Soninke Ajami orthography
The Soninke language
Soninke is spoken in a vast area.
The core of ’Sooninkara’ (the land of
the Soninke) is found in Western Mali,
Southern Mauritania and Eastern
Senegal. There are also Soninke speakers
in Eastern Gambia and the neighbouring
region of Senegal, in Guinea Bissau and
many other West-African countries.
Due to large scale emigration there is
a significant population of Soninke in
France, the USA and many other
Western and Asian countries.
Though Soninke tend to think of
themselves as one people group
speaking one language, they also
recognize that there are significant differences between the regions. SIL currently produces material
in two Malian dialects, Western and Eastern.
Soninke is classified as a Mande language.
Soninke orthography – Roman script
Orthography rules for Soninke written in Roman script were agreed upon by representatives from
several countries and formulated in what is known as ’The Bakel Document’. In Mali the Institute of
Linguistics is responsible for the orthography of national languages.
Soninke Ajami
Soninke Ajami is Soninke written with Arabic characters. Soninke Ajami is written from right to left,
following current word division rules used for writing Soninke in Roman script.
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Single consonants
Consonants consist of a cursive glyph that may have a diacritical mark above or below. Each
consonant has four forms: initial, medial, final and isolated. Consonant names derive from Arabic.
Most consonants in a word are joined in a continual cursive style, with the exception of daal ( ),
raa ( ) and waaw ( ), which do not join with the following letter.
‫ر‬
‫د‬
‫و‬
Soninke
Ajami
name
Soninke Ajami
Unicode
Arabic
name
‫ب‬
‫ببب‬
U+0628
bā’
baa
َ‫مبمَم‬
‫ششش ش‬
U+0634
shīn
ciin
َ
‫مش کم‬
cakka
(necklace)
‫د ـد ـد د‬
U+062F
dāl
daal
ٜ‫ک‬ٝ‫ردر‬
doroke
(shirt)
‫ففف‬
U+0641
fā’
faa
‫ݣݣݣ ݣ‬
U+0673
/h/
‫ه‬
‫ههه‬
U+06BE
ḥā’
haa
j
/ɟ/
‫ججج ج‬
U+062C
jīm
jiim
k
/k/
ٜ َ‫کک‬
U+06A9
kāf
kaaf
l
/l/
‫ل‬
‫للل‬
U+0644
lām
laam
m
/m/
َ
ٜ‫َم‬
U+0645
mīm
miim
n
/n/
‫ن‬
‫ننن‬
U+0646
nūn
nuun
‫منانن‬
ɲ/ñ
/ɲ/
‫ݧ‬
‫ݧݧݧ‬
U+0767
ɲuun
ٜ‫رݧرݣک‬
Glpyh
Phoneme
b
/b/
c
/c/
d
/d/
f
/f/
g
/g/
h
**
‫ف‬
* **
*
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gaaf
Example
ٜ‫مفک‬
ٜ‫رݣنمدنک‬
ٜ‫مهمدمَکَنک‬
ٜ‫مجک‬
ٜ‫کک ک‬
‫ملرب‬
ٜ‫رَر‬
barama
(cooking pot)
fare
(donkey)
gondanme
(pounding
stick)
hadamarenme
(person)
jaxe
(sheep)
kitte
(hand)
labo
(knife)
moto
(motorcycle)
naanu
(cows)
ɲogome
(camel)
*
‫ݝ‬
‫ݝݝݝ‬
U+075D
ŋaayin
*
‫ݒ‬
‫ݒݒݒ‬
U+0752
paa
/q/
‫ق‬
‫ققق‬
U+0642
qāf
qaaf
r
/r/
‫ر‬
ٜ‫ ـ‬ٜ‫ر ـ‬
U+0631
rā’
raa
s
/s/
‫َسس س‬
U+0633
sīn
siin
t
/t/
‫ ت‬ٜ‫تتت‬
U+062A
tā’
taa
w
/w/
‫و ـ و ـو و‬
U+0648
wāw
waaw
x
/χ/
‫ خ‬ٜ‫َخ‬
U+062E
khā’
xaa
y
/j/
‫ي‬
U+064A
yā’
yaa
ŋ
/ŋ/
p
/p/
q
‫َيي‬
‫مکنکݝ‬
‫ک‬ٜ‫مݒمݒمک‬
‫مَممکق‬
ٜ‫مَم‬
‫کَينن‬
‫کت م‬
‫ݣ‬
‫مَنمدکل‬
‫مَاکخ‬
‫کَنکب‬
kanŋe
(gold)
papakaye
(papaya)
samaqe
(snake)
xara
(to read)
siinu
(horses)
tiga
(groundnut)
wandalle
(duck)
yaaxe
(eye)
yِinbe
(fire)
* These characters are not found in Modern Standard Arabic.
‫ ݖ‬for 'c' and ‫گـ‬
** Senegal orthography standards use the letter
for 'g'.
Double consonants
ّّ
A shadda ( ) is used to show the doubling of a consonant. When two consonants the same appear
in a row, the shadda appears above the consonant rather than writing the letter twice. The vowel
marking appears either above the shadda or below the consonant.
Glpyh
Soninke Ajami
Example
bb
‫کب‬
‫رݣکب‬
gobbe
(handful)
cc
‫کش‬
‫ش‬
‫مک ک ک‬
kacce
(rope)
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dd
‫کد‬
‫کبکد‬
gg
‫کݣ‬
‫رل کم‬
‫ݣ‬
logga
(to hang)
jj
‫کج‬
‫مهکج ک‬
Hajji
(first name)
kk
ٜ
‫ک‬
ll
‫کل‬
َ
‫مَ کم‬
‫کَککل‬
nn
‫کن‬
‫مَکن‬
pp
‫کݒ‬
tt
‫کت‬
‫رݣکݒ‬
ٜ‫ککک‬
bedde
(road)
makka
(maize)
yille
(millet)
xanne
(neck/voice)
goppe
(eagle)
kitte
(hand)
Unmarked consonants
ْ
In standard Arabic a sukkun ( ) appears above a consonant to indicate the absence of a vowel.
However, this diacritic is not used in Soninke Ajami as, with the exception of the character nuun
( ), Soninke consonants are always followed by a vowel. When the character nuun ( ) appears in
Soninke without a vowel marking it never carries a sukkun, because it marks the nasalisation of the
preceding vowel and/or of the following consonant.
‫ن‬
‫ن‬
Consonants are also unmarked when they indicate a long vowel, as in siinu (horses):
‫کَينن‬
Double nasal consonants
Soninke Ajami follows the same rules as Soninke written in Roman script concerning double nasal
consonants – the first letter is always written as nuun ( ), followed by miim ( ), nuun ( ),
ɲuun ( ) or ŋaayin (
).
‫ݧ‬
‫ن‬
‫ݝ‬
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َ
‫ن‬
Glpyh
Soninke Ajami
Example
nm
ٜ‫ن‬
ٜ‫نک‬ٝ‫ک‬
nn
‫کن‬
nɲ
‫نݧ‬
‫رفکن‬
ٜ‫متنکݧک‬
nŋ
‫نݝ‬
‫مکنکݝ‬
renme
(child)
fonne
(a little)
tanɲere
(seventy)
kanŋe
(gold)
Short vowels
Short vowels appear as diacritical marks above or below a consonant. If a character carries a shadda
( ) then a vowel may appear above the shadda.
‫ک‬
‫ا‬
‫ما کا کا را نا‬
A vowel at the beginning of a word appears above or below an alif ( ) as
.
The combination of alif and the letter hamza ( ) (indicating a glottal stop) used in Standard
Arabic is not used in Soninke Ajami. Therefore the letter 'a' at the start of a word is written
‫ء‬
as
‫ما‬
and not
َ‫ م‬.
Glpyh
Phoneme
Soninke Ajami
Unicode
Arabic name
a
/a/
‫م‬
U+064E
fatha
e
/e/
i
/i/
o
/o/
u
/u/
* **
U+065C
‫ک‬
‫ک‬
U+0650
‫ر‬
*
‫ن‬
kasra
U+0654
U+064F
damma
Example
َ
‫مَ کم‬
‫کککن‬
َ‫کََکک‬
ٜ‫رݣر‬
‫نفنَنت‬
makka
(maize)
kenne
(guinea
fowl)
sirime
(mosquito)
goro
(cola nut)
furutu
(lung)
* Modern Standard Arabic only has three vowels markings (a, i, u) therefore the vowel markings for
'e' and 'o' do not form part of the standard Arabic alphabet.
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** This is used in the Warsh tradition Qur'an.
Senegal orthography standards use the alternative vowel marking
ٕ
for 'e'
Long vowels
Long vowels are written as short vowels followed by a corresponding consonant that has no vowel
mark. 'aa' is shown by alif ( ), 'ii' by yaa (
), 'oo' and 'uu' by waaw ( ). 'ee' is shown by yaa
without the two dots below (alif maksurah) and a superscript alif (
).
‫ا‬
When laam (
‫ي‬
ٰ‫ى‬
‫و‬
‫ ) ل‬is followed by 'aa' it is written as ‫ مَا‬.
Glpyh
Phoneme
Soninke Ajami
Unicode
Example
aa
/a:/
‫ما‬
U+064E +
U+0627
‫مَاکخ‬
ee
/e:/
ٰ‫ک ى‬
U+065C +
U+0649 +
U+0670
ii
/i:/
‫کي‬
U+0650 +
U+064A
‫کنىٰکن‬
‫کبيمد‬
oo
/o:/
‫رو‬
U+0654 +
U+0648
uu
/u:/
‫نو‬
U+064F +
U+0648
laa
/la:/
‫مَا‬
U+FEFB
*
* Senegal orthography standards use the alternative
‫ٕي‬
‫ربوکر‬
‫نفوکر‬
‫مَاکَند‬
yaaxe
(eye)
neene
(tongue)
biida
(python)
boore
(dove)
fuure
(boat)
laayidu
(promise)
for 'ee'.
Nasalised vowels
‫ن‬
The character nuun ( ) in Soninke Ajami never carries a sukkun as it marks the nasalisation of the
preceding vowel and/or of the following consonant. Nasalised vowels are therefore shown by the
vowel followed by the character nuun ( ).
‫ن‬
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Glpyh
Soninke Ajami
Example
an
‫من‬
‫مکنکد‬
en
‫کن‬
in
‫کن‬
‫کَنمتاکد‬
ٜ‫کَنک‬
on
‫رن‬
‫رتنکݣ‬
un
‫نن‬
َ‫نکنک‬
kande
(basket)
sentaade
(combe)
yinte
(hair)
tonge
(hoe)
kunke
(shoulder)
Sound changes before and after a nasal
In spoken Soninke the sound of a nasal can be influenced by the following consonant, for example
'nm' is pronounced 'mm'. The letter 'n' also changes the sound of certain consonants that follow
(although this varies between dialects), for example 'n + f' is pronounced 'mp' in some dialects and
'n + s' is pronounced 'nc'.
Both of these changes are made orally and the spelling of Soninke written in Roman script does not
change. Soninke Ajami follows the same rules and therefore does not reflect these sound changes in
written text.
Roman script
spelling
Roman script
pronunciation
kanme
(rain)
kamme
ٜ‫مکنک‬
n faaba
(my father)
m paaba
‫ن مفامب‬
Soninke Ajami spelling
Monosyllabic words
In Soninke Ajami when a monosyllabic word is pronounced with a long vowel at the end this long
vowel is written (although this is not the case in Roman script). In general these words are ones in
which the plural form is written with a long vowel, e.g. the plural form of 'ka' (house) is 'kaanu'
(houses), therefore 'ka' is written as
('kaa') in Soninke Ajami.
‫مکا‬
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Roman script
Soninke Ajami
Roman script
Soninke Ajami
ka
(house)
‫مکا‬
kaanu
(houses)
‫کمانن‬
ta
(foot/leg)
‫متا‬
taanu
(feet/legs)
‫تمانن‬
te
(field)
ٰ‫کتى‬
teenu
(fields)
ji
(water)
ٜ‫کج‬
jiinu
(waters)
si
(horse)
َٜ‫ک‬
siinu
(horses)
fo
(thing)
‫رفو‬
foonu
(things)
‫کتىٰنن‬
‫کجينن‬
‫کَينن‬
‫رفونن‬
This is also the case when the –n of clarification is added to a monosyllabic noun.
Example:
ِ‫( يِين فَاي‬sin faayi).
Contractions
In oral Soninke, when two vowels follow each other without a pause between them, the first one is
not pronounced. In Roman script this can be shown by a contraction, deleting the dropped vowel
and replacing it with an apostrophe. However, in Soninke Ajami contractions are never used and the
full forms of the words are always written.
Roman script
Soninke Ajami
‫ننمن نَنت‬ٝ‫ما مد کا ک‬
A d'i renmun wutu
(He took his children)
Names
For ease of recognition, certain names when written in Soninke Ajami follow the standard Arabic
spelling (used in the Qur'an) rather than the phonetic Soninke spelling, e.g.
‫ ال کمله‬for Alla, َ‫ مَامدم‬for Haadama/Adama, ٜ‫ کِْبمَاکهيم‬for Ibirahiima and ‫ کِيمسى‬for Isa.
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Numbers
Numbers are written from left to right, either as Arabic numerals (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) or Hindu-Arabic
numerals
10
( ٩ ٨ ٧ ٦ ٥ ٤ ٣ ٢ ١ ٠ ).
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
١٠ ٩
٨
٧
٦
٥
٤
٣
٢
١
٠
Punctuation
Puntuation is as follows:
Punctuation mark
Soninke name
Roman script
Soninke Ajami
*
period
tonbe
.
comma
gorobe
,
colon
tonbo filli
:
semi colon
goroben do tonbe
;
question mark
tirindindi tonbe
?
exclamation mark
kaawayen tonbe
!
quotation marks
bundanŋu (jaru)
« ... »
“ ... ”
brackets
bunbu
( )
*
‫؞‬
is preferred in order to make a clear disctinction with the number “0”
-9-
‫؞‬
.
،
:
‫؛‬
‫؟‬
!
« ... »
” ... “
( )
Examples:
I ti : « Jaabe Siise ! » A t i: « N naamu ! » I ti : « O nan xawa taaxunu minna yi ? » A ti : « O nan xawa
taaxunu Kunbi ya yi. »
‫ک‬
‫ک ک‬
« ‫ » را منن مَمو متانَنن کَ کمن کي ؟‬: ‫ » ن منانَ ! « کا کت‬: ‫س ! « ما کت‬
‫ » مجاکب َي ک‬: ‫ا ت‬
« ‫ » را منن مَمو متانَنن نکنکب مي کي؞‬: ‫ما کت‬
13
Tunka duumanten ti Ibirahiima da : « Manne ni Saaratu gaa soyini, nan ti : “ Tonŋun ŋa, nke wa riini
saare, n xa xaso ? ” 14 Fo ɲanŋen ra wa Tunka duumanten kaaɲana ba ? Waaga dan ke waxati, n wa
saagene riini katti an ŋa, Saaratu xa wa ren yugo kitana mene. » 15 Saaratu kute nan ti : « Nke ma soyi
de ! » baawo a kanu.
Joppaye 18:13‐15 [Genesis 18:13-15]
َ‫ نک‬،‫ “ رتننݝن مݝ‬: ‫ منن کت‬،‫نت مݣا رَکيکن‬ٝ‫ » مَکن کن مَام‬: ‫ مد‬ٜ‫َ ندَمَنکتن کت کِْبمَاکهيم‬
‫} نتن م‬١٣{
ٜ‫َ ندَمَنکتن مکامݧمن مب ؟ مَامݣ مدن ک‬
‫} رفو مݧنکݝن مر مو نتن م‬١٤{ ” ‫ ن مخ مَرس ؟‬،‫َکن مَاکر‬ٝ‫مو ک‬
‫ن نَ ر‬ٝ‫نت مخ مو ک‬ٝ‫ مَام‬،‫ مان مݝ‬ٜ‫َکن مک کک‬ٝ‫ ن مو مَاکݣکن ک‬،ٜ‫مَمَک‬
ٜ‫نت نکک‬ٝ‫} مَام‬١٥{ « ‫ݣ ککمتمن کَکن؞‬
‫ ک کد ! « مبارو ما مکنن؞‬َٜ‫ » نکَ مَ ر‬:‫منن کت‬
١٥‐١٣ :١٨ ‫رج کمݒيک‬
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