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Dan language

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Dan
Yacouba
RegionIvory Coast, Guinea, and Liberia.
Native speakers
1.6 million (2012)[1]
Niger–Congo
  • Mande
    • Eastern Mande
      • Southeastern
        • Mano–Dan
          • Guro–Dan
            • Tura–Dan
              • Dan
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
dnj – Dan
lda – Kla
Glottologdann1241
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
A Dan speaker, recorded in Liberia.

Dan /ˈdæn/[2] is a Mande language spoken primarily in Ivory Coast (~800,000 speakers) and Liberia (150,000–200,000 speakers). There is also a population of about 800 speakers in Guinea. Dan is a tonal language, with around 9-11 contour and register tones depending on the dialect.

Alternative names for the language include Yacouba or Yakubasa, Gio, Gyo, Gio-Dan, and Da. Dialects are Gio (Liberian Dan), Gweetaawu (Eastern Dan), Blowo (Western Dan), and Kla. Kla is evidently a distinct language.

Phonology

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i ɯ u
Close-mid e ɤ o
Open-mid ɛ ʌ ɔ
Near-open æ
Open a ɑ

Writing system

The orthography of Liberia includes this alphabet:

Dan alphabet (Liberia)
A B Ɓ D Ɗ E Ɛ F G GB H I K KP KW L M N NW NY Ŋ O Ɔ Ə Ɵ P R S T U Ɥ V W X Y Z
a b ɓ d ɗ e ɛ f g gb h i k kp kw l m n nw ny ŋ o ɔ ə ɵ p r s t u ɥ v w x y z
IPA value
a b ɓ d ɗ e ɛ f ɡ ɡ͡b h i k k͡p kʷ l m n ŋʷ ɲ ŋ o ɔ ə ɵ p r s t u ɯ v w x j z

[3][4]

Dan West alphabet (Côte d'Ivoire)
A AƆ B BH D DH E Ɛ Ë ƐA F G GB GW I K KP KW L M N NG O Ɔ Ö P R S T U Ü V W Y Z
a aɔ b bh d dh e ɛ ë ɛa f g gb gw i k kp kw l m n ng o ɔ ö p r s t u ü v w y z
IPA value
a ɒ b ɓ d ɗ e ɛ ʌ æ f ɡ ɡ͡b gʷ i k k͡p kʷ l m n ŋ o ɔ ɤ p r s t u ɯ v w j z
Dan East alphabet (Côte d'Ivoire), 1982
A AƆ B BH D DH E Ë Ɛ ƐA F G GB GW H I Ɩ K KP KW L M N O Ö Ɔ P R S T U Ü Ʋ Ʋ̈ V W Y Z
a aɔ b bh d dh e ë ɛ ɛa f g gb gw h i ɩ k kp kw l m n o ö ɔ p r s t u ü ʋ ʋ̈ v w y z
IPA value
a ɒ b ɓ d ɗ e ʌ ɛ æ f ɡ ɡ͡b gʷ h i ɪ k k͡p kʷ l m n o ɤ ɔ p r s t u ɯ ʊ ʉ v w j z
Dan East alphabet (Côte d'Ivoire), 2014
A Œ B BH D DH E Ʌ Ɛ Æ F G GB GW H I Ɩ K KP KW L M N O ɤ Ɔ P R S T U Ɯ Ʋ V W Y Z
a œ b bh d dh e ʌ ɛ æ f g gb gw h i ɩ k kp kw l m n o ɤ ɔ p r s t u ɯ ʋ v w y z
IPA value
a ɒ b ɓ d ɗ e ʌ ɛ æ f ɡ ɡ͡b gʷ h i ɪ k k͡p kʷ l m n o ɤ ɔ p r s t u ɯ ʊ v w j z

The capital ɤ will be encoded in a future version of The Unicode Standard.[5]

Tones are marked as follows: extra high tone: a̋; high tone: á; medium tone: ā; low tone: à; extra low tone: ȁ; high drop tone: â; extra low hanging tone: aʼ.

The digraphs ⟨bh, dh, gb gw, kp, kw⟩ keep the same values as in the spelling of 1982, and the nasal vowels are also indicated by appending the letter n after the letter of the vowel ⟨an, æn, ʌn, ɛn, in, ɔn, œn, un⟩.

References

  1. ^ Dan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Kla at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
  3. ^ https://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=wrSys_detail_sym&key=dnj-Latn-CI. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ^ "Proposal to Encode Additional Latin and Cyrillic Characters" (PDF).
  5. ^ "Proposal to encode a capital Ram's Horn" (PDF).


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