N\'Ko - Citizendia

N'Ko
Type	alphabet
Spoken languages	N'Ko
Created by	Solomana Kante
Time period	1949 to the present
ISO 15924	`Nkoo`

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Soulemayne Kante or Solomana Kante (1922-1987 was an African writer and inventor of the N'Ko alphabet for the Mande languages of West Africa ISO 15924, Codes for the representation of names of scripts, defines two sets of codes for a number of Writing systems (scripts In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

N'Ko
Spoken in:	Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali
Region:	West Africa
Total speakers:	c. Guinea, officially Republic of Guinea (pronounced /ˈgɪni/ République de Guinée is a country in West Africa, formerly known as French Guinea Côte d'Ivoire (ˌkoʊt divˈwɑː(r ' in English, kot diˈvwaʀ in French) or Ivory Coast, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a Mali, officially the Republic of Mali (République du Mali is a Landlocked nation in Western Africa. West Africa or Western Africa is the Westernmost Region of the African Continent. 27 million (mother tongue and second language); see Bambara, Mandinka, Maninka, and Dioula
Language family:	Niger-Congo Mande West Mande Manding N'Ko
Official status
Official language in:	none
Regulated by:	Kurukan fuwa gbara (Association Kurukan fuwa gbara - [1])
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	`-`
ISO 639-2:	`nqo`
ISO 639-3:	`nqo`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Bambara, also known as Bamanankan in the language itself is a Language spoken in Mali by as many as six million people (including second language users The Mandinka language, sometimes referred to as Mandingo is a Mandé language spoken by millions of Mandinka people in Mali, Senegal, The Maninka is the name of several closely related languages and dialects of the southeastern Manding subgroup of the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo languages Dioula ( Dyula) is a Mande language spoken in Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the world's major language families, and Africa 's largest in terms of geographical area number of speakers and number The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé people and include Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara The Manding languages are a fairly mutually intelligible group of dialects or languages in West Africa, belonging to the Mande languages. This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

N'Ko (ߒߞߏ) is both a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949 as a writing system for the Mande languages of West Africa, and the name of the literary language itself written in the script. A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. Soulemayne Kante or Solomana Kante (1922-1987 was an African writer and inventor of the N'Ko alphabet for the Mande languages of West Africa The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé people and include Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara West Africa or Western Africa is the Westernmost Region of the African Continent. A literary language is a register of a Language that is used in Literary Writing. The term N'Ko means 'I say' in all Manding languages. The Manding languages are a fairly mutually intelligible group of dialects or languages in West Africa, belonging to the Mande languages.

The script has a few similarities to the Arabic alphabet, notably its direction (right-to-left) and the connected letters. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. It obligatorily marks both tone and vowels.

1 History
2 Current usage
3 Letters
- 3.1 Vowels
- 3.2 Consonants
4 N'ko and computers
5 The literary language
6 References
7 External links
8 See also

History

Kante created N'Ko in response to what he felt were beliefs that Africans were a "cultureless people" since there was prior to this time no indigenous African writing system for his language. N'Ko came first into use in Kankan, Guinea, as a Maninka alphabet and was disseminated from there into other Mande-speaking parts of West Africa. Kankan is the second largest city in Guinea, located on the River Milo in eastern Guinea and lying about 300 Miles east of the nation's Guinea, officially Republic of Guinea (pronounced /ˈgɪni/ République de Guinée is a country in West Africa, formerly known as French Guinea Maninka is the name of several closely related languages and dialects of the southeastern Manding subgroup of the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo languages "N'Ko Alphabet Day" is April 14, relating to April 14, 1949, the date the script is believed to have been finalized. Events 43 BC - Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar 's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Events 43 BC - Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar 's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Year 1949 ( MCMXLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

The introduction of the alphabet led to a movement promoting literacy in the N'Ko alphabet among Mande speakers in both Anglophone and Francophone West Africa. N'Ko literacy was instrumental in shaping the Maninka cultural identity in Guinea, and has also strengthened the Mande identity in other parts of West Africa (Oyler 1994).

Current usage

As of 2005, it is principally used in Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire (respectively by Maninka and Dioula-speakers), with an active user community in Mali (by Bambara-speakers). Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Guinea, officially Republic of Guinea (pronounced /ˈgɪni/ République de Guinée is a country in West Africa, formerly known as French Guinea Côte d'Ivoire (ˌkoʊt divˈwɑː(r ' in English, kot diˈvwaʀ in French) or Ivory Coast, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a Maninka is the name of several closely related languages and dialects of the southeastern Manding subgroup of the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo languages Dioula ( Dyula) is a Mande language spoken in Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire. Mali, officially the Republic of Mali (République du Mali is a Landlocked nation in Western Africa. Bambara, also known as Bamanankan in the language itself is a Language spoken in Mali by as many as six million people (including second language users Publications include a translation of the Qur'an, a variety of textbooks on subjects such as physics and geography, poetic and philosophical works, descriptions of traditional medicine, a dictionary, and several local newspapers. The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. Geography (from Greek γεωγραφία - geografia) is the study of the Earth and its lands features inhabitants and phenomena The literary language used is intended as a koine blending elements of the principal Manding languages (which are mutually intelligible), but has a particularly strong Maninka flavour. In Linguistics, a koiné language ( common language) is a Standard language or Dialect, that has arisen as a result of contact between two The Manding languages are a fairly mutually intelligible group of dialects or languages in West Africa, belonging to the Mande languages.

The Latin script with several extended characters (phonetic additions) is used for all Manding languages to one degree or another for historical reasons and because of its adoption for "official" transcriptions of the languages by various governments. The Manding languages are a fairly mutually intelligible group of dialects or languages in West Africa, belonging to the Mande languages. In some cases, such as with Bambara in Mali, promotion of literacy using this orthography has led to a fair degree of literacy in it. Bambara, also known as Bamanankan in the language itself is a Language spoken in Mali by as many as six million people (including second language users Arabic transcription is commonly used for Mandinka in The Gambia and Senegal. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. The Mandinka language, sometimes referred to as Mandingo is a Mandé language spoken by millions of Mandinka people in Mali, Senegal, The Senegal (le Sénégal officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the Sénégal River in western Africa.

Letters

The N'Ko alphabet is written from right to left, with letters being connected to one another.

Vowels

ɔ	o	u	ɛ	i	e	a
‎ߐ‏	‎ߏ‏	‎ߎ‏	‎ߍ‏	‎ߌ‏	‎ߋ‏	‎ߊ‏

Consonants

ra	da	cha	ja	ta	pa	ba
‎ߙ	‎ߘ	‎ߗ‏	‎ߖ‏	‎ߕ‏	‎ߔ‏	‎ߓ

ma	la	ka	fa	gba	sa	rra
‎ߡ	‎ߟ‏	‎ߞ‏	‎ߝ‏	‎ߜ‏	‎ߛ‏	‎ߚ‏

n'		ya	wa	ha	na	nya
‎ߒ		‎ߦ‏	‎ߥ	‎ߤ‏	‎ߣ‏	‎ߢ‏

N'ko and computers

With the increasing use of computers and the subsequent need to grant universal access to information technology, the challenge arose of developing ways to use N'ko on computers. From the 1990s on, there were efforts to develop fonts and even web content by adapting other software and fonts. A pre-Windows word processor called "Koma Kuda" was developed by Prof. Baba Mamadi Diané from the University of Cairo. However the lack of intercompatibility inherent in such solutions was a block to further development.

UNESCO's Programme Initiative B@bel supported the preparation of a proposal to encode N'Ko in Unicode. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on November 16 In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's In 2004, the proposal, presented by three professors of N'Ko (Baba Mamadi Diané, Mamady Doumbouya, and Karamo Kaba Jammeh) working with Michael Everson was approved for balloting by the ISO working group WG2. Michael Everson (born January 9, 1963) is a linguist, script encoder, typesetter, and Font designer. In 2006 N'Ko was approved for Unicode 5. 0.

Pango 1. Pango (Παν語 is a free and open source Computing library for rendering internationalized texts in high quality 18 and GNOME 2. A gnome is a Mythical creature characterized by its extremely small size and subterranean lifestyle 20 have native support for the N'ko languages.

[Gedit open source text editor in Bambara language with the N'ko script Pango in action ! ]

The literary language

N'Ko is evolving as a standard language of several Manding or N'Ko languages. The Manding languages are a fairly mutually intelligible group of dialects or languages in West Africa, belonging to the Mande languages. It is a literary language based on a "compromise dialect" which Mandens from different sub-groups use to talk to each other. A literary language is a register of a Language that is used in Literary Writing. They switch from their own dialect to a conventional dialect known as N'Ko. [2]. N'Ko is also known as Kangbe - the clear language.

For example, the word for 'name' in Bamanan is toko and in Maninka it is toh. In written communications each person will write it as tô in N’Ko, and yet read and pronounce it differently.

References

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 and Fula alphabets and Yoruba 'Holy' writing', African Language Studies, 10, pp. The Mali Empire or Manding Empire or Manden Kurufa was a Medieval West African civilization of the Mandinka from c The Fula language is a language of West Africa, spoken by the Ful{{IPA|ɓ}}e (Fula or Fulani people from Senegambia and Guinea to Yoruba (native name èdè Yorùbá, 'the Yoruba language' is a Dialect continuum of West Africa with over 25 million speakers 161–181.
Everson, Michael, Mamady Doumbouya, Baba Mamadi Diané, & Karamo Jammeh. Michael Everson (born January 9, 1963) is a linguist, script encoder, typesetter, and Font designer. 2004. Proposal to add the N’Ko script to the BMP of the UCS
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 Ph. D. 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.
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. link to text
B@bel and Script Encoding Initiative Supporting Linguistic Diversity in Cyberspace 12-11-2004 (UNESCO)

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