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The '''African Reference Alphabet''' is a largely defunct continent-wide guideline for the creation of [[Latin alphabets]] for African languages. Two variants of the initial proposal (one in English and a second in French) were made at a 1978 [[UNESCO]]-organized conference held in [[Niamey]], Niger. They were based on the results of several earlier conferences on the harmonization of established Latin alphabets of individual languages. The 1978 conference recommended the use of single letters for speech sounds rather than of [[Digraph (orthography)|letter sequences]] or of letters with [[diacritic]]s. A substantial overhaul was proposed in 1982 but was rejected in a follow-up conference held in Niamey in 1984. Since then, continent-wide harmonization has been largely abandoned, because regional needs, practices and thus preferences differ greatly across Africa.<ref>Karan & Roberts (2020: 925) Orthography standardization. In Dimmendaal & Vossen (eds.) ''The Oxford Handbook of African Languages''.</ref>
Through the individual languages that were its basis, the African Reference Alphabet inherits from the [[Africa Alphabet]], and like the latter
==1978 proposals==
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This version also listed eight diacritical marks ([[acute accent]] (´), [[grave accent]] (`), [[circumflex]] (ˆ), [[caron]] (ˇ), [[Macron (diacritic)|macron]] (¯), [[tilde]] (˜), [[umlaut (diacritic)|trema]] (¨), and a [[Overdot|superscript dot]] (˙) and nine punctuation marks (? ! ( ) « » , ; .).
In the French version, the letters were hand-printed in lower case only. Only 56 of the letters in the English version were listed – omitting the hooktop-z – and two further apostrophe-like letters were included (for ʔ and ʕ);
[[File:African reference alphabet as presented 1978 on the Niamey meeting.png|thumb|upright=1.6|African Reference Alphabet, as presented on the 1978 Niamey conference (English version)<ref name=Niamey1978 />]]
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{|class="wikitable Unicode"
|+English variant of 1978 proposal<ref name=Niamey1978/>
| '''lowercase''' || a ||
|- style="border-bottom: solid"
| '''uppercase''' || [[A]] || [[Ɑ]] || [[B]] || [[Ɓ]] || [[C]] || C̠ || [[D]] || D̠ || [[Ɖ]] || [[Ɗ]] ||[[Ꝺ]]
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| '''lowercase''' || q̠ || r || ɍ || s || s̠ || ʃ || t || t̠ || ƭ || ʈ || ө || u
|- style="border-bottom: solid"
| '''uppercase''' || Q̠ || [[R]] || [[Ɍ]] || [[S]] || S̠ || [[Esh (letter)|Ʃ]] || [[T]] || T̠ || [[
| [[U]]
|-
| '''lowercase''' || ᴜ || v || ʋ || w || x || x̠ || y || ƴ || z || z̠ || [[file:Latin small letter Z with tophook.svg|
|- style="border-bottom: solid"
| '''uppercase''' || [[Ʊ]] || [[V]] || [[Ʋ]] || [[W]] || [[X]] || X̠ || [[Y]] || [[Ƴ]] || [[Z]] || Z̠ || | [[file:Latin capital letter Z with tophook.svg|
|}
{|class="wikitable Unicode"
|+French variant of 1978 proposal<ref name=Niamey1978/>
| a ||
|-
| e || ɛ || ǝ || f || ƒ || ɡ || ɣ || h || ḥ || i || ɪ
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* [[Latin alpha|Ɑ/ɑ]] is "Latin alpha" ([[File:Latin uppercase alpha.svg|x15px]][[File:Latin lowercase alpha.svg|x15px]]) not "Latin script a" ([[File:Latin uppercase script a.svg|x15px]][[File:Latin lowercase script a.svg|x15px]]). In Unicode, Latin alpha and {{nowrap|script a}} are not considered as separate characters.
* The upper case I, the counterpart of the lower case i, does not have crossbars ([[File:I without crossbars.svg|x15px]]) while the upper case counterpart of the lower case ɪ has them ([[File:I with crossbars.svg|x15px]]).
* The letter
*c̠, q̠, x̠ represent click consonants (ǀ, ǃ, ǁ respectively), but the line under is optional, and usually not used.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Niamey 1978 report|url=http://www.bisharat.net/Documents/Niamey78en.htm|access-date=2021-08-18|website=www.bisharat.net}}</ref>
*c, j represent either palatal stops or postalveolar affricates. ɖ, ʈ are the retroflex stops, as in the IPA.
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==Rejected 1982 proposal==
[[File:Linearized tilde.svg|thumb|upright=0.5|Linearized tilde]]
A proposed revision of the alphabet was made in 1982 by Michael Mann and David Dalby, who had attended the Niamey conference. It has 60 letters. Digraphs are retained only for vowel length and geminate consonants, and even there they suggest replacements. A key feature of this proposal is that, like the French proposal of 1978, it consists of only lower-case letters, making it [[unicase]]. It did not meet with acceptance at the follow-up Niamey meeting in 1984.<ref>P. Baker (1997: 115) Developing ways of writing vernaculars, in Tabouret-Keller et al. (eds.) ''Vernacular Literacy''. Clarendon and Oxford Press.</ref>
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{|class="wikitable Unicode"
|+
| [[a]] || [[
|-
| [[f]] || [[ƒ]] || [[g]] || [[ɠ]] || [[ɣ]] || [[h]] || [[ɦ]] || [[i]] || [[ɩ]] || [[j]] || [[ɟ]] || [[k]] || [[ƙ]] || [[l]] || [[Lambda (Latin letter)|λ]]
|-
| [[m]] || [[
|-
| [[ƭ]] || [[ʈ]] || [[Latin theta|θ]] || [[u]] || [[Latin omega|ω]] || [[v]] || [[ʋ]] || [[w]] || [[x]] || [[y]] || [[ƴ]] || [[z]] || [[ʒ]] || [[ƹ]] || [[Glottal stop (letter)|ʔ]]
|}
The 32nd letter
Because no language has all the consonants, the consonant letters are used for more than one potential value. They can be reassigned when there are conflicts. For instance, ɦ may be
{|class="wikitable Unicode"
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|- align=center
!nasal
|m|| ||ɴ|| colspan="2" |n|| ||ɴ||colspan=2|ɲ||ŋ||colspan=3|
|- align=center
!plosive
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|ƥ||colspan=2| ||colspan=2|ƭ||colspan=3| ||ꞇ||ƙ||colspan=3|
|- align=center
!tenuis click
|ω||colspan=2| ||ʈ||ɖ||λ||colspan=2| ||ç||colspan=4|
|- align=center
![[delayed aspiration]] click<!--in the Nama chart-->
|ωω||colspan=2| ||ʈʈ, λ{{sic}}||ɖɖ, ɽ||λλ, q||colspan=2| ||çç, ɟ||colspan=4|
|- align=center
!glottalized click<!--in the Nama chart-->
|ωʔ||colspan=2| ||ʈʔ, ƭ||ɖʔ, ɗ||λʔ, ɣ||colspan=2| ||çʔ, ƴ||colspan=4|
|- align=center
!aspirated click<!--in the Nama chart-->
|ωh||colspan=2| ||ʈh, θ||ɖh, ꝺ||λh, ƹ||colspan=2| ||çh, ꞇ||colspan=4|
|- align=center
!nasal click<!--in the Nama chart-->
|ωɴ||colspan=2| ||ʈɴ, ɴ||ɖɴ, ɦ||λɴ, ŋ||colspan=2| ||çɴ, ɲ||colspan=4|
|- align=center
!affricate
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|- align=center
!open
|a||ʌ||
|}
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*[[ISO 6438]]
*[[Pan-Nigerian alphabet]]
*[[Lepsius Standard Alphabet
== References ==
|