N'Ko script: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:38, 25 March 2025

Revision as of 18:40, 25 March 2025

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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|Ajami]] script, which was not perfectly suited to the [[Tone (linguistics)|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 a [[Kamel Mrowa|Lebanese author]] who dismissed African languages as “like those of the birds, impossible to transcribe”<ref>{{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}}</ref> despite said Ajami history.<ref name="Donaldson">{{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}}</ref> Kanté then devised N’Ko while he was in [[Bingerville]], [[Côte d'Ivoire]] and later brought it to his native [[Kankan]], [[Guinea]].<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

N’Ko began to be used in many educational books, and the script is believed to have been finalized<ref>{{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}}</ref> on April 14, 1949 – a date now celebrated as N’Ko Alphabet Day.<ref name=":2">•&nbsp;{{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.}}<br />•&nbsp;{{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)....}}</ref> Kanté initially used the system to transcribe religious, scientific, and philosophical literature, and even a dictionary.<ref name=":1">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">{{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}}</ref>

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.<ref>Oyler, Dianne White (1994) ''Mande identity through literacy, the N'ko writing system as an agent of cultural nationalism''. Toronto: African Studies Association.</ref>

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===Tones===

NKo uses 7 [[diacritic]]al marks to denote [[tone (linguistics)|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.<ref name=":2" />

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