N'Ko bûn-jī

N'Ko bûn-jī; ߒߞߏ
Script type	Jī-bió
Creator	Solomana Kante [en]
Time period	1949–bo̍ktsiân
Su-siá hong-hiòng	Iù tò-pîng kàu tsìng-pîng
Languages	N'Ko, Manding languages (Mandingo, Maninka,; Bambara, Dyula)
Related scripts
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Nkoo, 165 , N’Ko
Unicode
Unicode alias	NKo
Unicode range	U+07C0–U+07FF
_BLANK_
	Tsit phian bûn-tsiunn pau-kuat kok-tsè im-piau (IPA) lāi-té ê gú-im tsuân-siá im-piau. Iú-kuan IPA hû-hō ê kài-siāu-sìng tsí-lâm, tshiánn tsham-ua̽t Pang-tsān: [ ], / / hām ⟨ ⟩ tsi-kan ê khu-piat, tshiánn tsham-ua̽t IPA § kuà-hō hām tsuân-lio̽k hun-keh-hû.

N'Ko bûn-jī (N'Ko-gú [en]: ߒߞߏ) sī Solomana Kante [en] tī 1949-nî siat-kè ê bûn-jī, sī Se-hui Mandé-gú ê hiān-tāi su-siá hē-thóng.^[1]^[2] N'Ko tsit-ê sû, ì-sù sī "guá teh sóo-ū ê Mandé gú-giân lāi-té kóng", mā iōng teh N'Ko bûn-jī pian-siá ê Mandé bûn-ha̍k piau-tsún. Tsit-ê bûn-jī kah Alápik bûn-jī [en] ū tsi̍t-kuá-á sio-kâng ê sóo-tsāi; ti̍k-pia̍t sī i-ê hong-hiòng (uì tsiànn-pîng kàu tò-pîng ê bûn-jī [en]) kah té-pōo liân-tsiap ê jī-bió. Kah Alápik-gú bô kâng, pit-su tông-sî piau-kì siann-tiāu kah guân-im. N'Ko im-tiāu hông piau-kì tsiò piàn-im hû-hō, i-ê hong-sik luī-sū Alápik-gú lāi-té ê tsi̍t-kuá-á guân-im piau-kì.

Li̍k-sú

Kante tshòng-kiàn N'Ko sī uī-tio̍h huê-ìng put tsûn-tsāi teh Hui-tsiu pún-thóo su-siá hē-thóng ê tshò-ngōo sìn-liām; pīng-tshiánn the̍h-kióng tsi̍t-tsióng koh-khah hó ê hong-sik lâi su-siá Mandé gú-giân. Tsia--ê gú-giân kui-ê sè-kí í-lâi tsú-iàu sú-iōng Ajami bûn-jī su-siá; tse pīng-bô uân-tsuân sik-ha̍p Mandé to̍k-iú ê gú-tiāu, iah-sī tsiânn-tsē Se-hui gú-giân kiōng-iú ê gú-tiāu. Teh N'Ko tsi-tshî tsiá tang-tiong liû-thuân tsiânn-khuah ê tsi̍t-ê kòo-sū sī: hit-sî Kante teh Bouake bô-tú-hó huat-hiān tsi̍t-ê leban tsok-ka ê tsi̍t-pún tsheh ê sî-tsūn; Kant i biān-lîm tio̍h tshòng-kiàn tsi̍t-ê to̍k-ti̍k hē-thóng ê ti̍k-pia̍t thiau-tsiàn; tsit-ê tsok-ka khin-sī kā Hui-tsiu gú-giân ting-tông "tō tshin-tshiūnn tsiáu-á ê gú-giân, bô-huat-tōo tsuán-lio̍k"^[3] sui-bóng mā kóng-tio̍h Ajami ê li̍k-sú.^[4] Kante teh Côte d'Ivoire Bingerville ê sî-tsūn ū siat-kè N'Ko, āu--lâi hông tshuā-kàu Kante ê tshut-senn tē Guinea Kankan.^[5]

Tī 1949-nî 4-gue̍h 14-ji̍t (tsit-má ê N'Ko jī-bió ji̍t) bûn-jī hông jīn-uî í-king tīng-kó^[6] ê sî-tsūn, N'Kokhai-sí iōng teh tsiânn-tsē kàu-io̍k su-tsik; Kante kā tsong-kàu bûn-hiàn tsuan-lio̍k tsò kho-ha̍k hām tiat-ha̍k bûn-hiàn, sīm-tsì tsi̍t-pún jī-tián.^[7] Tsia--ê tsâi-liāu tsok-uî lé-bu̍t sàng hōo Se-hui kî-thann kóng Mandé-gú ê tē-khu. Tong-sî Guinea tī 1950 nî-tāi kah soo-liân kiàn-li̍p liân-hē ê sî-tsūn,tsit-khuán bûn-jī uì Tang-au siu--tio̍h tē-1 tâi phah-jī-ki.^[8] Tsit-tsióng bûn-jī ê ín-ji̍p ín-huat tsi̍t-tiûnn ūn-tōng; teh Se-hui ing-gú kok-ka hām huat-gú kok-ka kóng Mandé-gú ê jîn-kûn tang-tiong theh-ko N'Ko bûn-jī ê sik-jī-lu̍t. N'Ko sik-jī iú-tsōo teh sok-tsō Guinea ê Maninka bûn-huà jīn-tông; tsit-khuán jīn-tông mā ka-kiông Se-hui kî-thann tē-khu ê Mandé jīn-tông.^[9]

Jī-bió

N'Ko ê bûn-jī sī uì tsiànn-pîng hiòng tò-pîng su-siá ê, jī-bió tsi-kan sī sio liân-suà ê.

Guân-im

ɔ	o	u	ɛ	i	e	a
ߐ	ߏ	ߎ	ߍ	ߌ	ߋ	ߊ

Hú-im

r	t	d	t͡ʃ	d͡ʒ	p	b
ߙ	ߕ	ߘ	ߗ	ߖ	ߔ	ߓ

m	g͡b	l	k	f	s	rr
ߡ	ߜ	ߟ	ߞ	ߝ	ߛ	ߚ

ŋ	h		j	w	n	ɲ
ߒ	ߤ		ߦ	ߥ	ߣ	ߢ

Im-tiāu

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.

	high	low	rising	falling
short	߫	߬	߭
long	߯	߰	߱	߮

Sòo-jī

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
߀	߁	߂	߃	߄	߅	߆	߇	߈	߉

Hui bió-gú huat-im hām jī-bió

N'Ko also provides a way of representing non-native sounds through the modification of its letters with diacritics.^[10]^[11] 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 /y/ sound, or e-two-dots for the French /ə/.

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

Sòo-kì-huà

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.^[12] However the lack of intercompatibility inherent in such solutions was a block to further development.

Uikipitia

There is also a N’ko version of Wikipedia in existence since 26 November 2019, it contains 975 articles as of 16 August 2021, with 7,880 edits and 2,018 users.^[13]

Unicode

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)
	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
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			߽	߾	߿
Tsù-kái 1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Tsù-kái

↑ Eberhard, David; Simons, Gary; Fennig, Charles, pian. (2019). "N'ko". Ethnoloque. June 12, 2019 khòaⁿ--ê.
↑ 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.
↑ 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.
↑ Donaldson, Coleman (2020). "The Role of Islam, Ajami writings, and educational reform in Sulemaana Kantè's N'ko". African Studies Review (ēng Eng-gí). 63 (3): 462–486. doi:10.1017/asr.2019.59. ISSN 0002-0206.
↑ The N'ko Alphabet as a Vehicle of Indigenist Historiography, Diane Oyler, History in Africa , Volume 24 , January 1997 , pp. 239 - 256 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3172028
↑ 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.
↑ 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.
↑ Rosenberg, Tina (9 December 2011). "Everyone Speaks Text Message". The New York Times Magazine. p. 20.
↑ Oyler, Dianne White (1994) Mande identity through literacy, the N'ko writing system as an agent of cultural nationalism. Toronto: African Studies Association.
↑ 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.
↑ Sogoba, Mia (June 1, 2018). "N'Ko Alphabet: a West African Script". Cultures of West Africa. goân-loē-iông tī 2023-01-06 hőng khó͘-pih. June 2, 2019 khòaⁿ--ê.
↑ Personal note from the LISA/Cairo conference, in Dec. 2005, Don Osborn
↑ nqo:ߞߙߍߞߙߍߣߍ߲:Statistics

Tsham-khó bûn-hiàn

Condé, Ibrahima Sory 2. Soulemana Kanté entre Linguistique et Grammaire : Le cas de la langue littéraire utilisée dans les textes en N'Ko Archived 2012-11-20 at the Wayback Machine. (in French)
Conrad, David C. (2001). Reconstructing Oral Tradition: Souleymane Kanté's Approach to Writing Mande History. Mande Studies 3, 147–200.
Dalby, David (1969) 'Further indigenous scripts of West Africa: Mandin, Wolof and Fula alphabets and Yoruba 'Holy' writing', African Language Studies, 10, pp. 161–181.
Davydov, Artem. On Souleymane Kanté's "Nko Grammar" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine.
Everson, Michael, Mamady Doumbouya, Baba Mamadi Diané, & Karamo Jammeh. 2004. Proposal to add the N'Ko script to the BMP of the UCS
Donaldson, Coleman (2017) Clear Language: Script, Register and the N'ko Movement of Mandé-Speaking West Africa. Doctoral Dissertation, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania.
Donaldson, Coleman (2019). "Linguistic and Civic Refinement in the N'ko Movement of Manding-Speaking West Africa". Signs and Society. 7 (2): 156–185. doi:10.1086/702554.
Donaldson, Coleman (2017) "Orthography, Standardization and Register: The Case of Mandé." In Standardizing Minority Languages: Competing Ideologies of Authority and Authenticity in the Global Periphery, edited by Pia Lane, James Costa, and Haley De Korne, 175–199. Routledge Critical Studies in Multilingualism. New York, NY: Routledge.
Donaldson, Coleman (2020). "The Role of Islam, Ajami writings, and educational reform in Sulemaana Kantè's N'ko". African Studies Review. 63 (3): 462–486. doi:10.1017/asr.2019.59.
Oyler, Dianne White (1994) Mande identity through literacy, the N'ko writing system as an agent of cultural nationalism. Toronto : African Studies Association.
Oyler, Dianne (1995). For "All Those Who Say N'ko": N'ko Literacy and Mande Cultural Nationalism in the Republic of Guinea. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Florida.
Oyler, Dianne White (1997) 'The N'ko alphabet as a vehicle of indigenist historiography', History in Africa, 24, pp. 239–256.
Rovenchak, Andrij. (2015) Quantitative Studies in the Corpus of Nko Periodicals, Recent Contributions to Quantitative Linguistics, Arjuna Tuzzi, Martina Benešová, Ján Macutek (eds.), 125–138. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Singler, John Victor (1996) 'Scripts of West Africa', in Daniels, Peter T., & Bright, William (eds) The World's Writing Systems, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc. pp. 593–598.
Vydrine, Valentin F. (2001) 'Souleymane Kanté, un philosophe-innovateur traditionnaliste maninka vu à travers ses écrits en nko', Mande Studies, 3, pp. 99–131.
Wyrod, Christopher. 2003. The light on the horizon: N'Ko literacy and formal schooling in Guinea. MA thesis, George Washington University.
Wyrod, Christopher. 2008. A social orthography of identity: the N'Ko literacy movement in West Africa. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 192:27–44.
B@bel and Script Encoding Initiative Supporting Linguistic Diversity in Cyberspace 12-11-2004 (UNESCO)

Tsham-ua̍t

N'Ko-gú [en] (N'Ko language)
Solomana Kante [en] (Solomana Kante)
NKo (Unicode block)
Hui-chiu ê bûn-jī [en] (Writing systems of Africa)

Guā-pōo liân-kiat

Tī Wikimedia Commons téng ê siong-koan tóng-àn: N'Ko script

N'Ko Institute
Kanjamadi
Observations on the use of N'ko
Omniglot page on N'ko, with more links
Nkohome, N'ko tutorial site with information on N'ko publications and contacts
Virtual N'Ko keyboard by KeymanWeb
How to write the N'ko alphabet (ߒߞߏ) of West Africa: A tutorial!, tutorial video on writing basic letters from An Ka Taa, an online Mandé language resource
Information about Mandé languages
An introduction to N'Ko
"Casablanca Statement" (on localization of ICT) translated & written in N'Ko
PanAfriL10n page on N'Ko
Translation of the Meaning of the Holy Quran in N'ko
Everyone Speaks Text Message (Tina Rosenberg, The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 11, 2011)

[1] Eberhard, David; Simons, Gary; Fennig, Charles, pian. (2019). "N'ko". Ethnoloque. June 12, 2019 khòaⁿ--ê.

[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.

[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.

[Donaldson-4] Donaldson, Coleman (2020). "The Role of Islam, Ajami writings, and educational reform in Sulemaana Kantè's N'ko". African Studies Review (ēng Eng-gí). 63 (3): 462–486. doi:10.1017/asr.2019.59. ISSN 0002-0206.

[5] The N'ko Alphabet as a Vehicle of Indigenist Historiography, Diane Oyler, History in Africa , Volume 24 , January 1997 , pp. 239 - 256 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3172028

[6] 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.

[:1-7] 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.

[:0-8] Rosenberg, Tina (9 December 2011). "Everyone Speaks Text Message". The New York Times Magazine. p. 20.

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

[10] 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.

[11] Sogoba, Mia (June 1, 2018). "N'Ko Alphabet: a West African Script". Cultures of West Africa. goân-loē-iông tī 2023-01-06 hőng khó͘-pih. June 2, 2019 khòaⁿ--ê.

[12] Personal note from the LISA/Cairo conference, in Dec. 2005, Don Osborn

[13] qo:ߞߙߍߞߙߍߣߍ߲:Statistics

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