I don't know Arabic, but I assume the Latin alphabet works the same. A Latin letter, such as "A", represents a certain sound in most languages that use the Latin alphabet: whether it's in "Apple"...
How can you use an Arabic sound in a text?
I don't know Arabic, but I assume the Latin alphabet works the same.
A Latin letter, such as "A", represents a certain sound in most languages that use the Latin alphabet: whether it's in "Apple" or "Amour" or "Agora", we all know what that first sound is. So, when using the Latin alphabet in another language, it's expected that the letter "A" will refer to the same sound in that other language - especially for any readers of other Latin-written languages. And some of the Fulbhe people already read French, so they'll assume that "A" sounds the same in Fulfude texts as in French texts. The same process would apply to using Arabic letters to write Fulfude: the letter would be expected to represent the same sound in Fulfude as it represents in Arabic.
This ties back to your earlier complaint, that Fulfude speakers "hadn't learnt the alphabet properly". If there's no direct correspondence between Latin letters and sounds in Fulfude, then a writer would just pick the letter that they think makes the right sound. And each writer's choice will be different ("b" or "p" for a bilabial consonant? "f" or "v" for a labiodental consonant?).
And what about sounds in Fulfude that simply aren't represented by any letter(s) in the Latin alphabet? For example, Fulfude seems to use glottal stops, but there's no letter from A to Z to represent a glottal stop. Therefore, any Fulbhe writer is going to have to guess how to write a stop when transcribing words with this sound.
According to Wikipedia, Fulfude writers using the Latin language had to invent 5 extra letters to represent sounds that aren't represented in the Fulfude language - and they appropriated the apostrophe to represent a glottal stop. The whole thing is a kludge.
And Adlam letters are far less useful outside Fula than Arabic letters are.
So? Why do these letters need to be relevant in other languages than the one they were created for?
It seems like you disagree with these men's efforts to create a native alphabet for their native language. And it seems you believe they should use the Latin alphabet. Why can't they make their own writing scheme for their own language? People have been doing this throughout history. It's their language, and it's their right to have their own script to write their own language. Your response here seems quite dismissive.
Nope. It's hard enough keeping track of all the various "A" sounds in one language (maybe I should have referred to a "family of sounds" in my previous comment). As you would know, it becomes even...
Wouldn't it be easier if they could use the same alphabet in all languages?
Nope. It's hard enough keeping track of all the various "A" sounds in one language (maybe I should have referred to a "family of sounds" in my previous comment). As you would know, it becomes even harder when you use the same letter to represent other sounds in other languages.
Why not just have one letter for one sound in your language, and use other letter for other sounds in other languages?
It seems like you disagree with these men's efforts to create a native alphabet for their native language.
Not at all.
You've criticised everything they did, right down to saying "Instead of creating a new standard [...] the brothers could have focused on teaching the alphabet."
I don't know Arabic, but I assume the Latin alphabet works the same.
A Latin letter, such as "A", represents a certain sound in most languages that use the Latin alphabet: whether it's in "Apple" or "Amour" or "Agora", we all know what that first sound is. So, when using the Latin alphabet in another language, it's expected that the letter "A" will refer to the same sound in that other language - especially for any readers of other Latin-written languages. And some of the Fulbhe people already read French, so they'll assume that "A" sounds the same in Fulfude texts as in French texts. The same process would apply to using Arabic letters to write Fulfude: the letter would be expected to represent the same sound in Fulfude as it represents in Arabic.
This ties back to your earlier complaint, that Fulfude speakers "hadn't learnt the alphabet properly". If there's no direct correspondence between Latin letters and sounds in Fulfude, then a writer would just pick the letter that they think makes the right sound. And each writer's choice will be different ("b" or "p" for a bilabial consonant? "f" or "v" for a labiodental consonant?).
And what about sounds in Fulfude that simply aren't represented by any letter(s) in the Latin alphabet? For example, Fulfude seems to use glottal stops, but there's no letter from A to Z to represent a glottal stop. Therefore, any Fulbhe writer is going to have to guess how to write a stop when transcribing words with this sound.
According to Wikipedia, Fulfude writers using the Latin language had to invent 5 extra letters to represent sounds that aren't represented in the Fulfude language - and they appropriated the apostrophe to represent a glottal stop. The whole thing is a kludge.
So? Why do these letters need to be relevant in other languages than the one they were created for?
It seems like you disagree with these men's efforts to create a native alphabet for their native language. And it seems you believe they should use the Latin alphabet. Why can't they make their own writing scheme for their own language? People have been doing this throughout history. It's their language, and it's their right to have their own script to write their own language. Your response here seems quite dismissive.
Nope. It's hard enough keeping track of all the various "A" sounds in one language (maybe I should have referred to a "family of sounds" in my previous comment). As you would know, it becomes even harder when you use the same letter to represent other sounds in other languages.
Why not just have one letter for one sound in your language, and use other letter for other sounds in other languages?
You've criticised everything they did, right down to saying "Instead of creating a new standard [...] the brothers could have focused on teaching the alphabet."
What a deeply impressive story. Thanks for sharing - one of the most interesting things I've read all week.
This is amazing. A wonderful story about impressive people.