Garay Digit Four

It writes the quantity four in Garay.

In a longer Garay number, this digit contributes the value four. The surrounding message shows whether the number is a count, label, date, address, or something else.

Why can the number look backwards?

Garay numbers run left-to-right, even in right-to-left text.

Garay words flow right-to-left; a run of digits keeps its left-to-right order. If mixed-script text uses the wrong base direction, the number can appear out of place while its value stays the same.

That left-to-right rule applies within a number. In an expression or range, the separate items follow the surrounding right-to-left flow.

Why was Garay created?

Assane Faye created Garay for Wolof.

Garay's first documented publication appeared in January 1961. Wolof is a language spoken in Senegal and neighboring countries. Faye designed Garay to be easy to learn for people familiar with Arabic writing; it shares Arabic's right-to-left direction, but its letters do not join. Garay is distinct from Wolofal, an Arabic-based way to write Wolof. A 2012 proposal described Latin as the official script for Wolof in Senegal and noted that Wolofal was also used. Garay was one of several African writing systems created in response to colonialism.

Faye's work included primers (beginner reading books), textbooks, folktales, and maps. He also wrote a Qur'an, the Islamic holy book, with Wolof text between its Arabic lines. A 2012 proposal to encode Garay in Unicode, the standard that assigns characters for digital text, described a small community that included women's groups and adult-literacy work in Mandinka and Wolof.