Orthographic Architecture of an Unwritten Language: A Descriptive-Linguistic Framework for the Codification of Zafan

Abstract

Writing plays an important role in preserving language and culture, but at this point in time, many Nigerian Languages are yet to have a standard written form. This has left their native speakers not to use them in school or digital spaces even if they want to. This paper looks at this problem through the lens of Zafan, an imaginary unwritten Nigerian Language, demonstrating how the learners of the community abandon its use in both mobile and online communication which leads to inconsistent spelling even when they try to formally use it. The work was underpinned by Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) framework adapting its idea of building a bridge from the known (Zafan) to the unknown (English or Hausa) leveraging on the frameworks’ emphasis on preserving cultural identity even though it was originally designed for classroom teaching rather than for creating a writing system. The work follows a comprehensive process of phonetic documentation, phonemic analysis, morphological mapping, script selection, grapheme assignment as well as community testing and standardization which were all guided by universal patterns across human languages including, but not limited to the principle of accuracy, familiarity as well as ease of typing. The result of a potential Zafan alphabet was seen based on Latin script, familiar vowel and consonant symbols alongside clear pronoun system. The paper concludes by reaffirming that a simple, easy to type, community approved writing system offers the Zafan community speaker’s the ability to read, write and preserve their language for their generation unborn.