Mende Kikakui script

The Mende script or Kikakui is a syllabary, with the West African nation of Mende recording his belonging to the Mandinka group Mende language.

It was developed by the Schneider Kìsmi Kamára within three and a half months, although it is not clear how it was influenced by the Vai writing or the Arabic script. There are also an associated number writing system, which is also completely original and as the letter of Scripture is written from right to left.

Example

Ki -ka- ku in Kikakui: It is - written and read from right to left - as in Arabic.

History

The Mende script was by Mohammed Turay ( born 1850 ), an Islamic scholar, created in the city Maka in Barri chiefdom (in the south of present-day Sierra Leone).

One of Turays Koran students was a young man named Kìsmi Kamára. Kamára was also the grandson of Turays sister. Turay developed a written form, called ' Mende Abajada ' ( Engl. Mende alphabet ), which was inspired by the Vai syllabary and the consonantal script of the Arabic alphabet.

Turays Mende Abajada has been extended with respect to the arrangement of the characters of Kamára who tried the first 42 characters of the font to adjust so that the font is an abugida script. Kamára developed the script further ( with the help of his brothers ) by adding more than 150 others syllable characters. He gave the Scripture popularity and won a fan base as a result; This he used to to establish itself as one of the most important chiefs in the south of Sierra Leone at that time (he was previously not an easy Dorfmeister ).

Kikakui is still used today, but is fully handle the font of only 500 people. The Latin alphabet has Kikakui largely displaced among the Mende - speakers.