N'ko alphabet
Alfabeto n'ko
- Date
- 14 de abril de 1949 · confidence high
- Place
- Bingerville, Lagunes, Ivory Coast
- Credited to
- Solomana Kanté
- People
- 👤 Solomana Kante1922–1987
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
Solomana Kanté devised in 1949 a right-to-left alphabet for writing the Manding languages (Bambara, Malinke, Dyula), which he thought poorly served by Arabic and Latin. It is used today in Guinea, Mali and Ivory Coast.
Kanté created it in Bingerville in reaction to the widespread idea that African languages could not be written; he later lived in Kankan (Guinea). His books and their diffusion were produced without state support.
What it led to
- literature, press and translations in N'ko
- Unicode recognition since 2006
- a Manding cultural affirmation movement