Kihorombo (Rombo Chaga) Alphabet

Unicode's CLDR lists the Rombo main exemplar letters as lowercase a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p r s t u v w y z, with uppercase forms in its index set and q and x in its auxiliary set. That is the English alphabet without q and x, the same letter set CLDR gives the other Chaga languages, Machame and Vunjo, and the neighbouring Kipare (Asu). The letter c appears in the pair ch, as in Kichina (Chinese) and Kichecki (Czech).

There are no accented letters: no é, no ñ, no dotted vowels. Like most Bantu languages Rombo is tonal, but everyday spelling leaves tone unmarked, so a whole Kihorombo text can be typed on any keyboard. The symbol grid above holds the 48 letters, the curly quotation marks and apostrophes of English-style print, the 🇹🇿 flag, 🏔️ for Kilimanjaro and 🍌 for the banana groves of the Chaga homegardens on its slopes.

ng’, Ki- and Kyi-: how Kichaga cha Rombo looks on the page

The apostrophe is part of the spelling. As in Swahili ng’ombe (cow), ng’ stands for the sound of English sing, while plain ng is the n+g of finger. CLDR's Rombo locale has it in kang’ama, its word for a.m.; p.m. is kingoto. The data writes the curly ’, but on a phone the straight ' is what most people type, and both are in the grid.

Rombo calls itself Kihorombo, and most language names in its locale take the same Ki- prefix as in Swahili: Kiingereza (English), Kiarabu (Arabic), Kireno (Portuguese), Kijerumani (German). French alone is Kyifaransa, with the Kyi- that Machame uses throughout. The week runs Ijumapili, Ijumatatu, Ijumanne, Ijumatano, Alhamisi, Ijumaa, Ijumamosi, the Swahili names with an extra I- on every day built on Juma. CLDR gives the Gregorian months ordinal names: Mweri wa kwanza (first month), Mweri wa kaili, Mweri wa katatu, Mweri wa kaana and on to Mweri wa ikumi na mbili, with abbreviated forms M1 to M12. The era names are Kabla ya Mayesu and Baada ya Mayesu (KM and BM), before and after Jesus.

How to type Rombo letters, the ng’ apostrophe and the shilling

Every Kihorombo letter is on a standard keyboard, so there is nothing to install: an English or Swahili phone keyboard types it all. For the curly apostrophe in ng’ and for curly quotes on Windows, hold Alt and type 0146 for ’, 0145 for ‘, 0147 for “ and 0148 for ” on the number pad; on a Mac, Option+Shift+] gives ’, Option+] gives ‘, Option+[ gives “ and Option+Shift+[ gives ”. Apps with smart quotation marks can convert straight apostrophes to curly ones as you type. In HTML, ’ is ’.

The Tanzanian shilling has no dedicated Unicode character; CLDR uses the symbol TSh (ISO code TZS). Because that symbol consists of letters, its CLDR currency format separates it from the amount with a nonbreaking space: TSh 1,000.00, with a comma between thousands and a full stop for decimals. The Rombo locale names it heleri sa Tanzania. The Kenyan shilling is heleri sa Kenya, the US dollar heleri sa Marekani and the euro yuro (€).

Where the Rombo language is spoken

Rombo is the speech of the Chaga people of Rombo District in Kilimanjaro Region, on the eastern and north-eastern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro along the border with Kenya, around towns such as Mkuu and Tarakea. The Rongai route up the mountain starts from this side, and Lake Chala, a crater lake on the border, lies at the district's south-eastern edge. Unicode's CLDR population data gives Rombo roughly 500,000 speakers, all in Tanzania (0.74% of the country), the very same figure as Machame and Vunjo, so it is a rough estimate; a 2009 count of native speakers puts it nearer 200,000 (202,224 in the Languages of Tanzania count cited by a 2025 study). Most Rombo speakers are bilingual, and many also speak Kiswahili as a second language.

Chaga is a chain of related Bantu varieties around the mountain. In Swahili they are all Kichaga, told apart by place: Kichaga cha Machame, cha Kibosho, cha Marangu, cha Rombo. Rombo sits at the eastern end of that chain, Vunjo (around Marangu) to its west and Machame further west again. Each has its own collection, as do Kipare (Asu) of the Pare Mountains to the south, Masai of the plains around the mountain, Swahili, and Tanzania for the flag, the shilling and the country's emoji.