Afar (ʿAfár af)

Afar is a Lowland East Cushitic language spoken by a about 1 million people in Ethiopia, and by a further 460,000 or so people in Djibouti and Eritrea. It's closely related to the Saho language.

The Afar alphabet or Qafar Feera was created by Dimis and Redo, two Afar intellectual nationalists who published their work in the early 1970s.

Afar alphabet (Qafar Feera)
A a B b T t S s E e C c K k X x I i D d Q q
a ba ta sa e ca ka xa i da qa
R r F f G g O o L l M m N n U u W w H h Y y
ra fa ga o la ma na u wa ha ya

Afar pronunciation

Afar alphabet

Sample text in Afar

Addunya takkeemik dumal elle, Qangara deqsittam ten. A Qangara Yalla lih ten, a Qangara kee Yalla inkiimiiy inki Yalla. Ta Qangara dumal elle akah sugte'nnah Yalla lih tan. Yalli ta Qangarat kullim gineeh, ginnimteemik a Qangara maleh ginnimtem matan.

Translation

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Source: http://www.language-museum.com/a/afar.php

books   Language courses for Afar (en français)

Links

Information about the Afar language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afar_language

AFARAF - Manuel de langue afare (online Afar lessons, in French)
http://afaraf.free.fr

Afar history
http://harowo.com/2006/03/18/afar-history/

Cushitic languages

Afaan-Oromo, Afar, Awngi, Somali, Xamtanga

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet

Learn Chinese Characters with the Omniglot Chinese app