Frequently asked questions

An original writing system designed for Songhay by Mahamadou Issiaka MAIGA (MAIGUS), created on 2 August 2026. It has 27 basic letters (5 vowels and 22 consonants), diacritics and its own digits. See the alphabet

AYNEHA is an independent initiative created by MAIGUS. It is not yet recognised by an institution. It is featured on Omniglot, and the long-term goal is its encoding in the Unicode standard.

No. AYNEHA is offered as a writing system of Songhay's own, alongside the existing ones. Everyone is free to use it.

Not yet within the official school system. But a child can learn it right now, alone or with family, with AYNEHA School and the website quizzes.

It is a deliberate choice: it asserts the graphic independence of Songhay writing from the Latin alphabet. Everything is read from right to left, letters and digits alike: 2026 is written 􏽾􏽼􏽾􏾂, with the 2 of the thousands on the far right.

AYNEHA was designed from the Songhay spoken in Gao, Koyraboro Senni. Speakers of other varieties (Zarma, Dendi, the varieties of Bamba or Gourma-Rharous, among others) are free to use it to write their own speech. Learn more

Not at this stage of the project. The Songhay varieties of Mali make little use of tones, but other varieties, in Niger or Benin, use them more. A way to mark them may be added later: this will depend on the needs of users.

Yes, several: Vai, Bamum, Mende, N'Ko, Bété and Adlam, for example. AYNEHA is part of this history. AYNEHA among the writing systems of West Africa

Yes, completely. The website, online tools, font and apps are free, with no ads, no account and no data collection. The code is free software.

With the transcriber: you type in Latin letters, the way you pronounce, and the text appears in AYNEHA. A few landmarks are enough: the sound “oo” is written u, “sh” is sh, “ch” as in church is c, a doubled letter gives the double diacritic. The transcriber applies automatic rules: it does not replace a check of each word.

No, not directly: only by sharing images. AYNEHA is in the Unicode Private Use Area: phones and apps do not display it yet, and text typed directly would show as squares. So send your text as an image: the keyboard and the website tools have a button for that, and an image can be read everywhere.

Download the Ayneha Pro font from the Resources page (file ayneha_pro.ttf), then:

• Windows: right-click the file, then “Install”.
• Mac: double-click the file, then “Install Font”.
• Linux: double-click the file, then “Install”; or copy it into the .local/share/fonts folder of your home folder.

To type AYNEHA on a computer, use the online keyboard or the transcriber, then copy the text.

The device does not have the AYNEHA font. On this website, the font loads by itself. Elsewhere (messages, documents), install the Ayneha Pro font, or send the text as an image.

The reason: AYNEHA characters are placed in Unicode's Private Use Area (PUA). They are not yet officially encoded in Unicode, so phones and computers do not know them in advance: only the Ayneha Pro font can draw them.

Not yet: the AYNEHA apps are for Android only. On iPhone, all the website tools work in the browser: transcriber, keyboard, calculator, quiz, cards.

The apps are downloaded from this website as an APK file. To install one, follow the four installation steps (in French for now).

Write a card in Songhay and submit it to the gallery, tell people around you about AYNEHA, and report any mistakes you see to contact@ayneha.org.