Bissa Alphabet

It follows ANTBA’s 2015 Bissa Barka guide. That guide bases its spelling on speech from Garango. ^[1]

This page keeps that named convention consistent. It does not claim to reproduce a later national revision or every Bissa variety.

The selected guide lists 29 letters. Ten are vowels and nineteen are consonants. ^[1]

Each capital and lowercase pair counts once in the final overview. Long vowels, nasal combinations and the separately shown tone mark do not add basic letters.

These are separate vowel letters in the Barka guide. Keep their shapes distinct when reading or copying words. ^[1]

For example, the guide writes gii for dog and gɩsa for tick. The English sound hints are approximate rather than exact replacements. ^[1]

The guide doubles a vowel to show length. It writes a following n to show nasalisation. ^[1]

The practice panel keeps those two patterns separate. A long nasal vowel combines both devices, as in iin. ^[1]

Vowel harmony groups the vowels into two sets. The guide lists a, ɛ, ɩ, ɔ, ʋ together, and ə, e, i, o, u together. ^[1]

The vowels in a simple word normally come from the same set. The guide also describes exceptions in compounds and borrowed words. ^[1]

The guide uses á for plural you. This distinguishes that pronoun from unaccented a meaning he or she. ^[1]

It does not write tone systematically throughout ordinary spelling. The dotted circle simply makes the isolated acute mark visible in the practice chart. ^[1]

Yes, the number entries follow the guide’s Garango-based Barka list. For example, it gives hɩɩra for two and suuru for five. ^[1]

A native zero form was not verified in that list. Zero is explicitly labelled English rather than presented as a Bissa word.

The hints are approximate English reading aids. Verified native letter names were not established for this chart.

Use the native examples and full descriptions while practising. Check the sounds with a fluent Barka speaker rather than relying on an English comparison alone.