2025/04/02 by Lameen Souag, Souag, Lameen
Arts and Humanities · #Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis
paper · pdf · doi:10.18716/ojs/aaeo/2010_3539
openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex publication_date 2025/04/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
West Africans throughout the region have creatively adapted the Arabic script to write non-Arabic languages, a form of literacy known as Ajami which remains widespread today despite little or no government support. The variety of methods used to extend the Arabic script to fit other phonological systems are of particular interest: methods that appear unmotivated from a purely linguistic perspective can readily be explained as rational adaptations to the parallel educational system in which Ajami is typically learned, an issue often not taken into account in orthography planning.