The Cultural Transmission of Script in Africa: the presence of syllabaries

The Cultural Transmission of Script in Africa: The Presence of Syllabaries

Alex de VoogtAmerican Museum of Natural History, USA

Recent studies on writing systems in Africa have revealed a tradition of script development that started in the early nineteenth century with at least thirty scripts. Of the twenty that were put into use those that were invented before the 1930s appear to have been mainly syllabic and those of a later date mainly alphabetic. This transition cannot be explained by individual language traits or the early lack of familiarity with alphabets but rather by transmission that existed within West Africa where several of the syllabic systems are still in use today.

Keywords: syllabic writing, script invention, alphasyllabary, Vai, Nubian

The known history of writing systems extends back to the beginning of the fourth millennium BC with only four independent inventions of writing attested in the historical records in Mesoamerica, China, Mesopotamia and Egypt, of which the latter two compete for the oldest writing tradition in the world. All subsequent populations in those and in other areas that adopted a writing system were at least familiar with the idea of writing. Systems of writing, such as the logographic, syllabic and alphabetic systems, seem to have developed chronologically with the alphabet being the most recently-invented system of them all. However, the alphabet has not displaced the other systems of writing and, despite alphabetization efforts in the twentieth century, it still co-exists with other writing systems, and is sometimes even in competition with them.

Africa has played a central role in the creation of writing systems. Early dynastic writing from Egypt is one of the earliest occurrences of writing, but there are at least three other African traditions of writing from

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antiquity that continue in their respective regions to this day. They date back to the fourth century BC in the case of Sudan with the Nubian writing tradition, and to a few centuries later for the Ethiopian scripts to the east of Sudan, as well as the Berber scripts to the west.

Recent studies on writing systems in Africa have revealed a separate tradition of script development that started in the early nineteenth century (Tuchscherer 2007; Kootz & Pasch 2008; Rovenchak & Glavy 2011). More than twenty scripts were developed and were implemented in sub-Saharan Africa during this period with a general consensus in the literature for at least fourteen of them (see also Table 1). About ten additional scripts were developed, but were not or have not yet been put into use. For this total of more than thirty scripts, the names of the inventors are known, lists of signs have been collected, and the implementation of these writing systems has been described where possible. The sheer number of scripts that have been invented and documented for Africa is far higher than for any other region and makes Africa particularly suitable for the study of script development.

It is shown that of the African scripts invented in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, scripts appear to have been mainly syllabic before the 1930s (e.g., Figures 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10 below) and mainly alphabetic (e.g., Figure 5 below) in the period thereafter. It is argued that the explanation for this transition is not found in the typological characteristics of the individual languages or in the limited awareness of alphabets in the earlier periods but rather in the historical contacts that existed within West Africa where most of the syllabic systems were found and in some cases are still used today.

1. Cultural transmission and script

Cultural traits are the units of analysis in the study of cultural transmission. Their “rules, ingredients or both can be transmitted individually or as a more or less complete set” (Lyman & O’Brien 2003:243). A study of cultural transmission (see also Mesoudi et al. 2006; Henrich et al. 2008) of script aims to understand how script as a cultural trait is exchanged between people, the role of the context of transmission events, and the content of information and biasing mechanisms. When examining script, distinctions

The Cultural Transmission of Script in Africa 123

must be made between the transmission of the idea of writing, the system of writing, and the shape and sound of the individual signs. These elements of the same cultural trait do not necessarily transfer in concert. At the same time, almost identical scripts have been implemented for unrelated or particularly distinct languages. This suggests that the cultural transmission of script is to be considered separately from that of language, despite the appearance that they are inextricably connected.

The distinction between language and script in the context of cultural transmission is further complicated by the fact that speakers of languages that adopted a script are often multilingual. In most cases they will be familiar with the written and spoken form of another language when the process of developing a writing system for their own language is taking place. While a person or a group of people may learn another language or a script from another person or group, the act of developing a writing system for one’s own language does not necessitate an interaction with other people at that moment of inception. Script invention takes place some time after contact with a people who write. Only when inventors start teaching their own script design to others is the transmission process similar to acquiring another language. Script acquisition, which takes places after the invention of a script, is not documented in sufficient detail for the above-mentioned African examples to allow a proper analysis and is not part of this study.

The transmission of the system of writing, as opposed to the idea of writing and the physical appearance, has received increasing attention in the literature. The idea that an alphabet is a superior system has been questioned and the syllabary has been proposed as a system that is both easier to acquire (Gleitman & Rozin 1973; Asfaha, Kurvers & Kroon 2009) and the first to be applied in the absence of other models (Daniels & Bright 1996:577–624). The preconception that syllabaries can only be successfully used for languages with particular syllable structures and phonology has been amply refuted by the existence of successful syllabic scripts that defy these principles. Examples include the implementation of the alphasyllabic Fidäl script to multiple languages in Ethiopia (Amha 2010), the success of the syllabic Vai script in Liberia (Scribner & Cole 1981) and the (alpha)syllabic Cherokee and Cree scripts in the United States. The efforts of linguists to replace existing syllabaries can be seen as problematic as in the case of the Caroline Islands script (de Voogt 2010a). The concept of


an alphasyllabary, defined here as a syllabary with a systematized vowel representation (de Voogt 2010b) — i.e., one particular diacritic or sign consistently used for one particular vowel — has mitigated the strong contrasts between the two types, while the history of the alphabet has found several precursors (Lehmann 2012) in what have previously been called abjads.

Generalizations about the development of script are frustrated by either an incomplete or a highly embellished record of their origin as well as by the limited number of comparable scripts in terms of time period and geography. In this light, the study of writing systems in Africa is of particular interest due to the relatively large number of scripts generated in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (see Table 1) as well as the use of alphabetic, alphasyllabic and syllabic sign inventories in both Western and Eastern Africa. Their relatively short history makes them less suitable to the study of script transmission from generation to generation, i.e., so-called ‘vertical transmission’. Instead, this study is mostly concerned with the first inception of a script for a particular language after one peer group comes in contact with another, also known as ‘horizontal transmission’.

The table lists the names of fourteen writing systems for which there is a consensus in the literature. The selection is a combination of the work

Table 1. Selected list of modern African writing systems

Name System Date of invention Location

VaiBassaBamumEghap/BagamMende/KikakuiBassaOsmanyeKpelleLoma/TomaGadabuursiN’koOromoWolofMandombe

syllabicsyllabicsyllabic*syllabic*syllabicalphabetalphabetsyllabicsyllabicalphabetalphabetalphasyllabicalphabetalphasyllabic

1832/3318361896ca. 1910ca. 1917ca. 19101922early 1930slate 1930s19331949195619611978

LiberiaLiberiaCameroonCameroonSierra LeoneLiberiaSomaliaLiberiaLiberiaSomaliaGuineaEthiopiaSenegalDRC

* It is noted that in particular the Bamum and Bagam scripts were not always strictly syllabic but at points also had logographic elements.


of Kootz & Pasch (2008), Rovenchak & Glavy (2011) and Tuchscherer (2007) in so far as they agree on the scripts having been in use in Africa. Only Rovenchak & Glavy (2011) mentions all fourteen of these scripts and together with Tuchscherer they detail more than twenty scripts in their respective publications. The dates are taken from Tuchscherer with two exceptions: Mandombe and Gadabuursi. These two scripts were only mentioned by Pasch (2008) and Rovenchak & Glavy (2011).

The Bassa syllabary and the Oromo script were included despite the fact that according to Tuchscherer the Oromo script was not in use while Pasch and Rovenchak & Glavy give evidence that its use extends up until today. The Bassa syllabary was included based on evidence by Tuchscherer. Pasch did not mention this script and Rovenchak & Glavy considered it a script that was never in use.

2. Early history of writing in Africa

While Egypt may claim the earliest writing on the African continent, the Sudanese Nile basin has an equally elaborate history of writing, part of which concerns a group of Nilo-Saharan languages, classified by Rilly (2004, 2010) as the North Eastern Sudanic branch. The first of these Nubian scripts, as they are referred to here, is the Meroitic writing system that developed ca. 300 BC and continued no later than the fifth century AD. The cursive signs are mostly inspired by those found in Egyptian demotic script (see Figure 1a, 1b), but the system is alphasyllabic rather than of the logographic type found in ancient Egypt (Rilly & de Voogt 2012).

A few centuries after the disappearance of Meroitic writing, the Nubians in Sudan started using a language and script known as Old Nubian. This script is largely based on the Coptic alphabet and its texts have religious Christian content. Although the language of Meroitic is not fully understood, Old Nubian is clearly a close neighbor to both the Meroitic language and some of the later Nubian languages spoken in the region. The Meroitic script was in use alongside Greek texts and Egyptian (Ptolemaic) writing, the latter either in hieroglyphic, demotic or hieratic form. Coptic gained prominence around the time of the Arab conquest in the seventh century. Roman script was also present, although few Romans ever lived in


Nubia. In other words, both Meroitic and Old Nubian were developed at a time that several scripts of different languages appeared in the region.

Egypt was conquered by the Arabs in the seventh century and conse-quently the Arabic script would eventually replace most, if not all, other scripts in this region by the tenth century. This also affected Sudan although the final conquest of Sudan by Egyptian rulers did not take place until the nineteenth century. Finally, British rule in the nineteenth century saw the official introduction of another script, a Roman alphabet, for the instruction of English in Sudanese schools.

Today’s Nubian languages have, in some cases, a documented grammar and phonology for which an alphabet was developed by linguists but not necessarily introduced to the speakers of the language. Even though these

Figure 1a. Close-up of a Meroitic offering table on display at the American Museum of Natural History, New York (loaned by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology #E7088).

Figure 1b. Transcription of the text using a Meroitic font. The inscription can be read as wosi soreyi, which translates as “Oh Isis, Oh Osiris!”

wosisoreyi


languages are not taught in school, they continue to be spoken. There have been several individual attempts to develop scripts for these languages (see Figure 2) but these scripts remained largely unsuccessful and literacy has remained limited to Arabic (Hāshim 2004; de Voogt & Döhla 2012).

It is noted that Meroitic, Old Nubian and today’s Nubian languages have used demotic, Coptic and Arabic scripts that were originally used for languages belonging to a different language family. Both the sign inventory and system of writing were constructed for languages with significantly different typologies.

In Ethiopia, a script tradition goes back to the writing of the Ge‘ez language that started around the fourth century AD. The alphasyllabic script of that time, also known as Ethiopic script, has inspired subsequent scripts that are still largely similar but that serve a series of languages in Ethiopia (see Figure 3). Fidäl script, as the modern alphasyllabary is commonly referred to, is not only used for Amharic but also for an increasing number of neighboring tongues. Again the languages have significant typological differences coming from Ethio-Semitic, Cushitic,

Figure 2. Nubian graffiti messages using Arabic script on Sai Island, Sudan (see de Voogt & Döhla 2012)


Omotic and Nilo-Saharan linguistic families (Amha 2010:193).The Berber languages are known to have a script called Tifinagh that

has also seen a number of modern versions (Elghamis 2011). The script was rarely used for inscriptions and its history has remained obscure due to the limited data available. Nevertheless, its relation to the ancient kingdom of Numidia and ancient north Arabic scripts is generally accepted. Modern versions of this script include Cabilia or Kabylia (see Figure 4), the

Figure 3. MetLife advertisement in Ethiopic script transcribing Amharic. Collection of Konrad Tuchscherer.


dominant Berber language of Algeria with no previous Tifinagh tradition but a politically active group of users.

In all these traditions, the development of a new writing system is clouded with questions of origin and motive. The shape and system of writing are usually fairly well understood but the reasons for choosing either an (alpha)syllabic or alphabetic script are unclear. Daniels & Bright

Figure 4. An example of an Arabic, Kabylia and French text as used in Algeria. Photograph by Alex de Voogt, 2011.


(1996) suggested that a syllabary is the natural choice for people unfamiliar with any system of writing, while alphabets are not adopted independently, i.e., without prior familiarity with this system. Alternatively, it could be the case that both syllabaries and alphabets are developed only after contact with a similar system.

3. The process of script invention in sub-Saharan Africa

In comparison to ancient scripts, modern, i.e., nineteenth century and later, script development presents us with a contrasting set of information. By definition these scripts do not boast a long history and only a few are still in use, i.e., the Vai (Figure 6), Bamum (Figure 8, 9, 10) and to some extent the Mende or Kikakui script (Figure 7). Unlike scripts from antiquity, these scripts have a known inventor and at least some of the circumstances of their invention have been described. The sheer number of script inventions in Africa allows for generalizations when it comes to the transmission of writing systems in this region.

Kootz & Pasch (2008) made a distinction between early and modern scripts, and organized the discussion of the modern scripts by region. Rovenchak & Glavy (2011) also discussed the scripts per region but collated “individual forms of writing” (2011:87–108) and “scripts linked to religious communities” (2011:79–86) into separate chapters. These distinctions ensured that systems that were never implemented or that were limited to

Figure 5. Examples of N’Ko alphabetic signs using a font developed by Jason Glavy in 2011. The first line is read from right to left with the approximate transcription /s k r i p t a/. The vowels in the second line have diacritics below the vowel indicating nasalization and over the vowel marking length and tone. The vowels from right to left, /u a e e/, illustrate nasalization as well as markings indicating a long vowel with falling tone, a high tone, a long vowel with low tone, and a rising tone, respectively.


a secret society were analyzed separately. The Fula scripts (Pasch 2008:104, 106) and Mandombe scripts (Pasch 2008:116) described by Pasch were classified as individual and religious forms of writing, respectively. In other words, some scripts were exclusively used by one person or by one religious group. Tuchscherer (2007) had already published a similar overview, by way of an article rather than a monograph, in which a map shows a comprehensive number of known scripts. He also distinguished the different rates of success. Tuchscherer’s historical work, which includes extensive fieldwork in West Africa, is presented in a series of publications and is particularly useful for understanding the transmission process and is taken here as the primary reference source.

The regional study of writing systems points to the possible awareness of writing in particular areas, i.e., the idea of writing was present or was the direct inspiration for a script. The Vai script, for instance, has been a well-known source of inspiration in West Africa leading to script creation in nearby areas after the people were made aware of the possibility of writing their own language or even learning how to write Vai prior to developing a script for their own language. The various attempts at creating Hausa (Rovenchak & Glavy 2011:58–62), Nubian (Hāshim 2004) and Somali (Rovenchak & Glavy 2011:63–65) scripts equally suggest that people were aware of previous attempts at writing their language after which they built on that experience.

4. The chronology of African script development

The organization of the discussion in both Kootz & Pasch (2008) and Rovenchak & Glavy (2011) does not make note of a general trend when scripts are presented chronologically. If individual scripts are excluded, the syllabic scripts appear largely limited to the time before the Second World War, while the alphabetic scripts seem clearly preferred in the period after the war.

The two main exceptions include the alphabetic Bassa script and the Somali scripts. They were implemented in the 1920s and 1930s and were not syllabic. Rovenchak & Glavy (2011:63) report that the Somali script Osmanya, for instance, had been used to a limited extent for almost fifty years. Somalia, however, had already been exposed to a long tradition of


Arabic writing and Arabic had been used for writing the Somali language. A similar connection with Arabic script is found with Mohammed Turay who invented Kikakui or Mende script and who was an Islamic scholar as Tuchscherer (1995:170) has pointed out. He had training in Arabic although he was less likely to be familiar with an Arabic writing system for other languages. The Bassa alphabet, on the other hand, was developed by the Liberian, Thomas Lewis, after he had lived in the United States, indicating that he was well versed in the Western alphabetic writing system and, more importantly, with the application of this system to other languages. The origin of the Bassa alphabet has received much embellishment even though the history of the script was recorded by Lewis himself (Tuchscherer, personal communication).

Syllabaries were rarely successfully implemented after the Second World War although some (alpha)syllabaries were proposed. In the case of the Bété, Mwangwego, Kii and Ndebe Igbo (alpha)syllabic scripts, classified as “individual forms of writing” by Rovenchak & Glavy (2011), the inventions were meant to write more than one language/dialect, or to serve as universal writing systems (see Table 2). In other cases they purposefully moved away from the alphabetic systems that surrounded them in order to emphasize their unique character.

Figure 6. Extract from an early nineteenth century Vai manuscript from Liberia with glosses by Konrad Tuchscherer and Mohamed Nyei.


Figure 7. Tax receipt from Sierra Leone in Mende Kikakui script written by Bokari Kanneh. Photograph by Konrad Tuchscherer, 2006.


Figure 8. Zakari Nkepu, Bamum literate, standing in front of a Bamum King List at the Bamum Palace in Foumban, Cameroon. Photograph by Konrad Tuchscherer, 2004.


5. Historical developments

In a set of over a dozen scripts that have been implemented in sub-Saharan Africa, the change in preference from the syllabic to the alphabetic system is clearly marked by the late 1930s or the onset of the Second World War. A number of historical events suggest possible explanations for this change.

The period that marks the change of preference from syllabary to alphabet in sub-Saharan Africa coincides with at least two developments, one linguistic and the other political. In 1934, the Institute of Linguistics was founded, an organization which further formalized bible translation and alphabetization efforts worldwide. At the same time the Africa Alphabet was developed, which assisted with writing African languages in alphabetic form. Both developments can be interpreted as the onset of the alphabetization efforts in the region. The main object of these efforts was to translate the Bible into local languages. The Africa Alphabet was developed in 1928 by Diedrich Westermann, who co-directed the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures in London (Tuchscherer 1995: 180–181). His alphabet, which was based on the International Phonetic Alphabet, was aimed at writing any African language for both practical and later for scientific purposes. It became the basis of many orthographies in Africa soon after and was not limited to any particular region. Although these developments seem to fit as an explanation, it is noted that the Summer Institute of Linguistics did not start their language-based programs for Africa until 1962 while the British and Foreign Bible Society with a similar tradition of alphabetization and translation had been active since 1804. An extensive tradition of missionaries bringing their alphabets to

Table 2. Non-alphabetic “individual forms of writing” (Rovenchak & Glavy 2011)

Script (location) Date System Purpose

Bété (Ivory Coast)Mwangwego (Malawi)

Kii*Ndebe Igbo (Nigeria)

19521979

20062009

syllabicalphasyllabic

alphasyllabicalphasyllabic

all sounds of human languagesall languages of Malawi and its neighborsall Bantoid languagesdifferent dialects of Igbo

* This script is a collaboration between Romuald Franklin Ngamga from Cameroon and Hye Yeon Nam (Rovenchak & Glavy 2011:102).


Africa preceded the presence of the Africa Alphabet (Errington 2001), suggesting that the extensive exposure to alphabets long preceded the period of the 1930s.

Although the Bible-translation movement was instrumental in the proliferation of the alphabet, they did not necessarily reject the local scripts. They seem to have ignored the Mende script (Tuchscherer 1995: 180) but the Vai script, also a syllabary, was implemented for Bible translation. According to Tuchscherer (2002:459): “In the early nineteenth century, Protestant missionaries, devoted to producing Bible translations in the vernacular, were active in reducing hitherto unwritten languages to writing. In the wake of the success of the Cherokee script in the 1820s, they were encouraged to consider the advice of Worcester, who had suggested that syllabaries were ideal for the writing of syllabically-organized languages…” However, the main outcome of this idea was the development of the Bassa syllabary, not to be confused with the Bassa alphabet. The Bassa syllabary was, unsuccessfully, introduced by William Crocker in 1835.

The second, political, development is the onset of decolonization.

Figure 9. Zakari Nkepu, standing in front of a Foumban sign. Photograph by Konrad Tuchscherer, 2006.


The year 1935 is considered by some as a turning point (e.g., Mazrui & Wondji 1999) in Africa’s history that includes the start of the Second World War with Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia and the ensuing continent-wide struggle for political independence after the war. This time was one of socio-political change that is both elaborate and complex. Although it is likely to have had an effect on script development, script invention seems never to have been a prominent theme in the discourse of decolonialization. For example, in the Asmara Declaration on African Languages and Literatures, which was formulated in 2000 (Cantalupo 2000), there is no mention of locally developed scripts. The multilingual announcement of the gathering in Asmara, Eritrea, used Hausa, Kiswahili and Tigrinya languages but all expressed in the Latin alphabet rather than any earlier or alternative form of writing.

Most “individual forms of writing” (Rovenchak & Glavy 2011:87–108) started after the 1950s and independence movements seem to have left a clear imprint on the various attempts of developing these particular scripts

Figure 10. Manuscript of NJOYA Mohalim Nouredine Mohamed Ben El-Hadj Sin of Manka regarding the birthday celebrations of the Prophet Mohamed, 1971. ‘j77’ translates as ‘God.’ Archives du Palais des Rois Bamoun (APRB), MS#1152. Reproduced by permission of the APRB.


in Africa. It does not explain the difference in choice between syllabic and alphabetic systems. A few non-alphabetic scripts are recorded (see Table 2), but the alphabetic examples are more common and as a system appear more closely associated with scripts used by the colonial powers.

Though coincidental, the marked change between syllabic and alphabetic writing systems cannot be sufficiently attributed to the above-mentioned developments, linguistic or political. The increased attention to African languages may have added examples of alphabets in the region using the universal alphabetic notation systems developed in Europe. These alphabets did not necessarily replace syllabaries and their introduction does not explain the success of syllabaries prior to the 1930s.

By focusing on the presence of syllabaries, since the presence of alphabets did not dramatically change in this period, it is reasonable to assume that the nineteenth century syllabaries were designed with a limited understanding of writing practices but with a clear idea that writing was possible and advantageous. There did not seem to be a consensus that the scripts had to be different or unique but rather that they would need to be uniquely suited to a language. The syllabic system was then taken from neighboring users of script, most likely the Vai script. In contrast, some of the later attempts by Africans at developing a universal writing system for African languages (see Table 2) are also (alpha)syllabic. These efforts, continuing to this day, combine both the idea of a unique system of writing and of a competing system of writing. They move away from applying an existing system of writing, the alphabet, and set both system and signs apart from the European tradition. Next to these developments that favored a syllabic system are occasional inventions of script using an alphabet, always with a particular knowledge of or exposure to alphabets as opposed to syllabaries on the part of the inventor.

6. Regional histories

The chronological list of writing systems (see Table 1) shows syllabaries followed by alphabets. The syllabaries are concentrated in West Africa, mainly Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cameroon. It is possible to argue that the adoption of a syllabary in this region was mostly the result of the presence of the Vai script, the earliest of these scripts. This would explain not only


the adoption of a script by so many neighboring peoples but also why they opted for a syllabary.

Tuchscherer (2007) has shown that the Vai were instrumental in the spread of writing in the regions of Liberia and Sierra Leone, and perhaps more surprisingly, also in Cameroon where the presence of Vai people has been attested. The connection between the two regions and the role of the Vai are not limited to the script but are part of a sustained contact that further strengthens this historical reading.

At least in West Africa, it is necessary to conclude that the choice of a syllabary is as much a regional as it is a temporal affair. The differences among the syllabaries of West Africa suggest that it is the idea of writing and the idea of a syllabary that became part of the transmission process, not the graphic forms of the scripts themselves.

In the eastern part of Africa, both the Somali and Nubian efforts are rooted in a long tradition of writing. The proposed scripts have been alphabetic, or based on the Arabic script, and this would be consistent with the idea of writing being transmitted together with the idea of an alphabet that can be applied to another language. Having been exposed to the alphabetic system for centuries, the idea of writing one’s own language could then be accommodated by the alphabetic system already known in the region.

The detailed histories of modern African scripts that have become available suggest that most scripts have been developed after the idea of an applicable system of writing was also introduced to the people involved. Suggestions that the Cherokee may have inspired the Vai (Tuchscherer 2002), and the process of misinterpreting an alphabet as a syllabary (Riesenberg & Kaneshiro 1960) point to a transmission process in which the idea of writing is always transmitted jointly with the idea of a system of writing that can be applied. More evidence is needed to support such a claim and the continent of Africa may still offer surprises in this respect.

7. Cultural transmission of scripts

Recent descriptions of script invention in sub-Saharan Africa allow better insight into the choice of writing system that was made during the early development of a script. The clear break around the 1930s from a


preference for syllabic to one of mostly alphabetic systems may suggest a linguistic or political development to be at the basis of this change. But instead, the spread of the syllabary was part of an active dispersal of writing that occurred after the development of the Vai script while alphabets were more common in Somalia and Sudan where a tradition of alphabetic or Arabic scripts is present.

The alphabetization projects as well as the oncoming independence movements urged some inventors to develop competing scripts rather than a first script. An increasing number of examples in which a European script was applied to an African language both increased the contact with writing and the possible competition between systems. Alphabetic scripts seem to have better survived the competition. Still, the continuous development of new (alpha)syllabic scripts in sub-Saharan Africa and the survival of a handful of syllabaries dating back to the nineteenth century suggest that the 1930s did by no means announce the end of the syllabary in Africa. On the contrary, it has given Africans interested in script development a choice between alphabet and (alpha)syllabary.

The application of an existing system, such as the Western alphabet, to a new language may be equated with an imperialist or colonial effort (Errington 2001). In these cases, the signs and the system of writing are likely to be preserved. Similarly, if there is much exposure to a particular syllabary without outsiders imposing their design, a newly invented script may adopt a familiar system of writing with a design of signs that is more likely to change. The latter can be observed with the scripts influenced by the Vai. Ultimately, the history of African scripts illustrates that the idea of writing can be transmitted together with the idea of a system of writing and that this influence can be separate from the shape and form of the individual signs.

Acknowledgements

I wish to acknowledge the generosity of Andreij Rovenchak and Jason Glavy for the use of their fonts and giving me the inspiration to embark on this study. I owe particular thanks to Konrad Tuchscherer whose helpful comments and illustrations greatly improved the final result. Finally, I am most grateful to Vincent Francigny and Arnold de Voogt for their assistance


with collecting material in the field and Constance Dickmeyer and the editors for their helpful corrections of the text.

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Alex de Voogt [Received 2 April 2013;American Museum of Natural History, revision received 6 August 2014;New York, USA accepted 3 September 2014] <[email protected]>

The Cultural Transmission of Script in Africa: the presence of syllabaries

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