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
- Image
- Online N'ko classroom via WhatsApp.jpg
Show 5 more facts
- Unicode range
- U+07C0-07FF
- name
- N’Ko
- native label
- ߒߞߏ
- Commons category
- N'Ko script
- inception
- 1949-00-00
via Wikidata · CC0
~14 min read
Article
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.