Zaghawa script
Indigenous alphabet proposed for the Zaghawa
title: "Zaghawa script" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["saharan-languages", "alphabets", "writing-systems-of-africa", "writing-systems-introduced-in-the-1950s", "1950-introductions", "zaghawa-people"] description: "Indigenous alphabet proposed for the Zaghawa" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaghawa_script" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Indigenous alphabet proposed for the Zaghawa ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox writing system"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Zaghawa |
| altname | Beria () |
| type | Alphabet |
| iso15924 | Berf |
| unicode | U+16EA0–U+16EDF |
| note | none |
| :: |
| name = Zaghawa | altname = Beria () | sample = | type = Alphabet | time = | caption = | languages = | creator = | iso15924 = Berf | unicode = U+16EA0–U+16EDF | note = none ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Beria_Giray_Erfe.png" caption="cat=no}}."] ::
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Zaghawa_or_Beria_script,_Beria_Giray_Erfe.png" caption="''Beria Giray Erfe'' ( )"] ::
The Zaghawa or Beria script, Beria Giray Erfe ( ) ('Zaghawa Writing Marks'), is an indigenous alphabetic script proposed for the Zaghawa language (also known as Beria) of Sudan, Chad, and Libya. It is one of three scripts used to write Zaghawa, alongside Latin and incipiently Arabic.
In the 1950s, a Sudanese Zaghawa schoolteacher named Adam Tajir created a script for the Zaghawa language, sometimes known as the camel alphabet, deriving its glyphs from the clan brands used for camels and other livestock. He copied the inventory of the Arabic script, so the system was not ideal for Zaghawa.
In 2000, a Zaghawa veterinarian named Siddick Adam Issa adapted Tajir's script to a form which has proven popular in the Zaghawa community. The typography is somewhat innovative in that capital letters have descenders which drop below the baseline of the lower-case letters and punctuation, contrasting with the capital letters in the Latin script, which rise above most lower-case letters. Beria Giray Erfe is a full alphabet, with independent letters for vowels; however, diacritics are used to mark tone (grave accent for falling tone and acute accent for rising tone; high, mid, and low tone are unmarked), as well as advanced tongue root vowels (a macron derives from the letters for ).
The letter for , which does not occur in Zaghawa or in Arabic, is written by adding a tail to the letter for ; and is derived from the letter for with a cross stroke. There apparently is no letter for , nor a distinction between and , both of which have been reported for Zaghawa.
European numerals and punctuation are used.
Unicode
Main article: Beria Erfe (Unicode block)
The Zaghawa scripts was added to the Unicode Standard in September 2025 with the release of version 17.0.
The Unicode block for Zaghawa, called Beria Erfe, is U+16EA0–U+16EDF:
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