N'Ko alphabet

N'Ko
Type
alphabet
Languages N'Ko
Creator Solomana Kante
Time period
 1949 to the present
ISO 15924 Nkoo, 165
Direction Right-to-left
Unicode alias
 NKo
Unicode range
 U+07C0–U+07FF

N'Ko (ߒߞߏ) is both a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949, as a writing system for the Manding languages of West Africa, and the name of the literary language itself written in the script. The term N'Ko means I say in all Manding languages.

The script has a few similarities to the Arabic script, notably its direction (right-to-left) and the connected letters. It obligatorily marks both tone and vowels.

History

Kante created N'Ko in response to what he felt were beliefs that Africans were a cultureless people, since prior to this time no indigenous African writing system for his language existed. 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. N'Ko Alphabet Day is April 14, relating to April 14, 1949, the date the script is believed to have been finalized.[1]

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 Mandinka cultural identity in Guinea, and it has also strengthened the Mande identity in other parts of West Africa.[2]

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). 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. It has been classed as the most successful of the West African scripts.[3] 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.

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. 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. Arabic transcription is commonly used for Mandinka in The Gambia and Senegal.

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

r d ch j t p b
ߙ ߘ ߗ‏ ߖ ߕ‏ ߔ‏ ߓ
m l k f gb s rr
ߡ ߟ ߞ‏ ߝ ߜ‏ ߛ ߚ‏
n'   y w h n ny
ߒ   ߦ‏ ߥ ߤ ߣ‏ ߢ‏
 

N'ko and computers

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 N'ko on computers. From the 1990s on, there were efforts to develop fonts and even web content by adapting other software and fonts. An MS-DOS word processor called Koma Kuda was developed by Prof. Baba Mamadi Diané from the University of Cairo.[4] However the lack of intercompatibility inherent in such solutions was a block to further development.

Pango 1.18 and GNOME 2.20 have native support for the N'ko languages. An iOS calculator in N'ko, N'ko:Calc, is available on the Apple app store. An iOS app for sending email in N'ko is also available: Triage-N'ko. There is a virtual keyboard named virtual-keyboard-nko to type N'ko characters on Windows Operating System.

A N’Ko font is available for Windows 8 and Open Office’s Graphite program, developed by SIL International.[5]

Unicode

Main article: NKo (Unicode block)

N'Ko script was added to the Unicode Standard in July 2006 with the release of version 5.0.

UNESCO's Programme Initiative B@bel supported the preparation of a proposal to encode N'Ko in Unicode. 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. In 2006 N'Ko was approved for Unicode 5.0.

The Unicode block for N'Ko is U+07C0–U+07FF:

NKo[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+07Cx ߀ ߁ ߂ ߃ ߄ ߅ ߆ ߇ ߈ ߉ ߊ ߋ ߌ ߍ ߎ ߏ
U+07Dx ߐ ߑ ߒ ߓ ߔ ߕ ߖ ߗ ߘ ߙ ߚ ߛ ߜ ߝ ߞ ߟ
U+07Ex ߠ ߡ ߢ ߣ ߤ ߥ ߦ ߧ ߨ ߩ ߪ ߫ ߬ ߭ ߮ ߯
U+07Fx ߰ ߱ ߲ ߳ ߴ ߵ ߶ ߷ ߸ ߹ ߺ
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 7.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

The literary language

N'ko
Kangbe
Region Guinea, Mali, etc.
Native speakers
 None[6]
Manding koine
Language codes
ISO 639-2 nqo
ISO 639-3 nqo
Glottolog (insufficiently attested or not a distinct language)
nkoa1234[7]

N'Ko literature is evolving into a literary language, known as kangbe 'clear language', that is based on a compromise dialect of several Manding languages. Mande speakers use kangbe to communicate in writing.[8] For example, the word for 'name' in Bamanan is tɔgɔ and in Maninka it is toh. In written communication each person will write it tô in N’Ko, and yet read and pronounce it as in their own language.

References

  1. ↑ Oyler, Dianne White (November 2005). The History of N’ko and its Role in Mande Transnational Identity: Words as Weapons. Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers. p. 1. ISBN 0-9653308-7-7.
  2. ↑ Oyler, Dianne White (1994) Mande identity through literacy, the N'ko writing system as an agent of cultural nationalism. Toronto : African Studies Association.
  3. ↑ Unseth, Peter. 2011. Invention of Scripts in West Africa for Ethnic Revitalization. In The Success-Failure Continuum in Language and Ethnic Identity Efforts, ed. by Joshua A. Fishman and Ofelia García, pp. 23–32. New York: Oxford University Press.
  4. ↑ Personal note from the LISA/Cairo conference, in Dec. 2005, Don Osborn
  5. ↑ Rosenberg, Tina (2011-12-09). "Everyone Speaks Text Message". New York Times. Retrieved 2013-12-22.
  6. ↑ N'ko at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  7. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "N'ko". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  8. ↑ N'Ko Language Tutorial: Introduction

Sources

External links

See also