Tyap Alphabet

Tyap is written in the Latin alphabet. Its 24 basic letters are A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z, each with a capital and a small form. Q and X are not used; they appear only in English names and words. The marked vowel form that can mark a text as Tyap at a glance is a̱, an a with a short line below, which you see at the very start of A̱tyap, the name of the people themselves.

Tyap sounds are also written with clusters rather than separate basic letters: sh, ts, jh, ny, and the double-articulated gb and kp, among others. The older ch spelling for /tʃ/ was replaced by c in the approved alphabet. The grid lists only the 24 basic letters.

Unicode's CLDR locale data for Tyap includes the marked vowel forms a̱ and i̱, plus clusters such as ch, gb and kp; it is not a plain a-to-z set. CLDR's Gregorian month names all begin with Zwat; the first three are Zwat Juwung, Zwat Swiyang and Zwat Tsat. CLDR lists the weekday names Ladi, Tanii, Talata, Larba, Lamit, Juma and Asabat.

What a̱ does

Tyap has seven basic short vowel qualities, represented by the five basic vowel letters plus the marked forms a̱ and i̱. a̱ represents /ə/, a mid-central vowel like the first vowel in English about; plain a represents /a/. Leaving the line off can change a word, so it is part of the spelling, not decoration.

The saltillo ꞌ is not part of the approved Tyap orthography, so it should not be presented as a Tyap letter.

Tyap is tonal, and the current Tyap literacy guide describes tone marking as still under development: it shows an acute accent for high tone and a grave accent for low tone when useful, while the frequent low tone is usually left unmarked.

How to type a̱ (a with underline below)

There is no ready-made a̱ in Unicode: it is two characters, the letter a followed by the combining macron below (U+0331), which tucks itself under the letter before it. To build it, type a or A, then paste the mark ̱ from this page right after it. Copying a̱ from a Tyap text works too, and the two pieces travel together.

In Microsoft Word for Windows, type a0331, select only 0331, and press Alt+X to get a̱. On a Mac, open the Character Viewer with Control+Command+Space and search for macron below. On a phone, the quickest way is to copy the characters here once and save them as a text shortcut.

In HTML, write a̱ for a̱. The naira sign ₦ is 20A6 then Alt+X in Word, or ₦ in HTML. A word-processor underline is formatting and may be lost when text is pasted as plain text.

Where the Tyap language is spoken

Tyap is spoken in southern Kaduna State, especially around Zangon Kataf and neighboring local government areas; Wikipedia, citing a 2020 estimate, gives about 255,000 native speakers. Varieties often grouped with Tyap include Gworok (Kagoro), Sholio (Moro'a), Takad (Attakar) and Fantswam, around Kafanchan.

Tyap belongs to the Plateau branch of the Benue–Congo languages; its closest well-known relative is Jju (Kaje), spoken right next to it. Many Tyap speakers also use Hausa and English, which is why Tyap texts mix in loanwords and English names. Tyap also has its own edition of Wikipedia.

For money, Tyap speakers use the Nigerian naira: prices are written ₦500 or, where the sign is missing, N500. For the letters of Nigeria's other languages see the Jju, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and Nigerian Pidgin collections, and for the flag, the naira and the country's emoji see Nigeria.

Afan, ginger and southern Kaduna in emoji

A couple of emoji fit the region around Tyap. 🥁 stands for the drums and dances of Afan, the annual festival of the Gworok (Kagoro/Oegworok) people, held each January 1. 🫚 is for ginger: southern Kaduna is the heart of Nigeria's ginger farming, and the Atyap area is part of it.

Add 🇳🇬 and a line in Tyap, and the message is complete.