Mandombe
Script type	Featuralalphabet
Creator	Wabeladio Payi
Period	1978–present
Direction	Left-to-right
Languages	Kikongo,Kikongo ya leta,Lingala,Tshiluba,Swahili
Related scripts
Parent systems	Artificial script Mandombe
This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Mandombe orMandombé is a script proposed in 1978 inMbanza-Ngungu in theBas-Congo province of theDemocratic Republic of the Congo byWabeladio Payi, who related that it wasrevealed to him in a dream bySimon Kimbangu, of theKimbanguist Church. Mandombe is based on the "sacred shapes" and intended for writing African languages such asKikongo, as well as the four national languages of the Congo,Kikongo ya leta,Lingala,Tshiluba andSwahili, though it does not have enough vowels to write Lingala fully. It is taught in Kimbanguist church schools in Angola, the Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is also promoted by the KimbanguistCentre de l’Écriture Négro-Africaine (CENA). The Mandombe Academy at CENA is currently working on transcribing other African languages in the script.^[1] It has been classified as the third most viable indigenous script of recent indigenous west African scripts, behind only theVai syllabary and theN'Ko alphabet.^[2]

A preliminary proposal has been made to include this script in the combined character encodingISO 10646/Unicode.^[3] A revisedUnicode proposal was written in February 2016 by Andrij Rovenchak, Helma Pasch, Charles Riley, and Nandefo Robert Wazi.

Mandombe has consonant letters and vowel letters which are combined into syllabic blocks, rather likehangul. All letters are based on a square S or 5 shape. The six vowels are distinguished by numerals added to the right of the 5-shape. The consonants fall into four 'groups', or shapes, which are distinguished by adding a short stroke to the 5-shape for three of the groups; and into four 'families', or orientations, which are distinguished by reflecting and rotating the letter shapes. The four families of consonants are attached to the same corner of the vowel, which is reflected or rotated to match the consonant, so that the consonant resides in a different corner of the syllabic block depending on its orientation. UnlikePitman shorthand, which also distinguishes consonants by rotation, in Mandombe the groups and families do not form natural classes, apart from a fifth group of fricatives and affricates made by inverting one of the four basic groups. Vowel sequences and nasal vowels are created with diacritics, prenasalized consonants by prefixingn (the basic 5-shape), and consonant clusters by inserting a consonant between the two parts of the vowel (between the 5-shape and the additional strokes).

Vowel letters are composed of two parts: the basic 5-shape of the Mandombe script plus a numeral, or—in the case ofü (/y/)—by modifying the basicu vowel letter. Vowel 1 isi, vowel 2u, vowel 3e, vowel 4o, and vowel 5a.

Avowel can be written individually and form asyllable on its own. In avowel sequence ordiphthong, however, adiacritic is used for the second vowel or part of the vowel. That is,lio (two syllables) is writtenli plus the diacritic foro, whilemwa (one syllable) is writtenmu plus the diacritic fora. Diacritics come at the end of the last stroke of the vowel. While there is a diacritic foru, sequences ending inu are instead generally written as two full syllables, the second beingwu. This strategy is apparently also employed in some other cases rather than using diacritics.^{[citation needed]}

Latin script	Mandombe	Composition	Diacritic
i
u			?
e
o
a

Ü is. It has no diacritic.

There are four basicconsonant shapes. Each shape (base character) can bereflected horizontally, vertically, or both to represent a different consonant; the four consonants thus formed are considered to be a group, and consonants reflected in the same way are considered to be a family. These consonants are combined with vowels, which are similarly reflected, to create syllables.

Family 1

The consonant with the basic orientation is attached to the lower left of the vowel

Family 2

The consonant-plus-vowel is reflected both horizontally and vertically (rotated 180°)

Family 3

The consonant-plus-vowel is reflected horizontally

Family 4

The consonant-plus-vowel is reflected vertically

Vowel diacritics are reflected along with the main vowel.

The use of geometric transformation is also present in Pitman shorthand andCanadian Aboriginal Syllabics, though Mandombe consonants in the same group do not seem to have any phonological relationship (except the fifth group namedmazita ma zindinga, in which all consonants areaffricates andfricatives).

Consonant	Family 1	Family 2	Family 3	Family 4
Group 1	na	va	sa	ta
Group 2	be	de	fe	ge
Group 3	ko	mo	lo	po
Group 4	wi	ri	zi	yi
Mazita ma zindinga	shu	dju	tshu	ju

• Prenasalisation of consonants is indicated with a variation on (n) disconnected from the vowel. This always joins the consonant body, else certain signs could be read in more than one way.
• Nasalisation of the vowel is marked by an attached diacritic:.
• If is placed between the two separable parts of the vowel glyph, it represents an intervening /r/.

Modification	Mandombe	Latin script
Vowel sequence		bie
Diphthong/semivowel		mwa
Nasal vowel or final nasal consonant		ken
Prenasalized consonant		mbu
Labial occlusion		gba
Consonant clusters		pro
		plo

High tone

pó

The digit for 1 resembles theArabic numeral 1, and 2–5 are based on this shape. 6 and 9 are square versions of Arabic 6 and 9, and 7–8 are formed by reflecting them.

1–5 are also the shapes used for the vowels i u e o a.

digit	Mandombe
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

A period is used as aword divider to separate words.

The punctuation corresponds to that of the Roman alphabet. A comma has the form of a short line,, a period a turned vee,, like the diacritic foro, and a colon and semicolon combinations of these (semicolon î, colon double). The exclamation mark is like a lambda, λ, and the question mark is like a turned Y, ⅄.

• Syllabary
• Writing systems of Africa
• Africa Alphabet
• African reference alphabet

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMandombe.

• L'écriture Mandombe(in French)
• Mandombe script
• Pasch describing the script, its origins, and its uses

• Abugida writing systems
• Writing systems of Africa
• Writing systems introduced in 1978

• Articles with short description
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