Dan language

Dan /ˈdæn/[3] 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 three main tones and two glide/contour tones.

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[2]

Alternative names for the language include Yacouba or Yakubasa, Gio, Gyo, Gio-Dan, and Da. Dialects are 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)
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

[4][5]

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)
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

In Côte d'Ivoire, the letter ɤ (The capital form is not in Unicode) is use in at least one dialect.[6]

Tones are marked with grave, acute, and circumflex accents. Nasalization is marked with a tilde.

References
  1. Dan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Kla at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Dan". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
  4. https://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=wrSys_detail_sym&key=dnj-Latn-CI. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. "Proposal to Encode Additional Latin and Cyrillic Characters" (PDF).
  6. "SIL PUA assignments 11.0".


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