N'Ko language

Common card · No. 489787

N'Ko (ߒߞߏ) is a standardized unified koiné form of several Manding languages written in the N'Ko 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. While the majority of speakers of these different varieties of Manding do not use either the written or spoken form of the koiné, thousands of people across West Africa today recognize and embrace the intention behind its promulgation. It is a literary register with a prescriptive grammar known as ߞߊ߲ߜߍ (kángbɛ, kán-gbɛ "language-clear") codified by Solomana Kante, with the màninkamóri variety, spoken in Kante's native Kankan region, serving as the mediating compromise dialect. Valentin Vydrin in 1999 and Coleman Donaldson in 2019 indicated that the popularity of writing Manding languages in the standardized N'Ko form is growing....

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