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Ditema tsa Dinoko

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Ditema tsa Dinoko
isiBheqe soHlamvu
Ditema tsa Dinoko written in the syllabary
Script type
LanguagesSouthern Bantu, Swazi
Related scripts
Parent systems
Litema, amaBheqe ideographs (Izimpawu zesiNtu)
  • Ditema tsa Dinoko
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Ditema tsa Dinoko ([di.tʼɪ.ma t͜sʼa di.nʊː.kʼʊ]), Sesotho for "Ditema syllabary", also known as isiBheqe soHlamvu[1][2] (Xhosa pronunciation: [isib̤ɛǃɛ sɔɬaːᵐvu]) is a constructed, featural syllabary for the siNtu or Southern Bantu languages (such as Sesotho, Setswana, IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, SiSwati, SiPhuthi, Xitsonga, EMakhuwa, ChiNgoni, SiLozi, ChiShona and Tshivenḓa). It was developed from antecedent ideographic traditions of the Southern African region, mainly inspired by the traditional litema arts style[3] with the goal of creating a more linguistically efficient writing system to avoid pitfalls of orthography like the slowness in reading caused by the word length of Southern Bantu languages written in the Roman alphabet.[4][5] As of 2023, no proposal has been made to encode the script in Unicode, the text encoding standard designed to support all of the world's major writing systems.[6]

The Ditema / Isibheqe syllabary has the capacity to represent the full phonological range of these sintu languages (in the Nguni, Sotho-Tswana, Venḓa, Tsonga and Tonga-Inhambane groups) consistently under one orthography.[1] This includes languages that are unstandardised in the Latin alphabet such as the East Sotho languages (Sepulana, Sekutswe and Hipai), or the Tekela languages, which, with the exception of SiSwati, are not official languages. Orthographic support for these languages is for instance evidenced in the ingungwana grapheme, which indicates vowel nasality — a feature of Tekela languages.

Ditema tsa Dinoko in a stylized script, read left-to-right. The three syllables of first word are clustered, with the third syllable on the bottom

Description

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The script operates as a syllabary, as each freestanding symbol represents a syllable, with graphemes for consonant and vowel sounds combined into syllable blocks (amabheqe), in a similar fashion to Hangeul. When the syllable being represented is not a syllabic nasal, these symbols are formed from a triangular or chevron-shaped grapheme representing the nucleus of the syllable, with the attached ongwaqa or consonant graphemes representing the onset of the syllable or its mode of articulation.[7] Syllabic nasals are represented as circles that fill the whole ibheqe or syllable block.

The construction of the syllables of three words in different languages: Xilo [ʃiːlɔ] "thing" in Xitsonga, Vhathu [βaːtʰu] "people" in Tshivenḓa, Ho tlêtse [hʊt͜ɬ’ɛːt͜s’ɪ] "It is full" in Sesotho.

Vowels

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The vowel graphemes (onkamisa) form the basis of each ibheqe or syllable block, as the nucleus of each syllable, with the ongwaqa or consonant graphemes positioned in and around them.

The direction of each ibheqe indicates the quality of the vowel for each of the seven vowel phonemes:

  • Intombi, the upward facing triangle: /i/
  • Isoka, the downward facing triangle: /a/
  • Umkhonto, the upward facing chevron: /u/
  • The leftward facing triangle: /ɛ/
  • The rightward facing triangle: /ɔ/
  • The leftward facing chevron: /e/
  • The rightward facing chevron: /o/

There is an eighth "vowel" represented by the downward facing chevron, which is an empty vowel, represented with /∅/ on the table below, and is mostly used for foreign words to represent a standalone consonant, often as a syllable coda, which does not occur in siNtu languages. The sole exceptions are the syllabic Nasals, which have their own symbols, and the syllabic trill and lateral approximant, which attach to their non-syllabic counterparts.

Vowel lenght is not marked in this system, as it's stablished within the tone of the sentences and words themselves.

/i/ /e/ /ɛ/ /a/ /ɔ/ /o/ /u/ /∅/

The apex of the triangle or chevron corresponds to vowel height or frontedness, with high vowels /i/ and /u/ pointing upwards and the low vowel /a/ pointing downwards. Likewise, the front vowels /ɛ/ and /e/ point leftwards and the back vowels /ɔ/ and /o/ point rightwards.

This table showcases how each vowel acquired its shape.

Vowel nasality is indicated with the ingungwanyana grapheme, which is a solid dot outside the triangle separated from the apex, as in the word phãsi below:

English Zunda Tekela
Down/Below Phantsi
/pʰaː.ntsʼi/ 		Phãsi
/pʰãː.si/

Standalone Ingungwanyana diacritic.

Consonants

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The shape of the symbol is made to mimic the shape of the mouth.

Consonants (ongwaqa) are composed of one or more graphemes. At least one of these indicates the place and manner of articulation. If more than one such consonant grapheme is superimposed, this represents a co-articulation, e.g. an affricate (formed of superimposed stop and fricative graphemes), or an onset cluster. Other overlaid dots and strokes indicate articulatory mode, whether that be voiced, prenasalised, implosive, ejective, modal voice, or a combination thereof.

The position of the consonant graphemes largely corresponds to the place of articulation:

  • Labials and nasals are positioned outside the triangle at the apex.
  • Alveolars are across the middle of the triangle from side to side.
  • Velars and palatals are at the base.
  • Laterals are outside the triangle on one side.
  • Dentals are two lines across the triangle from side to side, parallel to each other.

The shape of the consonant grapheme corresponds to the manner of articulation:

  • Curved lines indicate fricatives.
  • Their straight line counterparts in the same positions indicate plosives.
  • Approximants and trills are represented with two lines either parallel or at a right angle to each other, with a tap or flap being the latter arrangement, one line bisecting the other at its centrepoint without crossing it.
  • Retroflex whistled consonants and postalveolar fricatives are represented as loops.
  • Nasals are represented as circles at the apex of the triangle. Lines inside the circles distinguish the nasals from each other.
  • Clicks are a bottomless hourglass shape.
  • Affricates are spelled by placing both the corresponding stop and fricative graphemes in the triangle. Onset clusters use the same technique.
  • Syllabic laterals and trills are represented with duplication of the ordinary lateral and trill graphemes.

Syllabic nasals or amaqanda are unique in that they occupy the entire ibheqe space as circles. They are distinguished from each other with lines inside them that operate according to the same principles as above.

These graphemes can combine with each other in an order in accordance with the phonotactics of siNtu languages, and they also can combine with the articulatory mode graphemes.

Consonants Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Pharyngeal Glottal Lateral
(dental or alveolar)
Plosive
pʰ
t̪ʰ
tʰ
cʰ
kʰ
Fricative
ɸ
f
s
ʃ
ʂ / sᶲ
x
ħ[a]
h
ɬ
Approximant
w
j
l̪ / l
Trill
r / ʀ[b]
Tap or Flap
ɽ
Click
ʘ
ǀ
ǃ
ǂ
ǁ
Nasal
m
n̪
n
ɲ
ŋ
Syllabic Nasal
m̩
n̩
ɲ̩ / ŋ̍
Syllabic Approximant/
Trill
r̩ (r̩.rV)[c]
l̩ (l̩.lV)[c]
  1. ^ The symbol for [ħ] is exclusive for transcription of other languages, as the sound does not occur on Southern Bantu languages.
  2. ^ In Sotho, French influence may have contributed to the introduction of an allophonic /ʀ/, but in reality its articulation varies from individual to individual. The symbol represents these sounds indistinctively.
  3. ^ a b Syllabic [r̩] and [l̩] are only present when following the same phoneme in a CV syllable.

Articulatory mode

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There are three graphemic markers of articulatory mode:

  • Uphimbo, the voicing line, is a vertical line that runs from the apex of the triangle to the base (or inline with the ends of the chevron). This symbol modifies the phonation of the consonant.
  • Lerothodi, the glottal action dot, is a dot that floats just above the base of the triangle, inside it. When an uphimbo is present, the dot can be moved sligthly to a side for visibility. This symbol modifies the airstream mechanism of the consonant.
  • Ingungwana, the nasalization marker, is a circle that sits at the top of the triangle, touching its apex. This is distinct from the bilabial nasal /m/ (ingungu) that appears on its own, as this one occurs with other consonant graphemes. In this case, no additional lines need to be added to the ingungwana, as the place of articulation is given by them instead.

The table below displays how consonants are modified by these:

Articulation Modifier Without graphemic marker With graphemic marker Rule

Uphimbo 		/∅V/ /ɦV/
  • If the diacritic is the only symbol along the vowel, it represents a Voiced glottal fricative /ɦ/.
  • When applied to a nasal or a rhotic consonant, its shifts their phonation from modal to breathy voiced.
  • When applied to any other consonant, it becomes voiced.
/N/, /R/ /N̤/, /R̤/
/p/, /t/, /k/ /b/, /d/, /g/

Lerothodi 		/pʰ/, /tʰ/, /ᵏǃʰ/ /pʼ/, /tʼ/, /kʼ/
  • For unvoiced and aspirated consonants, the diacritic indicates a glottalized ejection. If the language doesn't have ejectives, then it turns into its plain modal form.
  • For breathy voiced consonants, it indicates an implosive release. If the language doesn't have implosives, then it turns into its plain modal form.
/p/, /t/, /ᵏǃ/
/b̤/, /d̤ /, /g̤/ /ɓ/, /ɗ /, /ɠ/
/b/, /d/, /g/

Ingungwana 		/b/, /k/ /ᵐb/, /ᵑk/
  • This diacritic marks prenasalized consonants.
  • When its used on an ejective click consonant (marked with the lerothodi), the ingungu denotes prenasalization[7]. If it's a plain click, then it becomes nasal.
/ᵏǃʼ/, /ᵏǁʼ/ /ŋᵏǃʼ/, /ŋᵏǁʼ/
/ᵏǃʰ/, /ᶢǀʰ/ /ᵑǃ/, /ᵑǀʱ/

References

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  1. ^ a b "⍚ DITEMA TSA DINOKO ⍚". isibheqe.org.za. Retrieved 18 April 2025.
  2. ^ "Isibheqe Sohlamvu: An Indigenous Writing System for Southern Bantu Languages" (PDF). linguistics.org.za. 22 June 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  3. ^ Writing Systems Archived 2018-06-27 at the Wayback Machine (12 May 2017) "Perhaps the most contemporary and creative African script is known as Ditema Tsa Dinoko (Isibheqe Sohlamvu in Zulu). This script can be used to write any Southern Bantu language, such as Sesotho, Zulu, and Tswana. The Southern Bantu languages are found in South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Created within the past three years by linguists, programmers, and designers, this special writing system is inspired by traditional litema art of Lesotho." See also e.g.: "Isibheqe cabinets". Design Miami. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  4. ^ van Niekerk, Garreth (2016-02-08). "Indigenous alphabet on the cards for SA". City Press (South Africa). Archived from the original on 2021-07-14.
  5. ^ Land, Sandra (2015). "Reading and the orthography of isiZulu" (PDF). South African Journal of African Languages. 35 (2): 163–175. doi:10.1080/02572117.2015.1113000. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-08-03.
  6. ^ "Update on Usage and Implementation Status of African Scripts." Unicode, Inc. 8 September 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2023. p. 6.
  7. ^ a b "Incazo Yohlelo" (PDF). isibheqe.org.za. Retrieved 18 April 2025.
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