Text
Despite all the money and efforts spent in promoting Bambara language literacy and education since Mali’s independence, few speakers of the language today use the official Latin-based system.
Today, it’s clear that there is more written text— in newspapers, books and webpages, etc—produced in N’ko (ߒߞߏ) than in the official Latin-based system.
A non-Latin, non-Arabic based script invented in 1949 by a man named Sulemaana Kantè, N’ko was not created as an alphabet for Bambara, but as a standard system to unite all the Manding varieties: Bambara, Jula, Maninka and Mandinka. During his life, Kantè authored a vast quantity of books that included a series on West African history, a monolingual (Manding to Manding) dictionary and a translation of the Quran.
His enduring legacy, however, are the growing number of people that read and write in his script today. You can see N’ko written across storefronts in cities like Bamako, Bobo-Dioulasso, Kankan and Abidjan. It’s used extensively online; mostly in popular groups chats on messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram.
For all these reasons and many others, it is worthwhile for any serious student of Bambara to get acquainted with the N’ko script.
The Alphabet
This is a basic introduction to the major letters of N’ko.
I won’t be touching on a few details or the important diacritics that appear above or below letters to mark Manding tone, length or nasalization.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Vowels (which are known as
siiralannuin N’ko circles) - Consonants (
siiratalu) - The syllabic nasal letter (
tɛdɔ)
I’ve included a few footnotes to explain some of the nuances that distinguish N’ko from Latin-based orthography.
Vowels
| N’ko | Transliteration |
|---|---|
| ߊ | a |
| ߋ | e |
| ߍ | ɛ |
| ߌ | i |
| ߏ | o |
| ߐ | ɔ |
| ߎ | u |
Consonants
| Letter | Transliteration |
|---|---|
| ߓ | b |
| ߗ | c |
| ߘ | d |
| ߝ | f |
| ߜ | gb1 |
| ߤ | h |
| ߖ | j |
| ߞ | k |
| ߟ | l |
| ߡ | m |
| ߣ | n |
| ߢ | ɲ |
| ߔ | p |
| ߙ | r |
| ߚ | rr2 |
| ߛ | s |
| ߕ | t |
| ߥ | w |
| ߦ | y |
Notes
ߜ represents gb, gw or g—that is, the range of possible local pronunciations for a single word like gɛlɛn/gwɛlɛn/gbɛlɛn ‘difficult; hard’. By convention, it is easiest to simply always transliterate it as gb in the Latin script. This is similar to the way that Bambara spelling claims that one should only write g (e.g., gɛlɛn) even though local pronunciations often are a gw sound. ↩ߚ is known as ra-filanin, which means ‘little twin R’. It is treated as a separate letter in N’ko and is used in words where an r seems to repeat itself in a trill-like fashion; in Latin script is normally represented by multiple r’s separated by vowels (e.g., fururu ‘for a long time’). ↩
“Tɛdɔ”: The Syllabic Nasal
| Letter | Transliteration |
|---|---|
| ߒ | n3 |
Notes
ߒ represents the sound syllabic nasal phoneme (e.g., the sound that forms the word for the first person singular pronoun, “I” in Bambara). In Latin-based orthography, this is simply represented by the letter n—the same letter used for the “regular” consonant n that is found in words such as nɔnɔ ‘milk’. ↩Vocab
(👋 Make sure to turn on the sound! Read the Flashcard overview.)
Coming soon n'Ala sɔnna!
- ߊ
- a
- o
- e
- ߍ
- ɛ
- ߌ
- i
- ߏ
- o
- ߐ
- ɔ
- ߎ
- u
- ߓ
- b
- ߗ
- c
- ߘ
- d
- ߝ
- f
- ߜ
- gb
- ߤ
- h
- ߖ
- j
- ߞ
- k
- ߟ
- l
- ߡ
- m
- ߣ
- n
- ߢ
- ɲ
- ߔ
- p
- ߙ
- r
- ߚ
- rr
- ߛ
- s
- ߕ
- t
- ߥ
- w
- ߦ
- y
- ߒ
- n (syllabic)
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