Dan language

Dan /ˈdæn/[2] is a Southern 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.

Dan
Yacouba
RegionIvory Coast, Guinea, and Liberia
Native speakers
1.6 million (2012)[1]
Niger–Congo
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
dnj – Dan
lda – Kla
Glottologdann1241

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 Near-Front Central Back
Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Rounded
Close i ɯ u
Near-close ɪ² ʊ²
Close-mid e ɵ¹ ɤ o
Mid ə¹
Open-mid ɛ ʌ ɔ
Near-open æ
Open a ɑ

¹Only in Liberian Dan

²Only in Eastern Dan

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labial-Velar Glottal
Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced Labalized
Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced
Nasal m n ɲ¹ ŋ ŋʷ¹
Plosive p b t d k ɡ kʷ ɡʷ² k͡p ɡ͡b
Implosive ɓ ɗ
Fricative f v s z x¹ h³
Approximant j w
Trill r
Lateral l

¹Only in Liberian Dan

²Not in Liberian Dan

³Not in western Dan

Writing system

The orthography of Liberia includes this alphabet:

Dan alphabet (Liberia)
ABƁDƊ EƐFGGB HIKKPKW LMNNWNY ŊOƆƏƟ PRSTU ꞍVWXY Z
abɓdɗ eɛfggb hikkpkw lmnnwny ŋoɔəɵ prstu ɥvwxy z
IPA value
abɓdɗ eɛfɡɡ͡b hikk͡pkʷ lmnŋʷɲ ŋoɔəɵ prstu ɯvwxj z

[3][4]

Dan West alphabet (Côte d'Ivoire)
AAƆBBHD DHEƐËƐA FGGBGWI KKPKWLM NNGOƆÖ PRSTU ÜVWYZ
aaɔbbhd dheɛëɛa fggbgwi kkpkwlm nngoɔö prstu üvwyz
IPA value
aɒbɓd ɗeɛʌæ fɡɡ͡bgʷi kk͡pkʷlm nŋoɔɤ prstu ɯvwjz
Dan East alphabet (Côte d'Ivoire), 1982
AAƆBBHD DHEËƐƐA FGGBGWH IƖKKPKW LMNOÖ ƆPRST UÜƲƲ̈V WYZ
aaɔbbhd dheëɛɛa fggbgwh iɩkkpkw lmnoö ɔprst uüʋʋ̈v wyz
IPA value
aɒbɓd ɗeʌɛæ fɡɡ͡bgʷh iɪkk͡pkʷ lmnoɤ ɔprst uɯʊʉv wjz
Dan East alphabet (Côte d'Ivoire), 2014
AŒBBHD DHEɅƐÆ FGGBGWH IƖKKPKW LMNOɤ ƆPRST UƜƲVW YZ
aœbbhd dheʌɛæ fggbgwh iɩkkpkw lmnoɤ ɔprst uɯʋvw yz
IPA value
aɒbɓd ɗeʌɛæ fɡɡ͡bgʷh iɪkk͡pkʷ lmnoɤ ɔprst uɯʊvw jz

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. "ScriptSource - Error - Writing System Not Found".
  4. "Proposal to Encode Additional Latin and Cyrillic Characters" (PDF).
  5. "Proposal to encode a capital Ram's Horn" (PDF).


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