AYNEHA
FREN

The AYNEHA alphabet

An alphabet with no upper or lower case, read and written from right to left: 5 vowels, 22 consonants, 4 diacritics and 10 digits. With all the forms, the font has 98 characters.

The system at a glance

The 98 characters of the Ayneha Pro font fall into five families. Only the 27 basic letters make up the alphabet; the others are forms of these letters or signs.

FamilyWhat it isNumber
Basic letters5 vowels and 22 consonants: the alphabet itself27
Marked formsa basic letter carrying a diacritic (nasalised, open or double vowel, double or silent consonant)50
Diacritics alone4 diacritics (nasalisation, openness, double, silent), drawn on their own to explain them; nasalisation has one form per vowel and openness one form for E and one for O9
Digits0 to 9, read from right to left10
Punctuationthe AYNEHA comma and semicolon2
Total in the font98

The 27 letters

This is the alphabetical order of AYNEHA, from right to left: vowels first, then consonants. Tap a letter to see its pronunciation, its spelling name and all its forms.

Vowels

5 letters

Consonants

22 letters

The 4 diacritics

Diacritics are placed above or below a letter and change its sound. A character never carries more than one diacritic at a time.

􏾢􏾤􏾧􏾩􏾬

Nasalisation

Two dots lying above the vowel. It gives ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ: the vowel goes through the nose.

􏾥􏾪

Openness

A wavy line above E and O only. It gives ɛ (as in “bed”) and ɔ (as in “law”).

􏾡􏾭􏿏􏿁

Double

Two bars under the letter. The vowel is lengthened, the consonant is doubled. All letters take it except H. A double consonant is always followed by a vowel.

􏾮􏾼􏿀􏿌

Silent

A small upside-down L under the consonant. It marks a consonant that is not directly followed by a vowel: at the end of a word, or before another consonant. Ʃ, TƩ, J, Ɲ and H never take it.

Example: the word “ayneha”

Reading orderCharacterSoundWhy
1􏾜avowel
2􏿌yfollowed by a consonant (n): silent Y
3􏾍nfollowed by a vowel: basic form
4􏾝evowel
5􏾚hfollowed by a vowel: basic form
6􏾜avowel

The whole word, from right to left: 􏾜􏿌􏾍􏾝􏾚􏾜

The 10 digits

AYNEHA has its own digits. Like letters, a number is read from right to left: the first digit is on the right. For example, 2026 is written 􏽾􏽼􏽾􏾂: the 2 of the thousands is on the far right, the 6 of the units on the far left.

Three digits echo the shape of Latin digits, redrawn with right angles: 0 (a rectangle), 3 and 9.

For decimal numbers, the AYNEHA comma sits at the bottom. For an ordinal (first, second...), a small “i” is placed at the top, right after the number.

􏽼0
􏽽1
􏽾2
􏽿3
􏾀4
􏾁5
􏾂6
􏾃7
􏾄8
􏾅9
1st
2nd
3rd
10th

Punctuation

The comma and the semicolon have their own AYNEHA shape. The question mark is mirrored (⸮). Other signs (full stop, exclamation mark, quotation marks, mathematical signs) are the usual international ones.

􏿜comma
􏿝semicolon
⸮question mark

The 22 writing rules

These rules describe how AYNEHA characters behave together. AYNEHA is young: abbreviations and handwriting habits are left to usage.

  1. Right to left: AYNEHA is written and read from right to left, letters and digits alike.
  2. One form per letter: there is no upper or lower case.
  3. One sound, one character: each sound retained in the system (Songhay of Gao) has its own character. Ʃ, TƩ, DJ, Ɲ and Ŋ are single letters, not combinations.
  4. The joining line: all the letters of a word are joined by the same baseline.
  5. Alphabetical order: vowels first (A, E, I, O, U), then consonants, from the front to the back of the mouth.
  6. Order of forms: each letter is followed by its forms, always in this order: basic, nasalised, open, double, silent.
  7. Spelling names: vowels are said as they are, and “a” is added to consonants: ba, pa, ma, fa, wa...
  8. One diacritic only: a character never carries more than one diacritic at a time.
  9. Nasalisation: two dots above, on the 5 vowels only.
  10. Openness: a tilde above, on E and O only (Ɛ and Ɔ).
  11. Double: two bars below, on all letters except H. A double consonant is always followed by a vowel: it never ends a word.
  12. Silent: a small upside-down L below. A consonant is silent when it is not directly followed by a vowel: alone at the end of a word, or before another consonant.
  13. Letters that are never silent: Ʃ, TƩ, J, Ɲ and H never take the silent mark: these consonants are never found at the end of a word. H is the only letter with no diacritic at all.
  14. Open and nasalised vowels: since only one diacritic is allowed, nasalised Ɛ is written Ẽ and nasalised Ɔ is written Õ.
  15. Numbers: they are written from right to left: the digit with the highest value is on the right.
  16. Three familiar digits: 0, 3 and 9 take the shape of Latin digits, redrawn with right angles (0 is a rectangle).
  17. Ordinals: a small “i” is placed at the top, right after the number: 1st, 2nd, 3rd...
  18. Decimal comma: it is the AYNEHA comma, placed at the bottom.
  19. Punctuation: the comma and semicolon have their own AYNEHA character; the question mark is mirrored (⸮); other signs (full stop, exclamation mark, quotation marks, brackets) are the international ones.
  20. Mathematics: the whole expression is read from right to left; exponents and indices go at the top left; variables and functions (x, y, sin, log) stay in Latin letters; directional signs (<, >, arrows) are mirrored.
  21. No word breaks: since its letters are joined, a word is never split at the end of a line.
  22. No bold, no underline: they hide or distort the diacritics; to emphasise a word, write it larger. Next to Latin text, AYNEHA is written one point larger (13 for 12).