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Ditema tsa Dinoko
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Ditema tsa Dinoko
Ditema or Bheqe syllabics, known in full as Ditema tsa Dinoko in Sotho (pronounced [ditʼɪma t͜sʼa dinʊːkʼʊ]), isiBheqe soHlamvu in Zulu (pronounced [isibʱɛᵏǃʼɛ sɔɬaːɱb̪̊vʱu]), and sometimes Xiyinhlanharhu xa Mipfawulo or Xifungho xa Manungu in Tsonga [citation needed] and Luṱhofunḓeraru lwa Mibvumo or Vhuga ha Madungo in Venḓa,[citation needed] is a featural syllable-based writing system created for use with the siNtu languages.[clarification needed] It was developed in the 2010s from the preeminent ideographic traditions of Southern Africa, including litema mural art of Lesotho, the related isiNdebele tradition of ukugwala ("to write", "to draw", "to paint traditional ideographic mural art"), and other symbolic crafts, like the regional beadwork containing ideograms and morphograms, which in isiZulu tradition are called amabheqe. As of 2026,[update] no proposal has been made to encode the script in Unicode.
The script is designed for the phonologies of the siNtu languages at large. It was created as a syllabic system, to suit the highly agglutinative languages of the region. Languages written in the script include ones that have no standardised Latin orthography, such as an Eastern Sotho language like sePulana and the majority of the Tekela languages. A diacritic that indicates vowel nasality, known as ingungwanyana, is provided specifically for the Tekela languages. As with the Latin orthographies, there is no provision for tone, which can generally be inferred from context.
The script has been characterized as a syllabary, as each freestanding letter transcribes a syllable. However, unlike a true syllabary, syllables are not written with distinct letters. Rather, individual graphemes for consonants, vowels and featural elements are combined into syllabic blocks (amabheqe). Except when the syllable being transcribed is a syllabic nasal, the letters are based on a triangular or chevron-shaped grapheme that indicates the vowel of the syllable, with the attached ongwaqa indicating the onset consonants. This is like an abugida, but based on the vowel rather than the onset consonant. Syllabic nasals are written as circles that fill the whole ibheqe or syllable block.
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 vowel, with up to seven possible:
There is an eighth "vowel" represented by the downward-facing chevron, which is the null vowel, transcribed /∅/ in the table below. This is mostly used for foreign words to represent a non-syllabic consonant without a following vowel, often as a syllable coda, which does not occur in siNtu languages.
Vowel length and tone are not distinguishable.
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.
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Ditema tsa Dinoko
Ditema or Bheqe syllabics, known in full as Ditema tsa Dinoko in Sotho (pronounced [ditʼɪma t͜sʼa dinʊːkʼʊ]), isiBheqe soHlamvu in Zulu (pronounced [isibʱɛᵏǃʼɛ sɔɬaːɱb̪̊vʱu]), and sometimes Xiyinhlanharhu xa Mipfawulo or Xifungho xa Manungu in Tsonga [citation needed] and Luṱhofunḓeraru lwa Mibvumo or Vhuga ha Madungo in Venḓa,[citation needed] is a featural syllable-based writing system created for use with the siNtu languages.[clarification needed] It was developed in the 2010s from the preeminent ideographic traditions of Southern Africa, including litema mural art of Lesotho, the related isiNdebele tradition of ukugwala ("to write", "to draw", "to paint traditional ideographic mural art"), and other symbolic crafts, like the regional beadwork containing ideograms and morphograms, which in isiZulu tradition are called amabheqe. As of 2026,[update] no proposal has been made to encode the script in Unicode.
The script is designed for the phonologies of the siNtu languages at large. It was created as a syllabic system, to suit the highly agglutinative languages of the region. Languages written in the script include ones that have no standardised Latin orthography, such as an Eastern Sotho language like sePulana and the majority of the Tekela languages. A diacritic that indicates vowel nasality, known as ingungwanyana, is provided specifically for the Tekela languages. As with the Latin orthographies, there is no provision for tone, which can generally be inferred from context.
The script has been characterized as a syllabary, as each freestanding letter transcribes a syllable. However, unlike a true syllabary, syllables are not written with distinct letters. Rather, individual graphemes for consonants, vowels and featural elements are combined into syllabic blocks (amabheqe). Except when the syllable being transcribed is a syllabic nasal, the letters are based on a triangular or chevron-shaped grapheme that indicates the vowel of the syllable, with the attached ongwaqa indicating the onset consonants. This is like an abugida, but based on the vowel rather than the onset consonant. Syllabic nasals are written as circles that fill the whole ibheqe or syllable block.
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 vowel, with up to seven possible:
There is an eighth "vowel" represented by the downward-facing chevron, which is the null vowel, transcribed /∅/ in the table below. This is mostly used for foreign words to represent a non-syllabic consonant without a following vowel, often as a syllable coda, which does not occur in siNtu languages.
Vowel length and tone are not distinguishable.
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.
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