The '''Afaka script''' (''afaka sikifi'') is a Syllabary of 56 letters devised in 1908 for the Ndyuka language, an English-based Creole_language of Surinam. The script is named after its inventor, Afáka_Atumisi. It is still used to write Ndyuka, but the literacy rate for all scripts is under 10%. Afaka is the only script in use that was designed specifically for a creole or a form of English. (Shavian and the Deseret_alphabet are not in current use.) The origins of many of the glyphs are opaque, though several appear to be Rebuses, many of which use symbols brought from Africa. For example, a curl with a dot in it representing a '''''ba'''by'' in a '''''be'''lly'' stands for [be]; symbols for ''come'' and ''go'' are used for [ko] and [go], two linked circles for ''we'' stand for [wi], something like II ''two'' is [tu] and |||| ''four'' is [fo]; and + is [ne], from ''name'', from the practice of signing one's name with an X. The only letters which correspond to the Latin_alphabet are the vowels ''a'' and ''o'', though it is said that the latter represents the shape of the mouth when pronouncing it. Afaka is a rather Defective_script. Tone is phonemic but not written. Final consonants (the nasal [n]) are not written, but long vowels are, by adding a vowel letter. Prenasalized and voiced consonants are written the same, and syllables with the vowels [u] and [o] are seldom distinguished (they are in the cases of [o]/[u], [po]/[pu], and [to]/[tu], but not after the consonants [b, d, dy, f, g, l, m, n, s]). Thus the Afaka form of ''Ndyuka'' could be read instead as ''Joka''. In a few cases syllables with [e] and [i] are not distinguished (after the consonants [l, m, s, w]), and a single letter is used for both [ba] and [pa], and another for both [u] and [ku]. Several consonants have only one syllabic symbol assigned to them. These are [ty], which is written only as [tya]; [kw], only as [kwa]; [ny], only as [nya]; and [dy], only as [dyu/dyo]. The only cases where there is no ambiguity are with the consonants [y] (occurs only as [ya], [ye], [yu]) and [t] (which occurs with all five vowels). There is a single punctuation mark, the pipe (|), which corresponds to a comma and period. Afaka is not supported by Unicode, and the only available font is poorly designed. ==Reference== *Cornelis Dubelaar & André Pakosie, ''Het Afakaschrift van de Tapanahoni rivier in Suriname''. Utrecht 1999. ISBN 90-5538-032-6. ==External links== *Afaka at Omniglot *The font pictured at Omniglot Category:Syllabary_writing_systems