N'Ko script

Nko, N'Ko
ߒߞߏ
Nko, N'Ko; ߒߞߏ
Script type	Alphabet
Creator	Solomana Kanté
Period	1949–present
Direction	Right-to-left script
Languages	Nko, Manding languages (Mandingo, Maninka,; Bambara, Dyula)
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Nkoo (165), N’Ko
Unicode
Unicode alias	NKo
Unicode range	U+07C0–U+07FF
	This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Nko (ߒߞߏ), also spelled N'Ko^[1], is an alphabetic script devised by Solomana Kanté in 1949, as a modern writing system for the Manding languages of West Africa.^[2]^[3] 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.

^ Moussa Koulako Bala Doumbouya; Baba Mamadi Diané; Solo Farabado Cissé; Djibrila Diané; Abdoulaye Sow; Séré Moussa Doumbouya; Daouda Bangoura; Fodé Moriba Bayo; Ibrahima Sory 2. Condé; Kalo Mory Diané; Chris Piech; Christopher Manning (2023). "Machine Translation for Nko: Tools, Corpora and Baseline Results". Proceedings of the Eighth Conference on Machine Translation (WMT), December 6–7, 2023 (PDF). Association for Computational Linguistics. pp. 312–343. Also spelled N'Ko, but speakers prefer the name Nko.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ Eberhard, David; Simons, Gary; Fennig, Charles, eds. (2019). "N'ko". Ethnoloque. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
^ 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. S2CID 162339606.

[1] Moussa Koulako Bala Doumbouya; Baba Mamadi Diané; Solo Farabado Cissé; Djibrila Diané; Abdoulaye Sow; Séré Moussa Doumbouya; Daouda Bangoura; Fodé Moriba Bayo; Ibrahima Sory 2. Condé; Kalo Mory Diané; Chris Piech; Christopher Manning (2023). "Machine Translation for Nko: Tools, Corpora and Baseline Results". Proceedings of the Eighth Conference on Machine Translation (WMT), December 6–7, 2023 (PDF). Association for Computational Linguistics. pp. 312–343. Also spelled N'Ko, but speakers prefer the name Nko.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[2] Eberhard, David; Simons, Gary; Fennig, Charles, eds. (2019). "N'ko". Ethnoloque. Retrieved June 12, 2019.

[3] 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. S2CID 162339606.

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