The Kalabari Alphabet   The Kalabari Alphabet is made up of 23 letters. These are:   a  b  d  e  f   g  h i   j  k  l  m  n  o  p  r  s  t  u  v  w  y   As you can see, Kalabari does not have - c  q  and  x  Kalabari Orthography Orthography is the way the letters of a language form sounds. In the Kalabari language, these 23 letters combine with some of them and with diacritical marks to form 35 known distinct sounds. Some of them are single sounds while others are digraphs and trigraphs. We also have syllabic nasals which are pecuilar to the kalabari language.  The Kalabari language is based on the Latin alphabet, thus making it easy to read and write.  Examples a :   as in ant b :   as in ball d :   as in dog d :   none like it English e :   as the ay in day ẹ :   as the e in egg f :    as in fish g :   as in goal gb : none in English h :   as in house i :    as the ee in see ị :    as in in j :    as in joy k :   as in keep kp : none in English kw : as the qu in quick l :     as in love m :   as in mango mb : none in English mgb : none in English n :    as in nose nd :  none in English ng :  none in English o :    as in old ọ :    as the o in hot p :    as in pen r  :    as in road s :    as in salt t :     as in top u :    as in unique ụ :    as the u in hut v :    as in vat w :   as in win y :    as in yam z :    as in zoo     Facts   A Digraph is a combination of 2 letters that represents a single sound. In Kalabari they are: gb,  kp A Trigraph is a combination of 3 letters representing a single sound. In Kalabari we have: mgb A Diacritical mark is a mark placed above or below a letter to indicate it has a different sound from the same letter of its kind that does nopt have that mark. In Kalabari, such marks are place under e, i, o and u. A Syllabic nasal is a sound produced from the nose. In Kalabari, we have words with such sound which begin with nd, ng mb and mgb. Back To►   Page Top     Home Page   English Sec    Kalabari Sec