This page brings together basic information about the N’Ko script and its use for the koiné called Kángbɛ. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write N’Ko using Unicode.
Given that individual speakers apply their own local pronunciations to the N’Ko written text, the phonological transcriptions here are more like transliterations of the N’Ko, using Latin letters typically employed for the Manding languages.
Sample (Mandinka)
Select part of this sample text to show a
list of characters, with links to more details. Source
Change size: 28px
The script is used mainly in Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire (respectively by Maninka and Dyula speakers), and an active user community in Mali (by Bamanan speakers). Publications include a translation of the Quran, a variety of textbooks on subjects such as physics and geography, poetic, and philosophical works, descriptions of traditional medicine, a dictionary, and several local newspapers.
The name is also used for a literary (as opposed to spoken) language written in that script, which is intended as a koiné, blending elements of the principal Manding languages (which are mutually intelligible), but has a very strong Maninka flavour. The term N’Ko means I say in all Manding languages. The koiné language is understandable by all literate Manding speakers and is used in situations where speakers of different Manding languages need a neutral means of communication
ߒߞߏŋko
The script was devised by Sùlemáana Kántɛ in 1949, as a writing system for the Manding languages of West Africa.
In 1986 l’Association pour l’Impulsion et la Coordination des Recherches sur l’Alphabet N’ko (ICRA-N’KO) was established, and officially approved as an NGO for the promotion of N’Ko five years later.
As mentioned above, N’Ko is a literary orthography that is tied to a standard or common Manding dialect which has arisen as a result of the contact, mixing, and often simplification of the various distinct, but mutually intelligible, varieties of Manding. This koiné may be referred to as Kangbe (kãɡ͡be).
“When Mandens from different sub-groups talk to each other, it is common practice for them to switch, consciously or sub-consciously, from one's own dialect to a conventional dialect known as N’Ko or Kangbe (the clear language). This is even true, sometimes, during conversations between the Bamanans of Mali, the Maninka-Moris of Guinea, and the Maninkos of Gambia or Senegal although pronunciations are practically the same. As an example, the word “Name” in Bamanan is “Toko” and in Maninka it is “Toh”. In written communications each will write it as Tô (ߕߐ߮) in N’Ko, and yet read and pronounce it differently.”nfb
Additionally, N’Ko reduces different phones into a single grapheme. For example, when writing Bamanan the following words are all spelled differently in the Latin orthography, reflecting the different pronunciations, but are spelled using the same letter in N’Ko:
The N’Ko script is an alphabet. Both consonants and vowels are indicated by letters. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for modern Kangbe written in the N’Ko script.
N’Ko script is written right-to-left in horizontal lines. Unlike other RTL scripts, such as Arabic and Hebrew, numbers are also written right-to-left.
N’Ko has it's own set of digits, which, as mentioned earlier, are (unusually) written right-to-left.
Character index
Letters
Show
Consonants
ߔ␣ߓ␣ߕ␣ߘ␣ߗ␣ߖ␣ߞ␣ߜ␣ߝ␣ߛ␣ߤ␣ߡ␣ߣ␣ߢ␣ߥ␣ߙ␣ߚ␣ߟ␣ߦ
Nasal syllabic
ߒ
Vowels
ߊ␣ߋ␣ߌ␣ߍ␣ߎ␣ߏ␣ߐ␣ߑ
Other
ߴ␣ߵ␣ߠ␣ߧ␣ߺ
Not used for N’Ko
ߨ␣ߩ␣ߪ
Combining marks
Show
Tones
߫␣߬␣߭␣߮␣߯␣߰␣߱
Other
߲␣߳␣߽
Numbers
Show߀␣߁␣߂␣߃␣߄␣߅␣߆␣߇␣߈␣߉
Punctuation
Show߸␣߹␣߷␣⸜␣⸝␣،␣؛␣؟␣﴾␣﴿␣«␣»
ASCII
(␣)␣[␣]␣.␣:
Symbols
Show߶␣߾␣߿
Other
Show␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣
Items to show in lists
Phonology
These are sounds covered by the N’Ko script. Because N’Ko provides a standardised written form, but allows speakers of different dialects to pronounce words differently, the application of these sounds to graphemes is not cut and dry.
Click on the sounds to reveal locations in this document where they are mentioned.
Phones in a lighter colour are non-native or allophones.
Vowel sounds
Consonant sounds
labial
dental
alveolar
post-
alveolar
palatal
velar
glottal
stop
pb
td
k
affricate
t͡ʃd͡ʒ
fricative
f
s
h
nasal
m
n
ɲ
ŋ
approximant
w
l
j
trill/flap
r
Vowels
Vowel sounds to characters
This section maps N’Ko vowel sounds to common graphemes in the N’Ko orthography. Tone is not shown here. Click on a grapheme to find other mentions on this page (links appear at the bottom of the page). Click on the character name to see examples and for detailed descriptions of the character(s) shown.
The low diacritic ߲[U+07F2 NKO COMBINING NASALIZATION MARK] is applied to a vowel to indicate nasalisation. This may produce multiple combining marks attached to a single character.
ߣߌ߲߬
A nasalisation mark attached to a letter that already has a combining character.
This mark should be typed and stored before any tone mark to preserve the canonical order.u
Vowel absence
ߑ
An absence of vowels between two consonants can be indicated using ߑ[U+07D1 NKO LETTER DAGBASINNA]u. However, this is not often needed, given that Manding words are normally composed of CV syllables, and is used in words from other languages, eg.
ߍߛߑߞߌߡߏߞߊߛߑߔߌߣߏߖ߭ߊ߫
However, when writing N’Ko, when two adjacent consonants are followed by the same vowel the vowel is omitted after the first consonantu, eg.
ߛߓߊ߬
There is no ambiguity here with regards to consonant clusters, since in the case of a cluster ߑ [U+07D1 NKO LETTER DAGBASINNA] would appear between the two letters.
This does not happen, however, if the two consonants are the samecd,xvii, eg.
ߝߊߝߊ
Tones & vowel length
߫␣߯␣߬␣߰␣߭␣߱␣߮
In the N’Ko orthography, each of the above diacritics indicates both vowel length and tone. Manding languages have two basic tones, high and low. A low-high combination may also occur with short and long vowels, and a high-low combination with long vowels.ws
Tone marks should be typed and stored after any nasalisation marker.
Several of these diacritics are also used over consonants to extend the repertoire when translitering foreign sounds (see transliteration).
Although some of the N’Ko diacritics look like those in general use with the Latin script, the ones provided in this block are typically drawn higher and bolder, and have a wider range of glyph variation.u
Tonal apostrophes
ߴ␣ߵ
Mande languages commonly elide a word-final vowel that precedes another vowel. The elided vowel is replaced by an apostrophe, eg. í bɛ́ à fɔ́ → í bʼà fɔ́
N’Ko has 19 regular consonants. There is also a nasal syllabic (ߒ), and two 'abstract' consonants (ߠ ߧ).
N’Ko doesn't have corresponding letters for g, ŋ, and z used in the Latin orthographies of Manding languages. Also, plurals that are written by appending a w to a word in Bamanan are generally written in N’Ko by adding a free-standing particle ߟߎ߬lù.
Consonant sounds to characters
This section maps N’Ko consonant sounds to common graphemes in the N’Ko orthography. Click on a grapheme to find other mentions on this page (links appear at the bottom of the page). Click on the character name to see examples and for detailed descriptions of the character(s) shown.
Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words,, etc.
Three diacritics, two of them tone markers, are used to represent foreign sounds (particularly Arabic and French) in conjunction with existing N’Ko letters, eg. ߛ߳sx̣ represents the θ sound of the Arabic letter ث.u
Adjacent consonants with no intervening vowel sound are indicated using ߑ[U+07D1 NKO LETTER DAGBASINNA], eg. ߓߟߏblobolo is pronounced with the vowel after the first letter, even though none is present, because of the rule explained above. To show that this should be pronounced without the vowel you need uߓߑߟߏbˣloblo
The Unicode Standard lists 3 consonants that are archaic forms of other characters in the N’Ko block. The new shapes were only introduced in the latter writings of the inventor of the script, Solomana Kante. (Their inclusion in the block generated some controversy.yaec)
߶[U+07F6 NKO SYMBOL OO DENNEN] is added to phrases to indicate remote future placement of the topic under discussion.u
Numbers
Digits
N’Ko uses native digits.
߀␣߁␣߂␣߃␣߄␣߅␣߆␣߇␣߈␣߉
However, unlike other right-to-left scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew, Thaana, the numbers are displayed right-to-left, with the most significant digit first.u This means that numbers don't produce bidirectional text in N’Ko.
The highlighted characters represent the date 17 Sept. 2021 in N’Ko. All characters are read right to left, including numbers. Click on the highlighted characters to see the sequencing.
When there are multiple digits in a number, the diacritic appears only under the last in sequenceu, eg.
߁߂߃߲123rd
Currency
߾␣߿
Unicode 11 introduced 2 currency symbols to represent the dorome and taman.e4 The symbols precede the numeric amounts, eg.
߾߅،߿߉߅
Observation: It's not clear who uses these currency denominations.
Text direction
N’Ko text is written horizontally, with successive lines progressing down the page.
Inline text is right-to-left in the main but, as in most right-to-left scripts, embedded text in left-to-right scripts is written left-to-right (producing 'bidirectional' text). However, like Adlam but unlike Arabic, numbers are also written with digits in
right-to-left order.
N’Ko-script words are read right-to-left, starting from the right of this line, but 'Karl Marx' is read left-to-right. The numbers (1818-1881) and the range, on the other hand are written right-to-left.
The Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm automatically takes care of the ordering for all the text in fig_bidi, as long as the 'base direction' is set to RTL. In HTML this can be set using the dir attribute, or in plain text using formatting controls.
If the base direction is not set appropriately, the directional runs will be ordered incorrectly as shown in fig_bidi_no_base_direction.
Unicode provides a set of 10 formatting characters that can be used to control the direction of text when displayed. These characters have no visual form in the rendered text, however text editing applications may have a way to show their location.
In Unicode 6.1, the Unicode Standard added a set of characters which do the same thing but also isolate the content from surrounding characters, in order to avoid spillover effects. They are [U+2067 RIGHT-TO-LEFT ISOLATE] (RLI), [U+2066 LEFT-TO-RIGHT ISOLATE] (LRI), and [U+2069 POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE] (PDI). The Unicode Standard recommends that these be used instead.
There is also [U+2068 FIRST STRONG ISOLATE] (FSI), used initially to set the base direction according to the first recognised strongly-directional character.
[U+200F RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK] (RLM) and [U+200E LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK] (LRM) are invisible characters with strong directional properties that are also sometimes used to produce the correct ordering of text.
This section brings together information about the following topics:
writing styles;
cursive text;
context-based shaping;
context-based positioning;
baselines, line height, etc.;
font styles;
case & other character transforms.
The orthography has no case distinction, and no special transforms are needed to convert between characters.
Font styles
N’Ko is usually cursive, ie. letters in a word are joined up.
Non-cursive fonts are sometimes used, mainly as display fonts for book and article titles.u
An example of unjoined text used for the title of a section. The body text is joined.
Observation: Throughout the source of the above figure the font used applies short baseline extensions to certain characters. For example, ߣ looks like ߣ . The extension doesn't cause any join with adjacent characters.
Cursive text
When N’Ko is cursive (see writing_styles), letters in a word are joined up. Fonts need to produce the appropriate joining form for a letter, according to its visual context, but the code point remains the same. This results in four different glyphs for most letters (including an isolated glyph).
ߕߟߋ߬ߓߊ߰ߓߟߐߟߐ
Cursive connections in a word. Note that here is both a medial and final form of ߐ.
Unlike some other cursive scripts, the cursive treatment doesn't produce significant variations of the essential part of the glyph for a character.
All letters join on both sides.
Cursive joining forms
Unlike Arabic or Syriac, joining forms only differ by the addition of a small baseline extension. Also, whereas Arabic and Syriac re-use a number of basic shapes to create additional letters by adding diacritics, in N’Ko each letter shape is different. fig_joining_forms shows the basic shapes in N’Ko and what their joining forms look like.
ZWJ permits a letter to form a cursive connection without a visible neighbour.
ZWNJ prevents two adjacent letters forming a cursive connection with each other when rendered.
Observation: The ZWJ only works on the left side of glyphs in fig_joining_forms if the table cell's base direction is set to RTL.
Context-based shaping & positioning
The Noto Sans Nko font changes the height of diacritics according to the height of the base character.
ߊ߬ߟߎ߬
The height of diacritics depends on the base consonant.
A base character may carry multiple combining characters.
ߓߊ߲߬
Multiple diacritics attached to the same base consonant.
Apart from that, no shaping is needed other than that described for cursive connections.
Font styling & weight
N’Ko uses italicisation and bolding.
An example of bolded inline text.
Italics may need to lean to the left, rather than to the right. Neil Patel writes:
Formalized typographic practices for both Adlam and N’Ko are still being developed. When [JamraPatel] reached out to both communities to see if an Italic typeface would be beneficial, both communities expressed a desire to have one. Over the past few years, as the ability to use both of these scripts more readily in computing has increased, the need to be able to set more complex copy has increased as well. Both communities see the benefit of having italic typefaces to add some semantic value to their copy. On-line N’Ko has historically used synthetic obliques for things like by-lines on articles. ...
Since neither script had any precedent for a drawn italic typeface, we asked each community on how they would like to see it drawn. This is how N’Ko ended up with the leftward lean and Adlam with a rightward lean in our typeface. ... To my knowledge our typeface has the first drawn italicized N’Ko and Adlam, so this is all still a bit new.g3,#issuecomment-512911833
Left-leaning italics in N’Ko.
Graphemes
Grapheme clusters
No issues are evident with regard to grapheme selection.
Punctuation & inline features
Word boundaries
N’Ko has word units that are separated by spaces.
Observation: The te-kerende is a common way of linking compounds together. It sits on the baseline, and breaks cursive joining. It was proposed for inclusion into Unicode, but not adopted. However, I'm unable to find any rationale for the lack of adoption. In these examples, I am using ߺ [U+07FA NKO LAJANYALAN] surrounded by spaces to create an idea of how te-kerende should look:e4ߡߐ߰ ߺ ߐ ߺ ߡߐ߰ߛߌ ߺ ߌ ߺ ߛߌ
Line-breaks only occur after te-kerende, and not before.e4
Phrase & section boundaries
،␣߸␣؛␣:␣.␣؟␣߹␣߷
N’Ko uses punctuation marks from the ASCII, N’Ko, and and Arabic Unicode blocks.u
߸[U+07F8 NKO COMMA] is normally separated from the previous word by a space, but in some texts is not, If no space is used, the baseline line below the dot doesn't join with the preceding letter.
An example of a comma immediately following a word, where the comma's baseline doesn't create a join.
߷[U+07F7 NKO SYMBOL GBAKURUNEN] is used to end major sections of the text, and represents the three stones that hold a cooking pot over the fireu.
Bracketed text
(␣)␣[␣]
N'Ko commonly uses ASCII parentheses and brackets to insert parenthetical information into text.
The words 'left' and 'right' in Unicode names for parentheses, brackets, and other paired characters should be ignored. LEFT should be read as if it said START, and RIGHT as END. The direction in which the glyphs point will be automatically determined according to the base direction of the text.
Both of these lines use > [U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN], but the direction it faces depends on the base direction at the point of display.
The number of characters that are mirrored in this way is around 550, most of which are mathematical symbols. Some are single characters, rather than pairs. The following are some of the more common ones.
(␣)␣<␣>␣[␣]␣{␣}␣«␣»␣‹␣›
Quotations & citations
«␣»␣⸜␣⸝␣﴾␣﴿
N'Ko texts may use guillemets or native marks around quotations. Note, however, that the order of use is different from that in LTR text, because they are not automatically mirrored.
The quotation marks in the first two rows above are also mirrored as the directionality changes (see mirrored_characters). Those in the bottom row are not mirrored during display, which means that for them LEFT means use on the left, and RIGHT means use on the right.
Observation:﴾ [U+FD3E ORNATE LEFT PARENTHESIS] and ﴿ [U+FD3F ORNATE RIGHT PARENTHESIS] derive from Arabic, and appear to be used for quotations in Islamic texts. The appearance of these brackets can vary from the shapes used in Arabicu,774. Note also that they are encoded among presentation forms, but it is normal to use these code points as if they were normal characters. See examples here.
Example of ornate parentheses used for Quranic quotations.
Emphasis
tbd
Abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition
߽
߽ [U+07FD NKO DANTAYALAN] is used to abbreviate units of measure.e4 The table shows some examples from a long list at e4:
Lines are mostly broken at inter-word spaces. As in almost all writing systems, certain punctuation characters should not appear at the end or the start of a line.
When a line break occurs in the middle of an embedded left-to-right sequence, the items in that sequence need to be rearranged visually so that it isn't necessary to read lines from top to bottom.
latin-line-breaks shows how two Latin words are apparently reordered in the flow of text to accommodate this rule. Of course, the rearragement is only that of the visual glyphs: nothing affects the order of the characters in memory.
The lower of these two images shows the result of decreasing the line width, so that text wraps between a sequence of Latin words.
The most common approach to justification relies on adjustment of spaces.u
Sometimes, however, ߺ[U+07FA NKO LAJANYALAN] is used like arabic tatweel to stretch the intra-word baseline.u
Observation: The N’Ko comma is separated from the preceding word by a space, which appears to stretch during justification in various samples. It's not clear whether that is expected, or simply because an ordinary space was used, rather than, say, a NNBSP.
Text spacing
ߺ
Text may be stretched, like in Arabic, using ߺ[U+07FA NKO LAJANYALAN] to fit a given space or make a heading stand out, eg. fig_letter_spacing shows a streched version of the title, ߞߏ߲.
A title that is stretched using baseline extension characters.
N'Ko uses the so-called 'alphabetic' baseline, which is the same as for Latin and many other scripts.
Counters, lists, etc.
tbd
Styling initials
tbd
Page & book layout
This section is for any features that are specific to N’Ko and that relate to the following topics:
general page layout & progression;
grids & tables;
notes, footnotes, etc;
forms & user interaction;
page numbering, running headers, etc.
General page layout & progression
N’Ko books, magazines, etc. are bound on the right-hand side, and pages progress from right to left.
Binding configuration for N’Ko books, magazines, etc.
Columns are vertical but run right-to-left across the page.
Layout direction
The right-to-left orientation of the script affects the direction of page layout, and of the layout of items within the page.
An N’Ko web page should be the mirror-image of pages in, say, French. This includes the various navigation items on the page, and the placement of other panels on the page.
On the other hand, the video controls assume a LTR direction. This is mostly constrained by technology at the moment, and whether or not this is acceptable is still being debated.
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
