N'Ko language

Not to be confused with N'Ko alphabet.
NKo
ߒߞߏ
RegionGuinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, West Africa
Niger–Congo
  • Mande
    • Western Mande
      • Central Mande
        • Manding–Jogo
          • Manding–Vai
NKo script
Language codes
ISO 639-2nqo
ISO 639-3nqo
Glottolognkoa1234

NKo[a] (ߒߞߏ) is a standardized unified koiné form of several Manding languages written in the NKo alphabet. It is used in Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and some other West African countries, primarily, but not exclusively, in written form, whereas in speech the different varieties of Manding are used: Maninka, Bambara, Dyula and others.

It is a literary register with a prescriptive grammar known as ߞߊ߲ߜߍ (kángbɛ, kán-gbɛ "language-manner") codified by Solomana Kante, with the màninkamóri variety, spoken in Kante's native Kankan region, serving as the mediating compromise dialect.[1][2][3][4]

Valentin Vydrin in 1999[5] and Coleman Donaldson in 2019[3] indicated that the popularity of writing Manding languages in the standardized NKo form is growing. This standardized written form is increasingly used for literacy education among the speakers of different varieties.[6] It is also commonly used in electronic communication.[7]

The standard strives to represent all Manding languages in a way that attempts to show a common "proto-Manding" phonology and the words' etymology, including when the actual pronunciation in modern spoken varieties is significantly different. For example, there is at least one such convention, for representing velars between vowels: [ɡ], [k], [ɣ], [x] or zero may be pronounced, but the spelling will be the same. For example, the word for "name" in Bambara is [tɔɡɔ] and in Maninka it is [tɔɔ], but the standard written NKo form is ߕߐ߮ tô. In written communication each person will write it in a single unified way using the NKo script, and yet read and pronounce it as in their own linguistic variety.

On June 27, 2024, NKo was added to Google Translate.[8][9]


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  1. ^ Donaldson, Coleman (January 2017). "Donaldson, Coleman (2017) Clear Language: Script, Register and the N'ko Movement of Manding-Speaking West Africa. Doctoral Dissertation, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania". pp. 1–303. Archived from the original on 2019-02-21. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
  2. ^ Donaldson, Coleman (January 2017). "Donaldson, Coleman (2017) "Orthography, Standardization and Register: The Case of Manding." 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". Gse Graduate Student Research (2). Archived from the original on 2020-06-01. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
  3. ^ a b Donaldson, Coleman (2019-03-01). "Linguistic and Civic Refinement in the N'ko Movement of Manding-Speaking West Africa". Signs and Society. 7 (2): 156–185, 181. doi:10.1086/702554. ISSN 2326-4489. S2CID 181625415.
  4. ^ "N'Ko Language Tutorial: Introduction". Archived from the original on 2021-06-10. Retrieved 2018-12-01.
  5. ^ Vydrin, Valentin (1999). Manding-English Dictionary : (Maninka, Bamana). Lac-Beauport. p. 8. ISBN 9780993996931. OCLC 905517929.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ^ Oyler, Dianne White (1994) Mande identity through literacy, the NKo writing system as an agent of cultural nationalism. Toronto : African Studies Association.
  7. ^ Rosenberg, Tina (2011-12-09). "Everyone Speaks Text Message". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2022-02-02. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
  8. ^ "110 new languages are coming to Google Translate". Retrieved 2024-06-27.
  9. ^ "What's new in Google Translate: More than 100 new languages". Retrieved 2024-06-27.