Efik became a written language for the first time in 1812, and this literary feat was attempted by a local Chief, Eyo Nsa, known in historical records as Eyo Willy Honesty. Eyo Nsa was a wealthy and influential trader who, having got access to the English alphabet from an English ship captain, made this first attempt to adapt the letters in recording his native vocabulary. The Chief’s attempt brought a very fair production, because even today we are able to read with ease and understanding, the fruits of his efforts.
But the actual work on written Efik came in full force from 1846 when the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland Mission arrived in Old Calabar. The greatest concern of these early missionaries was how to design an appropriate orthography that would give them some hope and comfort in their evangelical work among the Efik people. For this reason, much use was made of Dr. Lepsius’ system and the phonetic alphabet.
The Efik language was discovered by Goldie to be one of the northern tongues, Nilo-Hamitic and with some Semitic tendencies. Thus a close study of the language revealed that, of the 26 letters of the English alphabet, 16 consonants and 8 vowels were needed in Efik, e.g
16 Consonants: b d f g h k m n ñ p q r s t w y
8 Vowels: a e ё i ї o ӧ u
And so, these early Fathers laboured on to employ these available letters in written Efik. These made the teaching of Efik in all their schools possible. All the early Efik bibles and religious tracts adopted the orthography e.g. “Ndien Ananiwuk ӧtӧñӧ ndiyaresїt onyuñ ӧtӧk enye eken” (Alexander Robb; Bunyan, Mbuk Asaña Usuñ Hev’n, 1868).
In the 1940s there was the need in the Presbyterian Synod circles to revise the Efik orthography, because it was felt that it would be more convenient for the printing press and the type-writer to adopt the use of the ŋ and the ɔ in places of the ñ and the ӧ, and to do away with the ё and the ї completely thus leaving us with 6 vowels, e.g “Ndien Ananiwuk ɔtɔŋɔ ndiyaresit onyuŋ ɔtɔk enye eken”.
In 1976, at a meeting of the Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, it was decided for a standardized orthography for all Nigerian languages, and the Efik language naturally was not left out. It brought about a little write-up on Modern Efik Orthography. This modern orthography reverted the ŋ and ɔ letters to what they were, with the ɔ now becoming ọ. Not only that, the modern orthography also restored the ё and ї letters but to be written as ẹ and ị respectively, and also introduced ụ, thus bringing the total number of vowels to 9 i.e  a e ẹ i ị o ọ u ụ. And so we could write as an example “Ndien Ananiwuk ọtọñọ ndiyaresịt onyuñ ọtọk enye eken”.
In February 2012, the Efik Language Development sub-committee of the Obong of Calabar Executive Forum reviewed the modern orthography and found that the alphabets ẹ ị and ụ were not separate or new letters but merely tones of already existing vowel sounds e i u. The dotted e i and u letters were also found incapable of forming double vowels like the rest of the vowels as in ai, ia, ei, ie, ue etc. They therefore did not satisfy the requirements for vowel sounds. Quite importantly, it was also observed that the letter q was not of Efik origin but was used in place of the diagraph kw. To avoid this repetition and possible confusion in usage, the sub-committee decided to drop the use of the letter q and keep kw which is more original. Also it was agreed that the use of ẹ ị and ụ be restricted to dictionary writing by linguists. The Language Sub-Committee therefore came up with this revised edition of the Modern Efik Orthography edited by the late Elder Chief Efiong Ukpong Aye Eyo Nsa.

THE REVISED MODERN EFIK ORTHOGRAPHY
Spoken Efik is tonal in structure and this is essentially the pitch of the voice in saying a word or syllable of a word.
There are five (5) of these different tone marks:

1. High tone identified by ( ̷ ) as in mmóñ (water)
2. Low tone, identified by ( \ ) as in ùsàn (plate)
3. Mid-tone, identified by (−) as in inēm (sweetness)
4. Falling tone, identified by ( ̂ ) as in obȗ (crayfish)
5. Rising tone, identified by ( ˬ ) as in fě (fly)

Thus, these tone-marks go to define the meanings of words in Efik
e.g (a) bòn beget (a child)
(b) bón (lay them down)
In writing the Efik language, one does not need to worry about the tone marks and the longness or shortness of sounds as in ẹ ị and ụ which one might find in Mbọñ ẹduk ufọk; Ikọ Efịk and mbon ukụt. These tone marks are really meant for the dictionary writer. The day to day writing of Efik language should be stripped of all forms of tone marks just like the English language, to make teaching and learning of the language feasible.
In order to satisfy the needs of written Efik, the letters in use have been sorted out and arranged as follows;
Small Letters
a b d e f g h gh i k kp kw m n ny ñ ñw o ọ p r s t u w y
but c j l v x and z come in through foreign words or names

CAPITAL LETTERS

A B D E F G H GH I K KP KW M N NY Ñ ÑW O Ọ P R S T U W Y
In the revised modern orthography therefore, a total of 26 letters are needed to write the Efik language. The letters can be categorized into;

1. 15 Consonants namely b d f g h k m n ñ p r s t w y
2. 6 Vowels namely a e i o ọ u
3. 5 Diagraphs (double consonants) namely gh kp kw ny ñw
4. 12 Double Vowels namely ai ia iọ ọi ie ei io oi ua ue uo uọ

Double vowels can be found in the following examples
ai as in akai (forest or jungle)
ia as in ifia (firewood)
iọ as in ebiọ (folly)
ọi as in fọi (nudge)
ie as in ebiet (place)
ei as in dei (lick with the tongue)
io as in obio (town)
oi as in koi (dip and fill cup with liquid etc)
ua as in urua (market)
ue as in due (err)
uo as in ibuot (head)
uọ as in ebuọt (loan)
Fifteen single consonants
In the revised modern orthography, there are 15 single consonants as against the earlier sixteen since q has been dropped. The 15 single consonants are as listed earlier:  b d f g h k m n ñ p r s t w y

Five double consonants (Diagraphs)
These are single sounds represented by two letters in combination. They include gh kp kw ny and ñw
Examples in usage are as follows;
gh: tigha (kick) and utigha (bow)
kp: kpi (cut), kpik (cut off a bit) and kpono (worship or give respect to)
kw: kwat (scrape) and kwọrọ (preach)
ny: nyam (sell) and nyan (stretch out)
nw: ñwan (woman or wife) and ñwọñ (drink or smoke)
Notice that the examples above have been stripped completely of tone marks and the dots under the vowel sounds e i and u dropped.
Examine the following passages for day to day writing of Efik language.

                                                            i
Efik eset edọhọ ete “ Edia ñkpọ enọ isọñ koro isọñ edide eyen eka owo”.
…….   E. N Amaku (Edikot Ñwed Mbuk 3)

                                                            ii
Ndien eto obot ndomokiet ikoduhe kaña ke isọñ, baba ikọñ kiet ikonyuñ itibeke kaña: koro Jehovah Abasi mikanamke edim edep kaña ke ererimbot, owo ndifuñ isọñ mikonyuñ iduhe.
Genesis 2:5

Ete John Bunyan anam eyen esie ekpep ñwed ndikot nnyuñ ñwet. Ido emi ke makara enam akpan akpan. Imaña owo edi ndisime mme ọkọi; edi esin ubọk, ete kpukpru owo efiọk ñwed, enyuñ enyene ibuot.
                                    ………Alexander Robb (Mbuk Asaña Usuñ Hev’n, 1868)

                                                            iv
Nso edenowo! Okoñ akan kpukpru ikọt esie ; uyo ke itọñ edime enyene uku nte eke ayara ekpe; iwat ke akwa ibuot, ibọ ye ata anyan ntañebek emi esimde ikpanesit, etetim enam enye ọbọñ ke enyin owo ekededi. Ke uko ebiet ọkwọk, ke odudu ebiet anawuriekpe, ofure nte ibiom, asana onyuñ eye ndido.
Asaña kwakkwak usen ita ye afaka esie ke isin, okuketo k’ubọk ikpaha mba. Ke ọyọhọ usen inañ ke idem emem enye ….. mmemidem ada owo ibuot.
                                                            ……E. E. E. Okon (Ñkukuñkpọyọriyọ)

                                                                        v
Obio Ndem Esikọñ ekedi utibe obio. Ke usukusuk, Akpa Isanda emi edide akpatre ke edidaha, abahade enye ye obio efen ekededi. Ke edere-edere, obot Ñgọñgi ete “edibe mmọñ?”. Ikpọ ebedeñ iba, kiet ke usiahautin, eken ke usoputin, ediana enọ enye enyiñ “Akasoko”. Eneni iduhe ndien ke owo ndikop ete mme ndiduñ ke Akasoko ekenyene ata akamba ukpuhọre ye mme nduñ-ndiana mmọ. Okut eyenọwọñ ete akani owo - edem ebiet okube, ibuo ọwọrọ eke adiaha unan; emiañ okut otop afara ete imokut ndien andida itie imọ.
Akamba owo, owo ikọdọhọkọdọhọ aba. Akani owo eyedi ñkpọ ndik.
                                                ……E. E. Ñkaña (Mutanda Oyom Namondo)

vi
Uyi ama amana eketim ese eyen esie, odori enye ubọk ke esit ndifiọk mme katatuak; ọfiọñọ ikpat ndifiọk mme ebit mme kofofiop; efet enye enyin ese mme edi eke owo mkpa mme eke uwem: ọyuhọ ete uwem ikikureke ima ke akpanikọ nte Otu Otu Ita eketiñde ọnọ enye.
Uyi adaha ke enyọñ asiama, ọkwọhọde enyin, okot ikọt esie ọdọhọ mmọ ete, “mbufo ekudodop ese mi ete ekikere ye ifiọk usọbọ Antigha emi esine mi ikpọñ k’ubọk koro ndide eka esie. Ekufre ete ifiọk edi etibe, owo ifiọkke ñkpọ ima, nnuenubọk kiet ñko isioho idañ, ubọk mum, ubọk mum, etut ukpa.
…….E. E. E. Okon (Uyi Efiọñ Esien)

vii
“Semi ufan tetie kibi inua fo! Afo omofiok iko emi? Nso idi udeme fo ke esit?” Abasi Ekpenyọñ eketiñ ikọ emi ke ata ọkpọsọñ uyo iyaresit. Enye ama ekpere ndidama idat ke ini emi Ọkọnọ Ekpe  akadahade ke enyọñ ọtọñọ nditiñ ikọ ke esop nditọ isọñ Abana.
Ke ini emi Abasi ama eketiñ ikọ emi ama, enye ikenyimeke aba nditetie, edi akatuak ada do owuk enyin ese Ọkọnọ. Ofuri idem esie ọtọñọ ndinyek nte ñkpọ eke enye oyomde ndiwọrọ unam.
Enyin ọkpuhọde enye ke ibuot akabade oduk iduot. Ndisi ibibiak etibe enye ke idem tutu ọfọñ emi enye ekesinede ebit ofuri ofuri. Ndien mikpedighe nte emi idet abakdabak ọkpọiso, Abasi Ekpenyọñ ikpetreke ndifuk Ọkọnọ ke ebiet oro kpa nte emi ekpe anamde ye ebot ke ini emi biọñ ekimde enye enyin”.