N'Ko script explained

N'Ko script should not be confused with N'Ko language.

N'Ko, Nko
Native Name:ߒߞߏ
Type:Alphabet
Time:1949–present
Languages:N'Ko, Manding languages (Mandingo, Maninka,
Bambara, Dyula)
Creator:Solomana Kanté
Unicode:U+07C0–U+07FF
Iso15924:Nkoo
Sample:NKo-script.svg

N'Ko (ߒߞߏ), also spelled Nko,[1] is an alphabetic script devised by Solomana KantĂ© in 1949, as a modern writing system for the Manding languages of West Africa.[2] [3] The term Nko, which means I say in all Manding languages, is also used for the Manding literary standard written in the Nko script.

The script has a few similarities to the Arabic script, notably its direction (right-to-left) and the letters that are connected at the base. Unlike Arabic, it is obligatory to mark both tone and vowels. Nko tones are marked as diacritics.

History

KantĂ© 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 Manding languages, which had for centuries been written predominantly in Ajami script, which was not perfectly suited to the tones unique to MandĂ© and common to other West African languages. An anecdote popular with N'Ko proponents is that KantĂ© was particularly challenged to create the distinct system when, while in Bouake, he found a book by Kamel Mrowa who dismissed African languages as “like those of the birds, impossible to transcribe”[4] despite said Ajami history.[5] KantĂ© then devised N’Ko while he was in Bingerville, CĂŽte d'Ivoire, and later brought it to his native Kankan, Guinea.[6]

N’Ko began to be used in many educational books, and the script is believed to have been finalized[7] on April 14, 1949 – a date now celebrated as N’Ko Alphabet Day.[8] KantĂ© initially used the system to transcribe religious, scientific, and philosophical literature, and even a dictionary.[9] These texts were then distributed as gifts across the Manding-speaking parts of West Africa. The script received its first dedicated typewriter from Eastern Europe as Guinea had ties to the Soviet Union in the 1950s.[10]

This introduction of the script led to a movement promoting N’Ko literacy among MandĂ© speakers in both Anglophone and Francophone West Africa. N’Ko literacy was thus instrumental in shaping Maninka cultural identity in Guinea, and strengthened Manding identity in wider West Africa.[11]

On June 27, 2024, the N’Ko literary standard was added to Google Translate.[12] [13]

Current use

As of 2005, it was 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 Nko literacy promotion associations, Nko 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.[14]

Nko literature generally uses a literary language register, termed kangbe (literally, 'clear language'), that is seen as a potential compromise dialect across MandĂ© languages.[15] For example, the word for 'name' in Bamanan is tɔgɔ and in Maninka it is tɔɔ. Nko 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 koinĂ© language blending elements of the principal Manding languages, which are mutually intelligible, but has a very strong Maninka influence.

There has also been documented use of Nko, with additional diacritics, for traditional religious publications in the Yoruba and Fon languages of Benin and southwestern Nigeria.[16]

Letters

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

Consonants

pronounced as /r/ pronounced as /t/ pronounced as /d/ pronounced as /tÍĄÊƒ/ pronounced as /dÍĄÊ’/ pronounced as /p/ pronounced as /b/
pronounced as /m/ pronounced as /ÉĄÍĄb/ pronounced as /l/ pronounced as /k/ pronounced as /f/ pronounced as /s/ pronounced as /rr/
pronounced as /Ƌ/ pronounced as /h/ pronounced as /j/ pronounced as /w/ pronounced as /n/ pronounced as /ÉČ/

Tones

Nko uses seven diacritical marks to denote tonality and vowel length. Together with plain vowels, Nko distinguishes four tones: high, low, ascending, and descending; and two vowel lengths: long and short. Unmarked signs designate short, descending vowels. One dot below a vowel marks that vowel as nasal.[17]

Non-native sounds and letters

Nko also provides a way of representing non-native sounds through the modification of its letters with diacritics.[18] [19] 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 pronounced as /link/ sound, or e-two-dots for the French pronounced as /link/.

Diacritics are also placed above some consonant letters to cover sounds not found in Mandé, such as gb-dot for pronounced as /link/; gb-line for pronounced as /link/; gb-two-dots for pronounced as /link/; f-dot for pronounced as /link/; rr-dot for pronounced as /link/; etc.

Numerals

Nko numerals use positional notation. Unlike Western and Eastern Arabic numerals, digits are written from right-to-left.[20]

Punctuation

A low hyphen is used for compound words and the ASCII hyphen (-) is used for splitting words at line breaks. There is no distinct computer character for the low hyphen; Unicode recommends using the non-breaking hyphen for that purpose. Arabic punctuation marks used in Nko text include:

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 Nko script on computers. From the 1990s onwards, there were efforts to develop fonts and even web content by adapting other software and fonts. A word processor for MS-DOS, Koma Kuda, was developed by Prof. Baba Mamadi Diané from Cairo University.[22] The lack of intercompatibility inherent in such solutions was a block to further development.

Wikipedia

There is also a Nko version of Wikipedia in existence since 26 November 2019, it contains articles, with edits and users.[23]

Unicode

The Nko script was added to the Unicode Standard in July 2006 with the release of version 5.0. Additional characters were added in 2018. While the script is spelled "N’Ko" in the relevant chapter of Unicode, the alias for the script is "Nko"[24] and the Unicode block name is "NKo" (because the apostrophe is not allowed in block names).[25]

UNESCO's Programme Initiative B@bel supported preparing a proposal to encode Nko in Unicode. In 2004, the proposal, presented by three professors of Nko (Baba Mamadi DianĂ©, Mamady Doumbouya, and Karamo Kaba Jammeh) working with Michael Everson, was approved for balloting by the ISO working group WG2. In 2006, Nko was approved for Unicode 5.0. The Unicode block for Nko is U+07C0–U+07FF:

References

General sources

External links

"Learn Manding—commonly referred to as Bambara, Dioula, MalinkĂ© or Mandingo!"

Notes and References

  1. Book: Moussa Koulako Bala Doumbouya. Baba Mamadi DianĂ©. Solo Farabado CissĂ©. Djibrila DianĂ©. Abdoulaye Sow. SĂ©rĂ© Moussa Doumbouya. Daouda Bangoura. FodĂ© Moriba Bayo. Ibrahima Sory 2. CondĂ©. Kalo Mory DianĂ©. Chris Piech. Christopher Manning. Proceedings of the Eighth Conference on Machine Translation (WMT), December 6–7, 2023. Machine Translation for Nko: Tools, Corpora and Baseline Results. 312–343. 2023. Association for Computational Linguistics. Also spelled N’Ko, but speakers prefer the name Nko..
  2. Web site: N'ko. 2019. Eberhard. David. Simons. Gary. Ethnoloque. June 12, 2019. Fennig. Charles.
  3. Oyler. Dianne. Spring 2002. Re-Inventing Oral Tradition: The Modern Epic of Souleymane KantĂ©. Research in African Literatures. 33. 1. 75–93 . 10.1353/ral.2002.0034. 3820930. 162339606. 57936283.
  4. 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. 10.2307/3097555. 3097555. 0361-7882. subscription.
  5. Donaldson. Coleman. 2020. The Role of Islam, Ajami writings, and educational reform in Sulemaana Kantù's N'ko. African Studies Review. 63. 3. en. 462–486. 10.1017/asr.2019.59. 0002-0206. free.
  6. The N'ko Alphabet as a Vehicle of Indigenist Historiography . Dianne White . Oyler . History in Africa . 24 . January 1997 . 239–256 . 10.2307/3172028. 3172028 .
  7. Book: Oyler, Dianne White. The History of N'ko and its Role in Mande Transnational Identity: Words as Weapons. November 2005. Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers. 978-0-9653308-7-9. 1.
  8. ‱ Web site: N'Ko Alphabet Day . Any Day Guide . N'Ko Alphabet Day is celebrated on April 14 in some West African countries, where the Manding languages are spoken. It marks the anniversary of the date the alphabet is believed to have been finalized..
    ‱ Web site: Tapiwanashe S. . Garikayi . Afrikan Fonts: The N'Ko Alphabet . nan.xyz. N'Ko started to be utilized in numerous instructive books when the script is believed to have been finalized on April 14, 1949 (presently N'Ko Alphabet Day).....
  9. 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 . 10.2307/3097555 . 0361-7882 . 3097555. subscription .
  10. Rosenberg. Tina. 9 December 2011. Everyone Speaks Text Message. The New York Times Magazine. 20.
  11. Oyler, Dianne White (1994) Mande identity through literacy, the N'ko writing system as an agent of cultural nationalism. Toronto: African Studies Association.
  12. Web site: 110 new languages are coming to Google Translate . 27 June 2024 . 2024-06-27 .
  13. Web site: What's new in Google Translate: More than 100 new languages . 2024-06-27 .
  14. Unseth, Peter. 2011. Invention of Scripts in West Africa for Ethnic Revitalization. In Book: Fishman. Joshua. Joshua Fishman. Garcia. Ofelia. Ofelia GarcĂ­a (educator). Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity: The Success-Failure Continuum in Language and Ethnic Identity Efforts (Volume 2). 2011. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-983799-1.
  15. Web site: N'Ko Language Tutorial: Introduction . 2006-11-29 . 2021-06-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210610124342/http://www.fakoli.net/nko/tutorial/intro.html . dead .
  16. Web site: Agelogbagan Agbovi . GĂ nhĂșmehĂ n VodĂșn - Living Sacred Text (completely in Fongbe and N'ko) . Kilombo Restoration & Healing . Kilombo Restoration and Healing . en . 2017-07-19 . 2020-11-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201128041832/http://www.restorationhealing.com/ganhumehan-vodun-book . dead .
  17. Web site: Chapter 19 – Unicode 16.0.0 . 2025-03-26 . www.unicode.org . When applied to a vowel, U+07F2 NKO COMBINING NASALIZATION MARK indicates the nasalization of that vowel. .
  18. Book: Doumbouya, Mamady . 2012 . Illustrated English/N'Ko Alphabet: An introduction to N'Ko for English Speakers . Philadelphia, PA, USA . N'Ko Institute of America . 29.
  19. Web site: N'Ko Alphabet: a West African Script . Sogoba . Mia . June 1, 2018 . Cultures of West Africa . June 2, 2019 . January 6, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230106041611/https://www.culturesofwestafrica.com/nko-alphabet-west-african-script/ . dead .
  20. Numerical Notation in Africa . Afrikanistik Online . 27 December 2012 . 2012 . 9 . Andrij . Rovenchak .
  21. The Unicode Core Spec, "N'Ko" § "Punctuation" https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode17.0.0/core-spec/chapter-19/#G18895
  22. Personal note from the LISA/Cairo conference, in Dec. 2005, Don Osborn
  23. [:nqo:ߞߙߍߞߙߍߣߍßČ:Statistics]
  24. Web site: ISO 15924 Alphabetical Code List. www.unicode.org.
  25. Book: Unicode, Inc.. Africa. The Unicode Standard, Version 16.0. 2024. Although the traditional name of the N’Ko language and script includes an apostrophe, apostrophes are disallowed in Unicode character and block names. Because of this, the formal block name is “NKo” and the script portion of the Unicode character names is “”..

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