages, so it has a settled school spelling, and the Nzema Bible, school primers, dictionaries and newspapers are all written in it.

Everyday Nzema writing uses these letters: A B D E Ɛ F G H I K L M N O Ɔ P R S T U V W Y Z, each in a capital and a small form, which is how the grid above is laid out. C, Q and X are not needed for Nzema words; they appear only in English names and loanwords. V and Z are Nzema letters too, and the language's own name shows the Z. Sounds such as ny, ky and gy are written as pairs of ordinary letters, and words may begin with a nasal before another consonant, as in Nzema and the town name Nkroful; none of these need special characters.

What Ɛ ɛ and Ɔ ɔ do in Nzema

Nzema has more vowel sounds than the Latin alphabet has vowel letters, so the spelling borrows two letters from the phonetic alphabet. Ɛ ɛ is an open e, close to the vowel of English bed, while plain e is closer; Ɔ ɔ is an open o, close to the vowel of British law, while plain o is closer, as in go. Writing e for ɛ or o for ɔ changes the word, which is why the open vowels have letters of their own.

Nzema is also a tonal language, where the pitch of a syllable can tell words apart, and like its relatives it has vowel harmony, in which the vowels of a word agree with each other in quality. The school spelling marks neither tone nor every vowel distinction, so there are no accented letters to learn: Ɛ ɛ and Ɔ ɔ are the only characters that a plain English keyboard lacks.

Watch the look-alikes. Ɛ is not the Greek epsilon ε, and Ɔ is not the reversed c Ↄ, even though they look almost the same; in a chat many Ghanaians write 3 for ɛ and a look-alike character for ɔ, but names, documents and anything people need to find by search should use the real letters from this page.

How to type ɛ and ɔ on a keyboard or iPhone

On a phone, add a keyboard app for Ghanaian languages that has ɛ and ɔ (Akan or Twi keyboards have both letters and work for Nzema too), or copy the letters from the grid. On an iPhone you can also save them as text replacements in Settings, so that a short code such as ee turns into ɛ as you type.

On Windows, in Microsoft Word or WordPad, type the code and press Alt+X: 025B gives ɛ, 0190 Ɛ, 0254 ɔ, 0186 Ɔ and 20B5 the cedi sign ₵. For typing in every program, install a free keyboard layout for Ghanaian languages, for example through Keyman. On a Mac, open the Character Viewer with Control+Command+Space and search for "open e" or "open o", or switch to the Unicode Hex Input layout and hold Option while typing the same four-digit codes.

In HTML, write ɛ for ɛ, Ɛ for Ɛ, ɔ for ɔ, Ɔ for Ɔ and ₵ for ₵. Many modern system fonts include all four letters; some decorative fonts do not, and the browser then borrows them from a different typeface.

Where the Nzema language is spoken in Ghana

Nzema country is the south-western corner of Ghana's Western Region, between the Ankobra river and the border with Côte d'Ivoire: towns such as Axim, Esiama, Aiyinase, Nkroful, Beyin and Half Assini, in the Nzema East, Ellembelle and Jomoro districts. Unicode's CLDR estimates about 350,000 speakers in Ghana, and the language continues across the border in south-eastern Côte d'Ivoire, where French is the official language and the CFA franc the money.

The best-known Nzema was Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first prime minister and president, who was born in Nkroful. The great Nzema festival is Kundum, a harvest festival shared with the neighbouring Ahanta and celebrated town by town with drumming and dancing; 🪘 and 💃 are the emoji people send for it. Fishing canoes 🛶 line the beaches, and the stilt village of Nzulezo stands on Lake Tadane near Beyin.

Nzema belongs to the Bia group of the Kwa languages: its closest relatives are Ahanta and Jwira-Pepesa, and it is further related to Anyi and Baoulé of Côte d'Ivoire, Sehwi, and the Akan languages, whose letters are in the Akan and Bono Twi (Abron) collections. For other languages of Ghana see the Ga and Ewe collections; for the flag, the cedi and the country's emoji see Ghana.