Learn to read it
Six short steps. The examples are isiZulu, but the same parts write the other siNtu languages of the region. Each step follows the project's own teaching booklet [2].
1 One triangle, one syllable
A syllable is drawn as a single block, an ibheqe. Its shape is the vowel: which way the point faces, and whether the far side is closed. The project describes the shapes as mimicking the shape of the mouth [1].
isiZulu writes its five vowels with i, a, u and the two closed sideways triangles (its e and o). Languages that tell more vowels apart also use the open sideways shapes.
2 Where a mark sits is where the sound is made
Consonants are drawn onto the vowel. Sounds made with the lips sit at the point of the triangle, sounds made with the tip of the tongue cross its middle, and sounds made at the back of the mouth sit at its base. A straight line is a stop; a curve is a fricative, where the air keeps flowing.
The mark keeps its place when the triangle turns, so one small set of marks serves every vowel.
3 A line for voice, a dot for a held breath
A bare stop is said with a puff of air: the bar alone is isiZulu ph. Two small marks change it. A line from point to base adds voice. A dot inside means the puff is held back, as in isiZulu's plain p and its b. Try both.
The same two marks turn th into t and d, and kh into k and g.
4 A circle for the nose
A small circle on the point is a nasal. Alone it is m; a line or cross inside it makes n, ny and ng. Set on top of another consonant, the plain circle means that consonant starts through the nose, as in mb or nz. A nasal that is a whole syllable, like the m in umfana, fills the block as one large circle.
5 Clicks
The three clicks are drawn as an hourglass open at the bottom. They take the same marks as other consonants: bare has a puff of air (ch), a dot is plain (c), a line is voiced (gc), a circle is nasal (nc).
6 Read a line
This is how the project describes itself in isiZulu. Its site gives the English as “a writing system for southern african languages” [1]. Read it block by block.
The whole chart
Every consonant on every vowel, drawn on the construction frame of the 2015 keyboard specification [4]. Row labels are phonetic symbols.
Words for the parts
The script has its own vocabulary. The first group comes from the project's site and booklet. The second comes from Wikipedia and has not been checked against a primary source. English glosses in brackets are ordinary dictionary senses added here, and corrections are welcome.
From the project [1] [2]
- izimpawu zesintu
- The traditional symbols of the region that the script is drawn from.
- onkamisa
- The vowels.
- ongwaqa
- The consonants.
- ingungu
- The nasal circle. The booklet shows it beside a drum.
- intombi
- The triangle pointing up [young woman].
- insizwa
- The triangle pointing down [young man]. Wikipedia calls this shape isoka.
- indoda
- Two triangles meeting at their points, an hourglass [man].
- umfazi
- Two triangles joined at their bases, a diamond [woman].
- imibala
- Colours.
From Wikipedia [7]
- ibheqe, amabheqe
- A syllable block, and the plural. Also the isiZulu name for beadwork.
- uphimbo
- The voicing line, from point to base.
- lerothodi
- The dot inside the triangle.
- ingungwana
- The circle touching the point.
- ingungwanyana
- A solid dot at the point that marks a nasal vowel.
- amaqanda
- The syllabic nasals, circles that fill the whole block.
- umkhonto
- The open shape pointing up, the vowel u.
- iphambili, imuva
- The closed triangles pointing left and right.
- motsutswa, motsutsena
- The open shapes pointing left and right.
- usontandane
- An open shape pointing down, for a consonant with no vowel. This tool does not draw it yet.