What is the Hanifi Rohingya script?
The Hanifi Rohingya script (also written Hanafi) is an alphabet created specifically for the Rohingya language. It was developed in the 1980s by Mohammed Hanif, a Rohingya scholar, along with a team of community members. The script was designed to represent all the sounds of Rohingya accurately — something Arabic and Latin scripts cannot fully achieve.
In 2018, Hanifi Rohingya was officially added to Unicode (version 11.0), giving it recognised status as a digital writing system.
Direction and structure
- Written right to left, like Arabic and Hebrew
- An alphabet (not an abugida) — consonants and vowels are written as separate letters
- 28 consonant letters
- 10 vowel letters
- Additional diacritics for tones and special sounds
The Hanifi letters
Consonants
The Hanifi script has 28 consonant letters. Each represents a distinct consonant sound in Rohingya. Unlike Arabic, vowels in Hanifi are always written out explicitly.
Vowels
Hanifi has a dedicated set of 10 vowel letters. This makes it particularly well-suited for learners and for unambiguous representation of Rohingya words.
Unicode support
Hanifi Rohingya occupies the Unicode block U+10D00–U+10D3F.
To display Hanifi text correctly, you need:
- A Hanifi-compatible font (see Rohingya fonts)
- A modern operating system — Windows 10+, macOS 10.15+, iOS 13+, Android 10+
Typing in Hanifi
To type Hanifi Rohingya on your device:
- On iPhone: Guide to typing Rohingya on iPhone
- On Android: Guide to typing Rohingya on Android
- In the browser: use our Rohingya Keyboard tool
Fonts for Hanifi
Several fonts support the Hanifi script:
- Noto Sans Hanifi Rohingya — Google’s open-source Noto font family
- Other community-developed fonts listed in our fonts directory
Is Hanifi the “official” Rohingya script?
While no internationally recognised governing body has officially designated a single standard, the Hanifi script is widely considered the primary script of the Rohingya language by the community and by Unicode. It is used in formal publications, community education, and by most organisations producing Rohingya-language materials.