N'Ko () is a script devised by
Solomana Kante
Solomana Kanté (also written as Sùlemáana Kántε, Souleymane Kanté or Sulemaana Kantè; , 1922 – November 23, 1987) was a Guinean writer and educator, best known as the inventor of the N'Ko alphabet for the Mandé languages of Africa.
K ...
in 1949, as a modern
writing system
A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable form ...
for the
Mandé languages
The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé peoples and include Maninka, Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Kpelle, Dioula, Bozo, Mende, Susu, and Vai. There are "60 to 75 languages spoken by 30 to 40 million ...
of
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
. The term ''N'Ko'', which means ''I say'' in all Mandé languages, is also used for the
Mandé literary standard written in N'Ko script.
The script has a few similarities to the
Arabic script
The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...
, notably its direction (
right-to-left
In a script (commonly shortened to right to left or abbreviated RTL, RL-TB or R2L), writing starts from the right of the page and continues to the left, proceeding from top to bottom for new lines. Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Pashto, Urdu, Kashmir ...
) and the letters which are connected at the base. Unlike Arabic, it is obligatory to mark both
tone and
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s. N'Ko tones are marked as
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
s, in a similar manner to the marking of some vowels in Arabic.
History
![Grave of Kanté Soulemane, inventeur de l'alphabet N'Ko](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Grave_of_Kant%C3%A9_Soulemane%2C_inventeur_de_l%27alphabet_N%27Ko.jpg)
Kante created N'Ko in response to erroneous beliefs that no indigenous African writing system existed, as well as to provide a better way to write Mandé languages, which had for centuries been written in predominately in
Ajami
''Ajam'' ( ar, عجم, ʿajam) is an Arabic word meaning mute, which today refers to someone whose mother tongue is not Arabic. During the Arab conquest of Persia, the term became a racial pejorative. In many languages, including Persian, Tu ...
script, which was not perfectly suited to the tones unique to Mandé and common to many West African languages. A widely told story among N'Ko proponents is that Kante was particularly challenged to create a distinct system when he, in
Bouake, stumbled upon a book by a Lebanese author who dismissively equated African languages "like those of the birds, impossible to transcribe" despite said Ajami history.
Kante devised N'Ko as he was in
Bingerville,
Côte d'Ivoire
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
and later brought to Kante's natal region of
Kankan
Kankan ( Mandingo: Kánkàn; N’ko: ߞߊ߲ߞߊ߲߫) is the largest city in Guinea in land area, and the third largest in population, with a population of 1 980 130 people as of 2020. The city is located in eastern Guinea about east of the ...
,
Guinea
Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
.
N'Ko began to be used in many educational books when the script is believed to have been finalized on April 14, 1949 (now N'Ko Alphabet Day); Kante had transcribed from religious to scientific and philosophical literature, even a dictionary.
These materials were given as gifts into other Mandé-speaking parts of West Africa. The script received its first specially made typewriter from Eastern Europe back when Guinea had ties with the Soviet Union in the 1950s.
The introduction of the script led to a movement promoting literacy in the N'Ko script among Mandé speakers in both Anglophone and Francophone West Africa. N'Ko literacy was instrumental in shaping the Maninka cultural identity in Guinea, and it has also strengthened the Mandé identity in other parts of West Africa.
Current use
![Online N'ko classroom via WhatsApp](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Online_N%27ko_classroom_via_WhatsApp.jpg)
As of 2005, it was used mainly in
Guinea
Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
and the
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
(respectively by
Maninka
Maninka (also known as Malinke), or more precisely Eastern Maninka, is the name of several closely related languages and dialects of the southeastern Manding subgroup of the Mande language family. It is the mother tongue of the Malinké peopl ...
and
Dyula speakers), with an active user community in
Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
(by
Bambara-speakers). Publications include a translation of the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
, a variety of textbooks on subjects such as
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
and
geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
, poetic and philosophical works, descriptions of traditional medicine, a dictionary, and several local newspapers. Though taught mostly informally through N'ko literacy promotion associations, N'ko has also been introduced more recently into formal education through private primary schools in Upper Guinea. It has been classed as the most successful of the West African scripts.
N'Ko literature generally uses a
literary language
A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langu ...
register, termed ''kangbe'' (literally, 'clear language'), that is seen as a potential
compromise dialect
To compromise is to make a deal between different parties where each party gives up part of their demand. In arguments, compromise is a concept of finding agreement through communication, through a mutual acceptance of terms—often involving var ...
across
Mandé languages
The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé peoples and include Maninka, Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Kpelle, Dioula, Bozo, Mende, Susu, and Vai. There are "60 to 75 languages spoken by 30 to 40 million ...
. For example, the word for 'name' in Bamanan is ''tɔgɔ'' and in Maninka it is ''tɔɔ''. N'Ko has only one written word for 'name', but individuals read and pronounce the word in their own language. This literary register is thus intended as a
koiné language
In linguistics, a koiné language, koiné dialect, or simply koiné (Ancient Greek κοινή, "common anguage) is a standard or common language or dialect that has arisen as a result of the contact, mixing, and often simplification of two or ...
blending elements of the principal
Mandé languages
The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé peoples and include Maninka, Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Kpelle, Dioula, Bozo, Mende, Susu, and Vai. There are "60 to 75 languages spoken by 30 to 40 million ...
, which are
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
, but has a very strong Maninka influence.
There has also been documented use of N'Ko, with additional diacritics, for traditional religious publications in the
Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
and
Fon languages of
Benin
Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north ...
and southwestern
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
.
Letters
The N'Ko script is written from right to left, with letters being connected to one another.
Vowels
Consonants
Tones
N'Ko uses 7
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
al marks to denote
tonality
Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is call ...
and
vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, f ...
. Together with plain vowels, N'Ko distinguishes four tones: high, low, ascending, and descending; and two vowel lengths: long and short. Unmarked signs designate short, descending vowels.
Numbers
Non-native sounds and letters
N'Ko also provides a way of representing non-native sounds through the modification of its letters with diacritics. These letters are used in transliterated names and loanwords.
Two dots above a vowel, resembling a diaeresis or umlaut mark, represent a foreign vowel: u-two-dots for the French
/y/ sound, or e-two-dots for the French
/ə/.
Diacritics are also placed above some consonant letters to cover sounds not found in Mandé, such as gb-dot for /g/; gb-line for /ɣ/; gb-two-dots for
/k͡p/; f-dot for /v/; rr-dot for
/ʁ/; etc.
Digitization
With the increasing use of computers and the subsequent desire to provide universal access to information technology, the challenge arose of developing ways to use the N'Ko script on computers. From the 1990s onwards, there were efforts to develop fonts and even web content by adapting other software and fonts. A
DOS
DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems.
DOS may also refer to:
Computing
* Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...
word processor named Koma Kuda was developed by Prof. Baba Mamadi Diané from
Cairo University
Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...
. However the lack of intercompatibility inherent in such solutions was a block to further development.
Wikipedia
There is also a
N’ko version of Wikipedia in existence since 26 November 2019, it contains 975 articles as of 16 August 2021, with 7,880 edits and 2,018 users.
[ :nqo:ߞߙߍߞߙߍߣߍ߲:Statistics]
Unicode
N'Ko script was added to the
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
Standard in July 2006 with the release of version 5.0. Additional characters were added in 2018.
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
's Programme Initiative B@bel supported preparing a proposal to encode N'Ko in
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
. In 2004, the proposal, presented by three professors of N'Ko (Baba Mamadi Diané, Mamady Doumbouya, and Karamo Kaba Jammeh) working with
Michael Everson
Michael Everson (born January 9, 1963) is an American and Irish linguist, script encoder, typesetter, type designer and publisher. He runs a publishing company called Evertype, through which he has published over a hundred books since 2006.
His ...
, was approved for balloting by the ISO working group WG2. In 2006, N'Ko was approved for Unicode 5.0. The Unicode block for N'Ko is U+07C0–U+07FF:
References
General sources
Condé, Ibrahima Sory 2. Soulemana Kanté entre Linguistique et Grammaire : Le cas de la langue littéraire utilisée dans les textes en N'Ko (in French)
* Conrad, David C. (2001). Reconstructing Oral Tradition: Souleymane Kanté's Approach to Writing Mande History. ''Mande Studies'' 3, 147–200.
* Dalby, David (1969) 'Further indigenous scripts of West Africa:
Mandin,
Wolof
Wolof or Wollof may refer to:
* Wolof people, an ethnic group found in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania
* Wolof language, a language spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania
* The Wolof or Jolof Empire, a medieval West African successor of the Mal ...
and
Fula
Fula may refer to:
*Fula people (or Fulani, Fulɓe)
*Fula language (or Pulaar, Fulfulde, Fulani)
**The Fula variety known as the Pulaar language
**The Fula variety known as the Pular language
**The Fula variety known as Maasina Fulfulde
*Al-Fula ...
alphabets and
Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
'Holy' writing', ''African Language Studies, 10, pp. 161–181.
Davydov, Artem. On Souleymane Kanté's "Nko Grammar"
*
Everson, Michael, Mamady Doumbouya, Baba Mamadi Diané, & Karamo Jammeh. 2004.
Proposal to add the N'Ko script to the BMP of the UCS'
Donaldson, Coleman (2017) ''Clear Language: Script, Register and the N'ko Movement of Mandé-Speaking West Africa.'' Doctoral Dissertation, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania.*
Donaldson, Coleman (2017) "Orthography, Standardization and Register: The Case of Mandé." In Standardizing Minority Languages: Competing Ideologies of Authority and Authenticity in the Global Periphery, edited by Pia Lane, James Costa, and Haley De Korne, 175–199. Routledge Critical Studies in Multilingualism. New York, NY: Routledge.*
* Oyler, Dianne White (1994) ''Mande identity through literacy, the N'ko writing system as an agent of cultural nationalism''. Toronto : African Studies Association.
* Oyler, Dianne (1995). ''For "All Those Who Say N'ko": N'ko Literacy and Mande Cultural Nationalism in the Republic of Guinea.'' Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Florida.
* Oyler, Dianne White (1997) 'The N'ko alphabet as a vehicle of indigenist historiography', ''History in Africa'', 24, pp. 239–256.
* Rovenchak, Andrij. (2015) Quantitative Studies in the Corpus of Nko Periodicals, ''Recent Contributions to Quantitative Linguistics'', Arjuna Tuzzi, Martina Benešová, Ján Macutek (eds.), 125–138. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
* Singler, John Victor (1996) 'Scripts of West Africa', in Daniels, Peter T., & Bright, William (eds) ''The World's Writing Systems'', New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc. pp. 593–598.
*
Vydrine, Valentin F. (2001) 'Souleymane Kanté, un philosophe-innovateur traditionnaliste maninka vu à travers ses écrits en nko', ''Mande Studies'', 3, pp. 99–131.
* Wyrod, Christopher. 2003. ''The light on the horizon: N'Ko literacy and formal schooling in Guinea.'' MA thesis, George Washington University.
* Wyrod, Christopher. 2008. A social orthography of identity: the N'Ko literacy movement in West Africa. ''
International Journal of the Sociology of Language
The ''International Journal of the Sociology of Language'' is a peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of sociology of language. It was established in 1974 by the eminent sociologist of language Joshua Fishman, who has serve ...
'' 192:27–44.
B@bel and Script Encoding Initiative Supporting Linguistic Diversity in Cyberspace12-11-2004 (UNESCO)
External links
N'Ko InstituteKanjamadi with more links
Nkohome N'ko tutorial site with information on N'ko publications and contacts
Virtual N'Ko keyboardby KeymanWeb
How to write the N'ko alphabet (ߒߞߏ) of West Africa: A tutorial! tutorial video on writing basic letters fro
An Ka Taa an online Mandé language resource
Information about Mandé languages"Casablanca Statement"(on localization of ICT) translated & written in N'Ko
PanAfriL10n page on N'KoTranslation of the Meaning of the Holy Quran in N'ko(Tina Rosenberg, ''The New York Times Magazine'', Dec. 11, 2011)
{{DEFAULTSORT:N'ko Script
Alphabets
Scripts with ISO 15924 four-letter codes
Writing systems introduced in 1949
Writing systems of Africa
Right-to-left writing systems
Constructed scripts