My Idea for a Yoruba Writing System, or Aroko:
The term "Aroko" in Yoruba describes the system of communication using objects, such as cowry shells, feathers, or Palm fronds, each object having a certain meaning depending on how it was placed or combined on the ground.
The term "Aroko" in Yoruba describes the system of communication using objects, such as cowry shells, feathers, or Palm fronds, each object having a certain meaning depending on how it was placed or combined on the ground.
For example, ten cowries and an orange seed tied together with string would mean "Come to us, everything is ok" in the Yoruba Aroko system, mainly due to word play that comes from the words for "ten" and "orange" in Yoruba.
While this system of communication is indeed impressive, not just because of the unique encoded messages but also because of the word play involved, this system is not what I will be discussing. I myself have invented a writing system for the Yoruba language called Aroko too.
This system, in technical linguistic terms, is called a "syllabary", or a writing system that depends on the syllables of the language to convey its meaning. So, each character within the system represents one individual syllable within the language.
The word "aroko" is the same for this system I've created as well as for the communication system.
The way that I would envision Aroko working would be like this:
There are characters that represent the seven Yoruba vowels, as well as each consonant/vowel combinations for each of these seven. Gba, gbe, gbi, gbo, ka, ke, ki, ko, etc.
There are characters that represent the seven Yoruba vowels, as well as each consonant/vowel combinations for each of these seven. Gba, gbe, gbi, gbo, ka, ke, ki, ko, etc.
As I don't have the proper keyboard to demonstrate with all seven vowels, I'm just using those four as examples. The "do re mi" toneal markings will be conveyed with special lines that come off each character.
The "do" marking is a line that goes down vertically, then curves down to the left. "Re" is a simple virtical line down. "Mi" is a line that goes vertically downward and then curves up to the left.
If we would want to write a word in Aroko, say, for instance, "ese" for "thank you", we would write the character for "e", and the character for "se", with the respective toneal markings coming off of each character.
Words that are not originally found in Yoruba, such as the word for video, "fideo", will have a horizontal line going across the top of the word to let readers know that the word is not originally in Yoruba.
I would imagine, if this system were to exist, that there would be keyboards for writing it on phones and as options on computers, as well as keyboards which allow someone to still write in romanized Yoruba but have this kind be converted to Aroko as someone typed.
So, what are your thoughts? Do you think that this system would be a good one? Would you like to be able to use it one day? Let me know! Thanks for reading!
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