Garay alphabet

The Garay alphabet was designed in 1961, as a transcription system "[marrying] African sociolinguistic characteristics" according to its inventor, Assane Faye. This alphabet has 25 consonants and 14 vowels.^[1] It is used in particular for the writing of the Wolof language, spoken mostly in Senegal, although that language is more often written in the Latin alphabet and to a lesser extent in the Arabic (Wolofal) alphabet. It is written from right to left, and distinguishes letter case.

Garay 𐵹𐵊𐵾𐵊𐵼
Script type	alphabet
Creator	Assane Faye
Created	1961
Direction	Right to left
Languages	Wolof
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Gara (164), ​Garay
Unicode
Unicode alias	Garay
Unicode range	U+10D40–U+10D8F
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Letters

Consonants

The consonants are written as standalone letters and are not joined as in Arabic.

There is a mark above some letters to show pre-nasalization. The letter labeled alif is used like its counterpart in Arabic, coming before an initial vowel. Extra to the standard Wolof set is /ħ/, available for Arabic loan words. Lacking is /q/, but /k/ may suffice for that. Also lacking is /nk/, but that may easily be formed with a mark above, like /mb/ etc.^[2]

In Garay, uppercase letters are distinguished from lowercase letters by a swash added to one side or the other of the letter. Each sentence begins with a capital letter. Personal names are likewise capitalized.^[3]

Nasals
IPA	m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩	ɲ ⟨ñ⟩	ŋ ⟨ŋ⟩
Lowercase
Uppercase
Prenasalized plosives
IPA	mb ⟨mb⟩	nd ⟨nd⟩	ɲɟ ⟨nj⟩	ŋɡ ⟨ng⟩
Lowercase
Uppercase
Voiced plosives
IPA	b ⟨b⟩	d ⟨d⟩	ɟ ⟨j⟩	ɡ ⟨g⟩
Lowercase
Uppercase
Voiceless plosives
IPA	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩	c ⟨c⟩	k ⟨k⟩
Lowercase
Uppercase
Fricatives
IPA	f ⟨f⟩	s ⟨s⟩	x~χ ⟨x⟩	ħ ⟨h⟩
Lowercase
Uppercase
Liquids and semivowels
IPA	r ⟨r⟩	w ⟨w⟩	l ⟨l⟩	j ⟨y⟩
Lowercase
Uppercase
Misc.
	Alif
Lowercase
Uppercase

Vowels

a ⟨a⟩	i ⟨i⟩	ɛ ⟨e⟩	ɔ ⟨o⟩
ə ⟨ë⟩	ü	e ⟨é⟩	u ⟨u⟩

Numbers

Unicode

Main article: Garay (Unicode block)

The Garay alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in September 2024 with the release of version 16.0.

The Unicode block for Garay is U+10D40–U+10D8F:

Garay[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+10D4x

𐵀

𐵁

𐵂

𐵃

𐵄

𐵅

𐵆

𐵇

𐵈

𐵉

𐵊

𐵋

𐵌

𐵍

𐵎

𐵏

U+10D5x

𐵐

𐵑

𐵒

𐵓

𐵔

𐵕

𐵖

𐵗

𐵘

𐵙

𐵚

𐵛

𐵜

𐵝

𐵞

𐵟

U+10D6x

𐵠

𐵡

𐵢

𐵣

𐵤

𐵥

𐵩

𐵪

𐵫

𐵬

𐵭

𐵮

𐵯

U+10D7x

𐵰

𐵱

𐵲

𐵳

𐵴

𐵵

𐵶

𐵷

𐵸

𐵹

𐵺

𐵻

𐵼

𐵽

𐵾

𐵿

U+10D8x

𐶀

𐶁

𐶂

𐶃

𐶄

𐶅

𐶎

𐶏

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points