________________
152
The history of the Bamun script is extremely interesting. It is certainly not a derivative from any other writing, but is an artificial creation. In fact, no Arabic or Latin, or any other known letters can be recognized in this script. It includes, however, the "shield of David" (used as the numeral 100), which has been borrowed from Arabic symbolism. Thus, only the idea of writing has been borrowed; many natives knew Arabic,
† @ # & % }PO
2
3
5 G
VAA
14 15 16
Actual value
F. fa, 8
4
F. fe
F. fo
F. fou
G. ga
G. go,10
小
17
Word
Fama
Fe
Fom
THE ALPHABET
Fou
Nge
Ngom
18
7
19 20
& H
I
8
9
I =
Burn & work
King
Measure
Ten
2
10
30
2x
Meaning 1907 1911 1916 1918
Eight
5 R
R
*
y
20
+
K
(Chose-faite)₤
π
以18
12
مه
TP
2767
2
下
13
S
T
کر
1+
7 7
+23
Fig. 78
1, Symbols of the Bamun ideographic script
1, si, "bird"; 2, baka, "plate"; 3, kuo, "ladder": 4, nod, "body"; 5, mon, "child"; 6, mué, "snake"; 7, sie, "ditch"; 8, tüt, "ear": 9, pe, "cullender"; 10, nyam, "horse"; 11, ruo, "stone"; 12, tu, "head"; 13, ndab, "thread"; 14-15, li, "eye": 16, mi, "face": 17, ngüe, "leopard": 18, memfi, "goat"; 19, mengob, "cock"; 20, nyu, "hair"; 21, kuob, "palm-grove"; 22, kom, "razor"; 23, ndab, "house"; 24, tam, "mud""
2. Development of Bamun characters
others knew of the existence of the European scripts. Curiously enough, at the beginning the Bamun script was neither syllabic nor alphabetic, but pictographic and ideographic. This may be explained partly by the fact that the Bamun speech is mainly monosyllabic. The script consisted then of about 1,000 symbols (some of them are shown in Fig. 78, 1). About
