Ji xol lóma

Ji xol | Letters

These are the letters of the Ba Kom Latin alphabet. For pronunciation of the letters, see Ho ba.

The letter is given first in ⟨ ⟩ brackets, followed by the name of the letter.

• ⟨a⟩ ji a

• ⟨i⟩ ji i

• ⟨u⟩ ji u

• ⟨e⟩ ji e

• ⟨o⟩ ji o

• ⟨k⟩ ji ke

• ⟨t⟩ ji te

• ⟨p⟩ ji pe

• ⟨c⟩ ji ce

• ⟨g⟩ ji ge

• ⟨d⟩ ji de

• ⟨b⟩ ji be

• ⟨j⟩ ji je

• ⟨h⟩ ji he

• ⟨s⟩ ji se

• ⟨x⟩ ji xe

• ⟨f⟩ ji fe

• ⟨m⟩ ji me

• ⟨n⟩ ji ne

• ⟨ng, ŋ⟩ ji eng

• ⟨l⟩ ji le

• ⟨y⟩ ji ye

• ⟨w⟩ ji we

Diphthongs:

• ⟨ai⟩ ji ai

• ⟨au⟩ ji au

• ⟨ei⟩ ji ei

• ⟨ou⟩ ji ou

• ⟨iu⟩ ji iu

• ⟨ui⟩ ji ui

The velar nasal can be written with the digraph ⟨ng⟩, or with the letter eng ⟨ŋ⟩, as found in languages such as Fula, Manding, Wolof, Iñupiatun, Lakota, and Kazakh.

Ji mun ba | Accent mark

The accent mark, ⟨´⟩, is written above the vowel of an accented syllable. It is not written if the word is accented on its last syllable.
For example, the accent mark is written in wadalahála “Guadalajara”, which is accented on ha; but not in balasiu “Brazil”, which is accented on siu.

One exception is that, when accented i or u come after a, they are written as í and ú to distinguish them from the diphthongs ai and au.
For example: yaún "user" (separate syllables) vs. yaun "left" (one syllable).

Yam ji | Letter case

Personal names and words that begin sentences are capitalized. Every separate word of a personal name must be capitalized.

The Ba kom word for "capital letter" is ji xol yam da.
The word for "lower case letter" is ji xol yam nin.
The verb for "to capitalize" is xol yam da.
The verb for "to write lowercase" is xol yam nin.

At bing | Punctuation

The period ⟨ . ⟩, or ji ut "end mark", is used at the ends of sentences, except for questions.

The question mark ⟨ ? ⟩, or ji xam "question mark", is used at the end of questions. It is not used if the question is inside quotation marks.

The comma ⟨ , ⟩, or ji jum "pause mark", has four uses:

1. before a conjunction such as u "and", xe "but", pi "so", or me "or" (this is optional)

2. between items in a list

3. before and after relative clauses (this is optional)

4. after a topicalized clause

Quotation marks ⟨ ‹› ⟩, or ji sung ba "quote mark", enclose quotes. They are always placed inside other punctuation.
A quote within a quote is marked with ⟨ «» ⟩, or ji sung ba tol do, "double quote mark".

Alternative letter names

The letters of the Latin alphabet can also be named according to their names in Latin. These names are to be used when the letter is not being used to spell a word, but as a unique identifier, for instance in mathematics.

• A — a

• B — be

• C — ce

• D — de

• E — e

• F — ef

• G — ge

• H — ha

• I — i

• J — yot

• K — ka

• L — el

• M — em

• N — en

• O — o

• P — pe

• Q — ku

• R — éa

• S — es

• T — te

• U — u

• V — wau

• W — we

• X — iks

• Y — hi

• Z — set