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Writing Systems Technical Resources

Masaba

Masaba script sample

Masaba syllabary for the Bamanakan language.

Image is in the public domain. Source: Wikimedia.

Script details

Section titled “Script details”
See all script details: code, region, status and more
Code x-masaba
Script type syllabary
Region African
Status Current
Direction LTR
Baseline unspecified
Case unknown
White space unspecified
Complex behaviors unspecified
OpenType code unspecified
ISO 15924 Number none

Explanation of script details

Script description

Section titled “Script description”

The Masaba script (also called Bambara or Bamanakan) is one of five Mande syllabaries used in West Africa.

Read the full description…(The other four are Vai, Loma, Mende and Kpelle. The Bamanakan language, for which the script is used is spoken by almost 3 million people in Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Mauritania, and Senegal. The script was created in 1930 by Woyo Couloubayi, a Malian. It has 123 letters and is read from left to right.

This script is not currently recognized by the ISO 15924 standard, but is included in Writing Systems Technical Resources for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The Script Encoding Initiative is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.

Languages that use this script

Section titled “Languages that use this script”

There are no known languages that use this script.

Unicode status

Section titled “Unicode status”

The Masaba script is not yet in Unicode. The script has not yet been added to the Roadmap to the SMP for the Unicode Standard.

Resources

Section titled “Resources”

External links

Bibliography