N'Ko script

N'Ko (N'Ko: ߒߞߏ‎) is a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949, as a writing system for the Manding languages of West Africa.[1][2] The term N'Ko, which means I say in all Manding languages, is also used for the Manding literary standard written in N'Ko script.

N'Ko
ߒߞߏ
Type
Alphabet
LanguagesN'Ko, Manding languages (Mandingo, Maninka,
Bambara, Dyula)
CreatorSolomana Kante
Time period
1949–present
DirectionRight-to-left
ISO 15924Nkoo, 165
Unicode alias
NKo
U+07C0–U+07FF

The script has a few similarities to the Arabic script, notably its direction (right-to-left) and the letters which are connected at the base. Unlike Arabic, it obligatorily marks both tone and vowels. N'Ko tones are marked as diacritics, in a similar manner to the marking of some vowels in Arabic.

History
Grave of Kanté Souleymane. The French at the bottom reads "Inventor of the N'Ko alphabet".

Kante created N'Ko in response to what he felt were beliefs that Africans were a culture-less people due to assumptions that no indigenous African writing system for their languages existed; a widely told story is that Kante was enraged over a newspaper article written by a Lebanese reporter equating African languages "like those of the birds, impossible to transcribe".[3] Kante devised N'Ko as he was in Bingerville, Côte d'Ivoire and later brought to Kante's natal region of Kankan, Guinea.

N'Ko began to be used in many educational books when the script is believed to have been finalized[4] on April 14, 1949 (now N'Ko Alphabet Day); Kante had transcribed from religious to scientific and philosophical literature, even a dictionary.[3] These materials were given as gifts into other Manding-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.[5]

The introduction of the script led to a movement promoting literacy in the N'Ko script among Manding 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 Manding identity in other parts of West Africa.[6]

Current use
Smartphone with an N'Ko class via WhatsApp

As of 2005, it is used mainly in Guinea and the Ivory Coast (respectively by Maninka and Dyula speakers), with an active user community in Mali (by Bambara-speakers). Publications include a translation of the Quran, 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. 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.[7] It has been classed as the most successful of the West African scripts.[8]

N'Ko literature generally uses a literary language register, termed kangbe (literally, 'clear language'), that is seen as a potential compromise dialect across Manding languages.[9] For example, the word for 'name' in Bamanan is tɔgɔ and in Maninka it is tɔɔ. In written communication each person will write it one single way in N'Ko, and yet read and pronounce it as in their own language. This literary register is thus intended as a koiné language blending elements of the principal Manding languages, which are mutually intelligible, but has a very strong Maninka flavour.

There has also been documented use of N'Ko, with additional diacritics, for traditional religious publications in the Yoruba and Fon languages of Benin and southwestern Nigeria.[10]

Letters

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

Vowels
ɔouɛiea
ߐ‎ߏ‎ߎ‎ߍ‎ߌ‎ߋ‎ߊ‎

Consonants
rdchjtpb
ߙ‎ߘ‎ߗ‎ߖ‎ߕ‎ߔ‎ߓ‎
mlkfgbsrr
ߡ‎ߟ‎ߞ‎ߝ‎ߜ‎ߛ‎ߚ‎
n'ywhnny
ߒ‎ߦ‎ߥ‎ߤ‎ߣ‎ߢ‎

Tones

N'Ko uses 7 diacritical marks to denote tonality and vowel length. 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.

highlowrisingfalling
short߫‎߬‎߭‎
long߯‎߰‎߱‎߮‎

Numbers
0123456789
߀‎߁‎߂‎߃‎߄‎߅‎߆‎߇‎߈‎߉‎

Non-native sounds and letters

N'Ko also provides a way of representing non-native sounds through the modification of its letters with diacritics.[11][12] These letters are used in transliterated names and loanwords.

Two dots above a vowel, resembling a diaeresis 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 Manding, 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 word processor named Koma Kuda was developed by Prof. Baba Mamadi Diané from Cairo University.[13] 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, called Triage-N'Ko. There is a virtual keyboard named virtual-keyboard-nko to type N'Ko characters on the Windows operating system.

A N'Ko font, Conakry, is available for Windows 8, macOS, and OpenOffice-LibreOffice's Graphite engine, which was developed by SIL International.[5]

There is also a N’ko version of Wikipedia in existence since 26 November 2019, it contains 468 articles as of 9 March 2020, with 4,095 edits and 435 users.

Unicode
Further information: NKo (Unicode block)

N'Ko script was added to the Unicode Standard in July 2006 with the release of version 5.0. Additional characters were added in 2018.

UNESCO's Programme Initiative B@bel supported preparing 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)
 0123456789ABCDEF
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 13.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

References
  1. Eberhard, David; Simons, Gary; Fennig, Charles, eds. (2019). "N'ko". Ethnoloque. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  2. Oyler, Dianne (Spring 2002). "Re-Inventing Oral Tradition: The Modern Epic of Souleymane Kanté". Research in African Literatures. 33 (1): 75–93. doi:10.1353/ral.2002.0034. JSTOR 3820930. OCLC 57936283. S2CID 162339606.
  3. Oyler, Dianne White (2001). "A Cultural Revolution in Africa: Literacy in the Republic of Guinea since Independence". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 34 (3): 585–600. doi:10.2307/3097555. ISSN 0361-7882. JSTOR 3097555.
  4. 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 978-0-9653308-7-9.
  5. Rosenberg, Tina (9 December 2011). "Everyone Speaks Text Message". The New York Times Magazine. p. 20.
  6. Oyler, Dianne White (1994) Mande identity through literacy, the N'ko writing system as an agent of cultural nationalism. Toronto: African Studies Association.
  7. Wyrod, Christopher (January 2008). "A social orthography of identity: the N'ko literacy movement in West Africa". International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 2008 (192). doi:10.1515/ijsl.2008.033. ISSN 0165-2516. S2CID 143142019.
  8. Unseth, Peter. 2011. Invention of Scripts in West Africa for Ethnic Revitalization. In Fishman, Joshua; Garcia, Ofelia (2011). Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity: The Success-Failure Continuum in Language and Ethnic Identity Efforts (Volume 2). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-983799-1.
  9. N'Ko Language Tutorial: Introduction
  10. Agelogbagan Agbovi. "Gànhúmehàn Vodún - Living Sacred Text (completely in Fongbe and N'ko African writing script)". Kilombo Restoration & Healing. Kilombo Restoration and Healing.
  11. Doumbouya, Mamady (2012). Illustrated English/N'Ko Alphabet: An introduction to N'Ko for English Speakers (PDF). Philadelphia, PA, USA: N'Ko Institute of America. p. 29.
  12. Sogoba, Mia (June 1, 2018). "N'Ko Alphabet: a West African Script". Cultures of West Africa. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  13. Personal note from the LISA/Cairo conference, in Dec. 2005, Don Osborn

General sources
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