File:NKo-script.svg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
N’ko
Sign in to saveAlso known as NKo alphabet, NKo script, N'Ko alphabet, N'Ko script, Nkoo
alphabetic script initially created by Solomana Kante in 1949 as a transcription system for Manding languages in Western Africa, now designed and developed to become a pan-African script covering their phonology
Key facts
- Script type
- Alphabet
- Creator
- Solomana Kanté
- Period
- 1949–present
- Direction
- Right-to-left script
- Languages
- N'Ko , Manding languages ( Mandingo , Maninka , Bambara , Dyula )
- Iso 15924
- Nkoo (165) , N’Ko
- Unicode alias
- NKo
- Unicode range
- U+07C0–U+07FF
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- unicase alphabet
- Creator
- Solomana Kante
- Image
- Online N'ko classroom via WhatsApp.jpg
- Has use
- Koro
Show 7 more facts
- Unicode range
- U+07C0-07FF
- different from
- Nko
- name
- N’Ko
- native label
- ߒߞߏ
- Commons category
- N'Ko script
- inception
- 1949-00-00
- script directionality
- right-to-left
via Wikidata · CC0
~14 min read
Encyclopedic overview
N'Ko (ߒߞߏ), also spelled Nko, is an alphabetic script devised by Solomana Kanté in 1949, as a modern writing system for the Manding languages of West Africa. 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.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “N’ko” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.