Bamum script


The Bamum scripts are an evolutionary series of six scripts created for the Bamum language by King Njoya of Cameroon at the turn of the 19th century. They are notable for evolving from a pictographic system to a partially alphabetic syllabic script in the space of 14 years, from 1896 to 1910. Bamum type was cast in 1918, but the script fell into disuse around 1931. A project began around 2007 to revive the Bamum script.

History

In its initial form, Bamum script was a pictographic mnemonic aid of 500 to 600 characters. As Njoya revised the script, he introduced logograms. The sixth version, completed by 1910, is a syllabary with 80 characters. It is also called a-ka-u-ku after its first four characters. The version in use by 1906 was called mbima.
The script was further refined in 1918, when Njoya had copper sorts cast for printing. The script fell into disuse in 1931 with the exile of Njoya to Yaoundé, Cameroon.
At present, Bamum script is not in any significant use. However, the Bamum Scripts and Archives Project is attempting to modernize and revive the script. The project is based in the old Bamum capital of Foumban.

Phase A

The initial form of Bamum script, called Lewa, was developed in 1896–1897. It consisted of 465 pictograms and 10 characters for the digits 1–10. The writing direction could be top-to-bottom, left-to-right, or bottom-to-top.

Phase B

The second system, called Mbima, was developed in 1899–1900. It was a simplification of the first; Njoya omitted 72 characters but added 45 new ones. The writing direction was left-to-right in this and all subsequent phases.

Phase C

The third system, called Nyi Nyi Nfa' after its first three characters, was developed around 1902. This simplification omitted 56 characters, leaving 371 and 10 digits.
Njoya used this system to write his History of the Bamun People and in correspondence with his mother.

Phase D

The fourth system, called Rii Nyi Nsha Mfw' after its first four characters, was developed around 1907–1908. It has 285 characters and 10 digits and is a further simplification of the previous version.

Phase E

The fifth system, called Rii Nyi Mfw' Men, was also developed around 1907–1908. It has 195 characters and 10 digits and was used for a Bible translation. These first five systems are closely related: All were progressively simplified pictographic protowriting with logographic elements.

Phase F

The sixth system, called A Ka U Ku after its first four characters, was developed around 1910. It has 82 characters and 10 digits. This phase marks a shift to a full syllabic writing system able to distinguish 160 syllables. It was used to record births, marriages, deaths, and court rulings.

Phase G

The seventh and final system, called Mfemfe or A Ka U Ku Mfemfe, was developed around 1918. It has only 80 characters, ten of which double as both syllables and digits. Like the previous system, missing syllables are written using combinations of similar syllables plus the desired vowel, or with a diacritic.

Description

The 80 glyphs of modern Bamum are not enough to represent all of the consonant-vowel syllables of the language. This deficiency is made up for with a diacritic or by combining glyphs having CV1 and V2 values, for CV2. This makes the script alphabetic for syllables not directly covered by the syllabary. Adding the inherent vowel of the syllable voices a consonant: + =, + =, + =, + =, + =, + =.
The two diacritics are a circumflex that may be added to any of the 80 glyphs, and a macron that is restricted to a dozen. The circumflex generally has the effect of adding a glottal stop to the syllable, for instance is read, though the vowel is shortened and any final consonant is dropped in the process, as in and . Prenasalization is also lost: , , . Sometimes, however, the circumflex nasalizes the vowel: , , , , , . Others are idiosyncratic: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .
The macron is a 'killer stroke' that deletes the vowel from a syllable and so forms consonants and NC clusters that can be used for syllable codas. Consonantal is used both as a coda and to prenasalize an initial consonant. The two irregularities with the macron are, read as, and, read as.
The script has distinctive punctuation, including a 'capitalization' mark, visually similar to an inverted question mark, for proper names, and a decimal system of ten digits; the old glyph for ten has been refashioned as a zero.

Modern syllabary (phase G)

Punctuation

Numbers

The last ten base characters in the syllabary are used for both letters and numbers:
mɔ
1		mbaa
2		tɛt
3		kpa
4		tɛn
5		ntuu
6		sa
7		faa
8		vü
9		ɣɔm
0

Historically, was used for ten but was changed to zero when decimal mathematics were introduced.

All versions (phases A–G)

Phase
A		Interpretation Phase
A		Interpretation Phase
A		Interpretation Phase
A		Interpretation
ŋkü mfɔn ntɔʔpɛn mgbasa mɔɔmɯt
gbie fɔn kɯkɯtnda mɯnʒɔmndɯʔ ʃum
pɔn mfɔn pipəmgbie nkindi mɔɔmpuʔ lɔmmə
pɔn mfɔn pipəmba suu kafa fir'i
naa mfɔn ŋkünzɯm pa lerəwa rɔm
ʃünʃüt lapaʔ nda lerəwa kpɔʔ
tita mfɔn lɛt kut pɛt sɔʔ
nza mfɔn ntap mfaa məmkpɛn map piet
ʃinda pa nʒi məkɯp nika ʃirə
pɔn pa nʒi pipəmgbie paʃə pup ntap
pɔn pa nʒi pipəmba ɣɯərə tuəp ʃɔʔ nʃut yum
məmgbie pamʃə luəp nyit mɔŋkɯəʔ
tu məmba mɔn ŋgɯət sɔnʒam paarə
ŋaŋu nzun mɯt tɯtɯwɛn nkaarə
məmvɯx u yuʔ nə mənyi
mansuə ɣɯəɣɯə kɛt --
mvɯəŋam ntap ntaa ndaaŋgɯət --
sɯnyam sisa kuɔʔ --
AInterpretation AInterpretation AInterpretation AInterpretation

Unicode

Bamum's 88 characters were added to the Unicode standard in October, 2009 with the release of version 5.2. Bamum Unicode character names are based on the International Phonetic Alphabet forms given in L’écriture des Bamum by Idelette Dugast and M.D.W. Jeffreys:
The Unicode block for Bamum is U+A6A0-U+A6FF:
Historical stages of Bamum script were added to Unicode in October, 2010 with the release of version 6.0. These are encoded in the Bamum Supplement block as U+16800-U+16A3F. The various stages of script development are dubbed "Phase-A" to "Phase-E". The character names note the last phase in which they appear. For example, is attested through Phase C but not in Phase D.