African Reference Alphabet

Ok kiddo, let's talk about the African Reference Alphabet. Now, you know how we use the Alphabet to write words, right? Well, in Africa, they have lots of different languages and sometimes, there can be a lot of confusion when people try to write those languages down using the same alphabet we use.

So some really smart people got together in the 1970s and decided to create a new Alphabet that would work for writing down all the different languages in Africa. They called it the African Reference Alphabet, or ARA for short.

Now, the ARA is very special because it uses special symbols (letters) for all the different sounds that exist in African languages. You see, some African languages have sounds that don't exist in English, like clicking sounds. So, the ARA has symbols for these sounds too!

This way, people all over Africa can write down their languages in the same way and not have to worry about confusing each other. And that's why the African Reference Alphabet is so important!