N'Ko script#Numerals

File:Grave of Kanté Soulemane, inventeur de l'alphabet N'Ko.jpg

Kanté 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 Mandé and common to other West African languages. An anecdote popular with N'Ko proponents is that Kanté 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”{{Cite journal|last=Oyler|first=Dianne White|date=2001|title=A Cultural Revolution in Africa: Literacy in the Republic of Guinea since Independence|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3097555|journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies|volume=34|issue=3 |pages=585–600|doi=10.2307/3097555|jstor=3097555|issn=0361-7882}} despite said Ajami history.{{Cite journal|last=Donaldson|first=Coleman|date=2020|title=The Role of Islam, Ajami writings, and educational reform in Sulemaana Kantè's N'ko|journal=African Studies Review|volume=63|issue=3|language=en|pages=462–486|doi=10.1017/asr.2019.59|issn=0002-0206|doi-access=free}} Kanté then devised N’Ko while he was in Bingerville, Côte d'Ivoire and later brought it to his native Kankan, Guinea.{{cite journal |title=The N'ko Alphabet as a Vehicle of Indigenist Historiography |first=Dianne White |last=Oyler |journal=History in Africa |volume=24 |date=January 1997 |pages=239–256 |doi=10.2307/3172028|jstor=3172028 }}

N’Ko began to be used in many educational books, and the script is believed to have been finalized{{cite book|last=Oyler|first=Dianne White|title=The History of N'ko and its Role in Mande Transnational Identity: Words as Weapons|date=November 2005|publisher=Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers|isbn=978-0-9653308-7-9|page=1}} on April 14, 1949 – a date now celebrated as N’Ko Alphabet Day.• {{cite web |url=https://anydayguide.com/calendar/1899 |title=N'Ko Alphabet Day |website=Any Day Guide |quote=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.}}
• {{cite web |first=Tapiwanashe S. |last=Garikayi |title=Afrikan Fonts: The N'Ko Alphabet |url=https://www.nan.xyz/txt/designing-afrikan-fonts/ |website=nan.xyz|quote=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)....}} Kanté initially used the system to transcribe religious, scientific, and philosophical literature, and even a dictionary.{{Cite journal |last=Oyler |first=Dianne White |date=2001 |title=A Cultural Revolution in Africa: Literacy in the Republic of Guinea since Independence |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3097555 |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=585–600 |doi=10.2307/3097555 |issn=0361-7882 |jstor=3097555}} 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.{{Cite magazine|last=Rosenberg|first=Tina|date=9 December 2011|title=Everyone Speaks Text Message|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/magazine/everyone-speaks-text-message.html?|magazine=The New York Times Magazine|page=20}}

This introduction of the script led to a movement promoting N’Ko literacy among Mandé 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.Oyler, Dianne White (1994) Mande identity through literacy, the N'ko writing system as an agent of cultural nationalism. Toronto: African Studies Association.

On June 27, 2024, the N’Ko literary standard was added to Google Translate.{{Cite web |url=https://blog.google/products/translate/google-translate-new-languages-2024/ |title=110 new languages are coming to Google Translate |date=27 June 2024 |access-date=2024-06-27 }}{{Cite web |url=https://support.google.com/translate/answer/15139004?visit_id=638550958236798747-1807070892&p=TranslateNewLanguages2024&rd=1 |title=What's new in Google Translate: More than 100 new languages |access-date=2024-06-27 }}

File:Online N'ko classroom via WhatsApp (cropped).jpg with a NKo class via WhatsApp]]

{{Anchor|Literary language}}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.{{Cite journal|last=Wyrod|first=Christopher|date=January 2008|title=A social orthography of identity: the NKo literacy movement in West Africa|journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language|issue=192|doi=10.1515/ijsl.2008.033|s2cid=143142019|issn=0165-2516}} It has been classed as the most successful of the West African scripts.Unseth, Peter. 2011. Invention of Scripts in West Africa for Ethnic Revitalization. In {{cite book|last1=Fishman|first1=Joshua|author-link1=Joshua Fishman|last2=Garcia|first2=Ofelia|author-link2=Ofelia García (educator)|title=Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity: The Success-Failure Continuum in Language and Ethnic Identity Efforts (Volume 2)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oUydX_3rG0AC|year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-983799-1}}

NKo literature generally uses a literary language register, termed kangbe (literally, 'clear language'), that is seen as a potential compromise dialect across Mandé languages.[http://www.fakoli.net/nko/tutorial/intro.html N'Ko Language Tutorial: Introduction] 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 koiné 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.{{cite web |author1=Agelogbagan Agbovi |title=Gànhúmehàn Vodún - Living Sacred Text (completely in Fongbe and N'ko) |url=http://www.restorationhealing.com/ganhumehan-vodun-book |website=Kilombo Restoration & Healing |publisher=Kilombo Restoration and Healing |language=en |access-date=2017-07-19 |archive-date=2020-11-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128041832/http://www.restorationhealing.com/ganhumehan-vodun-book |url-status=dead }}

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

NKo uses 7 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.{{Cite web |title=Chapter 19 – Unicode 16.0.0 |url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode16.0.0/core-spec/chapter-19/ |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=www.unicode.org |quote=When applied to a vowel, U+07F2 NKO COMBINING NASALIZATION MARK indicates the nasalization of that vowel. }}

NKo also provides a way of representing non-native sounds through the modification of its letters with diacritics.{{cite book |last=Doumbouya |first=Mamady |date=2012 |title=Illustrated English/N'Ko Alphabet: An introduction to N'Ko for English Speakers |url=http://cormand.huma-num.fr/maninkabiblio/ouvrages/dunbuya-angile_nko.pdf |location=Philadelphia, PA, USA |publisher=N'Ko Institute of America |page=29}}{{cite web |url=https://www.culturesofwestafrica.com/nko-alphabet-west-african-script/ |title=N'Ko Alphabet: a West African Script |last=Sogoba |first=Mia |date=June 1, 2018 |website=Cultures of West Africa |access-date=June 2, 2019 |archive-date=January 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230106041611/https://www.culturesofwestafrica.com/nko-alphabet-west-african-script/ |url-status=dead }} 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 {{IPAslink|y}} sound, or e-two-dots for the French {{IPAslink|ə}}.

Diacritics are also placed above some consonant letters to cover sounds not found in Mandé, such as gb-dot for {{IPAslink|ɡ}}; gb-line for {{IPAslink|ɣ}}; gb-two-dots for {{IPAslink|k͡p}}; f-dot for {{IPAslink|v}}; rr-dot for {{IPAslink|ʁ}}; etc.

NKo numerals use positional notation. Unlike both Western and Eastern Arabic numerals, digits decrease in significance from right to left.{{cite journal | url=https://www.afrikanistik-aegyptologie-online.de/archiv/2012/3553 | title=Numerical Notation in Africa | journal=Afrikanistik Online | date=27 December 2012 | volume=2012 | issue=9 | last1=Andrij | first1=Rovenchak }}

• ⸜...⸝ bracket paraphrased text, approximately equivalent to italics in Latin script.
• «...» bracket quoted text.
• {{angbr|߸‎}} comma
• {{angbr|߹‎}} exclamation mark
• {{angbr|߷}} paragraph mark; marks the end of a section of text
• {{angbr|ߴ‎}} apostrophe (elision of a vowel carrying a high tone)
• {{angbr|ߵ‎}} apostrophe (elision of a vowel carrying a low tone)

A low hyphen is used for compound words and the ASCII hyphen {{angbr|-}} 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:

• {{angbr|،}} comma (may occur in the same text as {{angbr|߸‎}})
• {{angbr|؛}} semicolon
• {{angbr|؟}} question mark
• {{angbr|﴾...﴿}} ornate parentheses (graphic form may differ from Arabic)

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 DOS word processor named Koma Kuda was developed by Prof. Baba Mamadi Diané from Cairo University.Personal note from the LISA/Cairo conference, in Dec. 2005, Don Osborn However the lack of intercompatibility inherent in such solutions was a block to further development.

There is also a NKo version of Wikipedia in existence since 26 November 2019, it contains {{NUMBEROF|ARTICLES|nqo|N}} articles, with {{NUMBEROF|EDITS|nqo|N}} edits and {{NUMBEROF|USERS|nqo|N}} users.:nqo:ߞߙߍߞߙߍߣߍ߲:Statistics

{{Further|NKo (Unicode block)}}

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.

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 Diané, 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:

{{Unicode chart NKo}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web |last=Condé |first=Ibrahima Sory 2 |date=2008-09-17 |lang=fr |title=Soulemana Kanté entre Linguistique et Grammaire : Le cas de la langue littéraire utilisée dans les textes en N'Ko |trans-title=Solomana Kante between Linguistics and Grammar: The case of the literary language used in texts in N'Ko |url=http://mandelang.kunstkamera.ru/files/mandelang/konde.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121120210054/http://mandelang.kunstkamera.ru/files/mandelang/konde.pdf |archive-date=2012-11-20}}
• {{cite journal |last=Conrad |first=David C. |date=2001 |title=Reconstructing Oral Tradition: Souleymane Kanté's Approach to Writing Mande History |journal=Mande Studies |volume=3 |pages=147–200|doi=10.2979/mnd.2001.a873349 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Dalby |first=David |date=1969 |title=Further indigenous scripts of West Africa: Mandin, Wolof and Fula alphabets and Yoruba 'Holy' writing |journal=African Language Studies |volume=10 |pages=161–181}}
• {{cite web |url=http://mandelang.kunstkamera.ru/files/mandelang/davydov.pdf |last=Davydov |first=Artem |title=On Souleymane Kanté's 'Nko Grammar' |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023153/http://mandelang.kunstkamera.ru/files/mandelang/davydov.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-04}}
• {{Citation |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI10681364 |last=Donaldson |first=Coleman |date=2017 |title=Clear Language: Script, Register and the N'ko Movement of Mandé-Speaking West Africa. |others=Doctoral Dissertation |location=Philadelphia, PA |institution=University of Pennsylvania}}
• {{cite journal |doi=10.1086/702554|title=Linguistic and Civic Refinement in the N'ko Movement of Manding-Speaking West Africa|year=2019|last1=Donaldson|first1=Coleman|journal=Signs and Society|volume=7|issue=2|pages=156–185|s2cid=181625415}}
• {{cite book |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/gse_grad_pubs/2/ |last=Donaldson |first=Coleman |date=2017 |chapter=Orthography, Standardization and Register: The Case of Mandé |title=Standardizing Minority Languages: Competing Ideologies of Authority and Authenticity in the Global Periphery |editor1=Pia Lane |editor2=James Costa |editor3=Haley De Korne |pages=175–199 |others=Routledge Critical Studies in Multilingualism |issue=2 |location=New York, NY |publisher=Routledge}}
• {{cite journal |doi=10.1017/asr.2019.59|title=The Role of Islam, Ajami writings, and educational reform in Sulemaana Kantè's N'ko|year=2020|last1=Donaldson|first1=Coleman|journal=African Studies Review|volume=63|issue=3|pages=462–486|doi-access=free}}
• {{cite web |author-link1=Michael Everson |last1=Everson |first1=Michael |author2=Mamady Doumbouya |author3=Baba Mamadi Diané |author4=Karamo Jammeh |date=2004 |url=http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n2765.pdf |title=Proposal to add the N'Ko script to the BMP of the UCS}}
• {{cite book |last=Oyler |first=Dianne White |date=1994 |title=Mande identity through literacy, the N'ko writing system as an agent of cultural nationalism |location=Toronto |publisher=African Studies Association}}
• {{Citation |last=Oyler |first=Dianne |date=1995 |title=For "All Those Who Say N'ko": N'ko Literacy and Mande Cultural Nationalism in the Republic of Guinea |others=Unpublished PhD dissertation |institution=University of Florida}}
• {{cite journal |last=Oyler |first=Dianne White |date=1997 |title=The N'ko Alphabet as a Vehicle of Indigenist Historiography |journal=History in Africa |volume=24 |pages=239–256 |doi=10.2307/3172028 |jstor=3172028 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3172028 |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite journal |last=Rovenchak |first=Andrij |date=2015 |title=Quantitative Studies in the Corpus of Nko Periodicals |journal=Recent Contributions to Quantitative Linguistics |editor1=Arjuna Tuzzi |editor2=Martina Benešová |editor3=Ján Macutek |pages=125–138 |location=Berlin |publisher=Walter de Gruyter|doi=10.1515/9783110420296-012 |isbn=978-3-11-041987-0 }}
• {{cite book |last=Singler |first=John Victor |date=1996 |chapter=Scripts of West Africa |editor-last1=Daniels |editor-first1=Peter T. |editor-last2=Bright |editor-first2=William |title=The World's Writing Systems |location=New York, NY |publisher=Oxford University Press, Inc. |pages=593–598}}
• {{cite journal |author-link=Valentin Vydrin |last=Vydrine |first=Valentin F |date=2001 |language=fr |title=Souleymane Kanté, un philosophe-innovateur traditionnaliste maninka vu à travers ses écrits en nko |trans-title=Solomana Kante, a Maninka traditionalist philosopher-innovator seen through his writings in N'Ko |journal=Mande Studies |volume=3 |pages=99–131|doi=10.2979/mnd.2001.a873361 }}
• {{Citation |last=Wyrod |first=Christopher |date=2003 |title=The light on the horizon: N'Ko literacy and formal schooling in Guinea |others=MA thesis |institution=George Washington University}}
• {{cite journal |last=Wyrod |first=Christopher |date=2008 |title=A social orthography of identity: the N'Ko literacy movement in West Africa |journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language |issue=192 |pages=27–44}}
• {{cite web |url=http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID%3D17488%26URL_DO%3DDO_TOPIC%26URL_SECTION%3D201.html |title=B@bel and Script Encoding Initiative Supporting Linguistic Diversity in Cyberspace |date=2004-12-11 |website=UNESCO|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041117031918/http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID%3D17488%26URL_DO%3DDO_TOPIC%26URL_SECTION%3D201.html |archive-date=2004-11-17 }}
• {{cite encyclopedia|date=2000 |title=Bambara |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bambara |quote=The Bambara, like other West African peoples, use the distinctive N'ko alphabet, which reads from right to left.}}

{{Commons category|N'Ko script}}

{{InterWiki|code=nqo}}

• [http://www.kanjamadi.com/ Kanjamadi]
• [http://lughat.blogspot.com/2005/05/nko.html Observations on the use of N'ko]
• [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/nko.htm Omniglot page on N'ko], with more links
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20141021110925/http://www.nkohome.com/ Nkohome], N'ko tutorial site with information on N'ko publications and contacts
• [https://keymanweb.com/#nqo,Keyboard_nko Virtual N'Ko keyboard] by KeymanWeb
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SwHBlUNPko How to write the N'ko alphabet (ߒߞߏ) of West Africa: A tutorial!], tutorial video on writing basic letters from:
• [https://www.ankataa.com/ An Ka Taa]: "Learn Manding—commonly referred to as Bambara, Dioula, Malinké or Mandingo!"
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130516204859/http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/Manding Information about Manding languages]
• [http://www.fakoli.net/nko/tutorial/intro.html An introduction to N'Ko]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070625154007/http://www.panafril10n.org/panafrloc/Casa-NKO.pdf "Casablanca Statement"] (on localization of ICT) translated & written in N'Ko
• [http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/Nko PanAfriL10n page on N'Ko]
• [http://www.islamhouse.com/d/files/nk/ih_books/single/nk_Translation_of_the_Meaning_of_the_Holy_Quran_in_Nko.pdf Translation of the Meaning of the Holy Quran in N'ko]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/magazine/everyone-speaks-text-message.html Everyone Speaks Text Message] (Tina Rosenberg, The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 11, 2011)

{{list of writing systems}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:N'ko Script}}

Category:Alphabets

Category:Scripts with ISO 15924 four-letter codes

Category:Writing systems introduced in 1949

Category:Writing systems of Africa

Category:Right-to-left writing systems

Category:Constructed scripts