Because Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and organization in the world to achieve more, we aspired to help two Fulani brothers rethink, redesign and digitize a handwritten alphabet they created for the traditionally oral language known as Pulaar.

We achieved this by redesigning how the Fulani people see and experience this new alphabet, by optimizing how they use it, and by integrating it into over 1 billion devices around the planet.

The result was not only a victory for the preservation of important cultural heritage, but increased brand affinity for Microsoft in an emerging market but also globally.

The Fulani people of West Africa are the world’s largest nomadic group.

Pulaar, their native tongue, existed without an alphabet for generations. They relied on spoken word to pass down traditions, codify their history, and conduct business. Without an alphabet, illiteracy thrives and written records, poems, songs and stories must be cobbled together using various foreign alphabets. Determined to preserve their people’s language, two brothers, Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry, created a handwritten alphabet for Pulaar— ADLaM.

In 2023, the vast majority of the world communicates exclusively in the digital landscape. An alphabet is only as good as people’s ability to use it for texting, emailing and collaborating. A modern alphabet must be available on computers in order to be relevant and functional.

The objective was to turn ADLaM into a globally recognized and digitally used mode of communication for the 40 million Fulani across the planet.

To help preserve the Pulaar language — and help fight illiteracy within the community — we worked with the Barry brothers to rebuild ADLaM for the digital age and put it in the hands of the 40 million Fulani across the globe connecting through technology.

While alphabets usually take hundreds of years to evolve into their final form, we were able to speed the process, using real-time community feedback to revise ADLaM’s outdated letterforms.

This new version of the alphabet is being made accessible on over one billion devices around the world, enhancing the Fulani’s access to educational, business and social tools—ensuring both the language and culture ADLaM represents live on for generations.

And because schools are the primary entry point for learning the alphabet, we developed a collection of learning materials — books and posters in print and digital — that celebrate the rich culture of the Fulani.

How do you help preserve a culture? The 40-million-person diaspora remained connected online using language cobbled together from various foreign alphabets. For generations, they’ve relied on the spoken word of Pulaar — their native tongue — to pass down traditions and history, and to conduct business. But as their culture transferred to the digital world, their language needed to as well.

We aimed to help the Fulani people in the preservation of their culture by creating a new and optimized version of their new alphabet — ADLaM — that would help them navigate an increasingly digital world on their own terms.

As part of our strategy, we also wanted to fight the high illiteracy rates in the Fulani. By making ADLaM letterforms easier to read and write, and optimizing them for digital spaces, students around the world would feel more included as the community advanced into the 21st Century.

After ADLaM was encoded, community feedback revealed major revisions were needed to make the alphabet easier to learn, read and write. Working with the Barry brothers, typeface experts and Fulani graphic culture specialists, we revised the letterforms of the alphabet creating a new, optimized version.

Taking inspiration from Fulani visual culture, we researched hundreds of traditional textile patterns and designs, uncovering their unique meanings to define the final form of the characters. By weaving their heritage into the solution, the Fulani saw themselves in their very own alphabet.

The revised alphabet is being made accessible on over 1 billion devices running Microsoft 365 Office, through a new typeface — ADLaM Display.

We then developed learning tools to promote literacy in Guinean schools, including a children’s book, instructional workbooks and, classroom posters designed to teach the alphabet.

These combined efforts helped ADLaM gain popularity within the Fulani community — helping secure the future of the alphabet and their culture for future generations:

1. ADLaM is being made accessible on over 1 billion devices worldwide.

2. The alphabet will also be used to preserve the Bambara, Bozo and Dogon languages due to shared phonology and syntax with Pulaar.

3. Guinea’s Minister of Education is taking steps to ensure ADLaM is recognized as Pulaar’s official alphabet.

4. The first two ADLaM-focused schools will open this year in Guinea and for the first time, allow Fulani children to study a full curriculum in their native tongue.

5. The Government of Mali is in the process of recognizing ADLaM as an official alphabet in their constitution.

6. The new alphabet is being used on social media to fight illiteracy.The project also sparked the co-creation of the first ADLaM dictionary, through #ADLaMRe.

For centuries, the Fulani people have transferred traditions, knowledge and information through the spoken word of Pulaar, relying on a mixture of French and Arabic when the need for written records arose. When ADLaM was created by the Barry brothers, it gave the Fulani an alphabet born of their unique needs and culture. But as the diaspora expanded and the Fulani increasingly remained connected through modern technologies like social media, the alphabet needed to be updated and adapted to meet the demands of a digital world — ensuring ADLaM, and the culture it represents, live on for future, digital-first generations.

Because the community has such a rich visual culture, we researched and analyzed hundreds of textiles, patterns, facial tattoos and decorative objects tied to Fulani culture. Using these traditional shapes as part of the letterform designs was key to instilling the Fulani with pride and ownership of the new alphabet.