Wolofal alphabet
Wolofal is a derivation of the Arabic script for writing the Wolof language. It is basically the name of a West African Ajami script as used for that language.
| Wolofal alphabet | |
|---|---|
Label of a specimen of Striped Kingfisher indicating the Wolof name of the bird in Latin alphabet and Wolofal. | |
| Script type | |
Time period | c. 17 c. to the present |
| Direction | Right-to-left |
| Languages | Wolof |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Wolofal was the first script for writing Wolof. Although the Latin alphabet is the primary official script of the language in today's Senegal, Wolofal is still used by many people as a symbol of Islamic Wolof culture. Furthermore, Wolofal orthography has been standardized in 1990 by Directíon de la Promotion des Langues Nationales (DPLN) (now known as Directíon de l'alphabétisation des langues nationales), an initiative of Senegal's Ministry of Education as part of a harmonized national "Arabic script". This "harmonized script is used for Wolof, Pulaar, Soninke, Mandinka, Seereer, Joola, and Balant.
The standardization of the Arabic script in Senegal was followed by an effort to teach the correct orthography to over 20,000 people, mostly Imams and their students, to write in the script. But despite the effors of the Senegalese government in the matter, the alphabet has not been officially decreed by the government. The reason for this is that standardization of writing in Ajami script in West Africa is supposed to be a multi-national effort.