The Story of 2 Muslims Kids, Who Created Alphabet for a Language Spoken by 40 Million People

When they were 10 and 14, brothers Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry set out to invent an alphabet for their native language, Fulfulde, which had been spoken by 40 million people in 20 countries for centuries but never had its own writing system. While their friends were out playing in the neighborhood, Ibrahima, the older brother, and Abdoulaye would shut themselves in their room in the family’s house in Nzérékoré, Guinea, close their eyes and draw shapes on paper. When one of them called stop they’d open their eyes, choose the shapes they liked and decide what sound of the language they matched best.

Read this fascinating story:

ADLaM comes online | Microsoft Story Labs How a new alphabet is helping the Fulani people write its own future. http://news.microsoft.com/stories/people/adlam.html View Now

Adlam script - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adlam_script?oldformat… View Now Fula language - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fula_language?oldforma… View Now -urShadow