Ditema tsa Dinoko / isiBheqe soHlamvu / Xifungho xa Manungu / Vhuga ha Madungo / Xiyinhlanharhu xa Mipfawulo / Luṱhofunḓeraru lwa Mibvumo is an indigenous script designed for the phonologies of the siNtu languages (Guthrie Zone S). It is inspired by the preeminent ideographic traditions of Southern Africa, such as litema mural art of Lesotho, the isiNdebele tradition of ukugwala and other symbolic crafts, like the regional beadwork containing ideograms, which in isiZulu tradition are called amabheqe.
Latin-based orthographies produce visually long syllables and, consequently, long words in agglutinative siNtu languages. Consonantal phonemes are frequently represented by multigraphs. Consequently, a single syllable may occupy multiple graphic positions on the writing line, increasing both its visual density and the amount of visual information that must be processed during reading.
Also, the relationship between orthographic and phonological units is inconsistant and graphemes may correspond to different phonemes across related siNtu orthographies.
The isiBheqe soHlamvu script’s design establishes a one-to-one correspondence between phonological and graphic units.
Furthermore, the internal structure of each grapheme reflects the phonological and articulatory properties of the unit it represents, thereby aligning graphic representation more closely with the phonological organisation of siNtu languages.
Languages written in the script include ones that have no standardised Latin orthography, such as Eastern Sotho languages 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 vowel length nor tone, which can generally be inferred from context.
Description
The script is an indigenous, nucleocentric, partially iconographic, featural syllabic script. More simply, it is a vowel-based syllabic script.
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.
Syllabic nasals are written as circles that fill the whole ibheqe or syllable block.