{{Infobox WS
|name=Africa Alphabet
|type=alphabet
|time=1928 -
|languages=[[African languages]]
}}
The '''Africa Alphabet''' (also '''International African Alphabet''' or '''IAI alphabet''') was developed in [[1928]] under the lead of [[Diedrich Westermann]]. He developed it with a group of [[African studies|Africanists]] at the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures (later the [[International African Institute|IAI]]) in [[London]]. Its aim was to enable people to write all the [[African languages]] for practical and scientific purposes without [[diacritic]]s.

This alphabet has influenced development of orthographies of many African languages (serving "as the basis for the transcription" of about 60, by one count<ref>Sow, Alfa I., and Mohamed H. Abdulaziz, "Language and Social Change," Ch. 18 in Ali A. Mazrui (ed.) Africa Since 1935 (UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. 8). University of California Press, 1993. P. 527.</ref>), but not all, and discussions of harmonization of systems of transcription that led to, among other things, adoption of the [[African reference alphabet]].

== Characters ==
{|class="wikitable Unicode"
|-
| '''lowercase''' || a || b || {{IPA|ɓ}} || c || d || {{IPA|ɖ}} || e || {{IPA|ɛ}} || ǝ || f || ƒ || g || {{IPA|ɣ}} || h || x || i || j || k
|- style="border-bottom: solid"
| '''uppercase''' || [[A]] || [[B]] || Б<ref>This is not the current standard form for capital for this letter, which is {{unicode|[[Ɓ]]}}.</ref> || [[C]] || [[D]] || {{IPA|[[Ɖ]]}} || [[E]] || {{IPA|[[Ɛ]]}} || [[Ǝ]] || [[F]] || [[Ƒ]] || [[G]] || {{IPA|[[Ɣ]]}} || [[H]] || [[X]] || [[I]] || [[J]] || [[K]]
|-
| '''lowercase''' ||l || m || n || {{IPA|ŋ}} || o || {{IPA|ɔ}} || p || r || s || {{IPA|ʃ}} || t || u || v || {{IPA|ʋ}} || w || y || z || {{IPA|ʒ}}
|-
| '''uppercase''' || [[L]] || [[M]] || [[N]] || {{IPA|[[Ŋ]]}} || [[O]] || {{IPA|[[Ɔ]]}} || [[P]] || [[R]] || [[S]] || {{IPA|[[Ʃ]]}} || [[T]] || [[U]] || [[V]] || {{IPA|[[Ʋ]]}} || [[W]] || [[Y]] || [[Z]] || {{IPA|[[Ʒ]]}}
|}

==See also==
*[[Standard Alphabet by Lepsius]]
*[[African reference alphabet]]
*[[Pan-Nigerian Alphabet]]
*[[ISO 6438]]
*[[Alphabets derived from the Latin]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*Coulmas, Florian, ''The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems'', 1996, Blackwell, Oxford
*IIACL, [http://www.bisharat.net/Documents/poal30.htm ''Practical Orthography of African Languages''], Revised Edition, London: Oxford University Press, 1930
*Sow, Alfa I., and Mohamed H. Abdulaziz, "Language and Social Change," Ch. 18 in Ali A. Mazrui (ed.) ''Africa Since 1935'' (UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. 8). University of California Press, 1993.

{{writingsystem-stub}}

[[Category:Latin-derived alphabets]]
[[Category:Writing systems of Africa]]

[[de:Afrika-Alphabet]]
[[fr:Alphabet international africain]]
[[he:האלפבית של אפריקה]]