N'Ko script
| N'Ko |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type |
alphabet
|
| Languages | N'Ko |
| Creator | Solomana Kante |
|
Time period
|
1949 to the present |
| Direction | Right-to-left |
| ISO 15924 | Nkoo, 165 |
|
Unicode alias
|
NKo |
| U+07C0–U+07FF | |
| N'ko | |
|---|---|
| Kangbe | |
| Region | Guinea, Mali, etc. |
|
Native speakers
|
None |
|
Manding koine
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | (insufficiently attested or not a distinct language)nkoa1234
|
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 written in that 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 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.
Kante created N'Ko in response to what he felt were beliefs that Africans were a cultureless people, because before then, 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 the date in 1949 when the script is believed to have been finalized.
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.
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. It has been classed as the most successful of the West African scripts. The literary language used is intended as a koiné blending elements of the principal Manding languages (which are mutually intelligible), but has a very strong Maninka flavour.
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Wikipedia