 | ||
Ditema tsa Dinoko (Sesotho for "Ditema syllabary"), also known by its Zulu name, Isibheqe Sohlamvu, and various other related names in different languages, is a contemporary writing system (specifically, a featural syllabary) associated with litema, that is used to write Sesotho (and all other Southern Bantu languages).
A subset of Ditema, sintu, is used to represent Nguni languages consistently under one orthography. This includes Tekela languages, which, with the exception of Swati, are unstandardised in the Latin alphabet. For example, it contains a specific grapheme indicating vowel nasality.
Description
The script is a syllabary, as each freestanding symbol represents a syllable. When the syllable being represented is not a syllabic consonant, these symbols are formed from a grapheme, a triangle or triangle with one side removed, representing the nucleus of the syllable, and attached graphemes that represent the onset of the syllable or its mode or articulation.