Dan language
Dan | |
---|---|
Yacouba | |
Native to | Ivory Coast, Guinea, and Liberia |
Ethnicity | Dan people |
Native speakers | 1.6 million (2012)[1] |
Language family | Niger–Congo?
|
Writing system | Latin |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Either:dnj – Danlda – Kla |
Glottolog | dann1241 |
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. |
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 9 to 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 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unrd. | Rnd. | Unrd. | Rnd. | ||
Close | i | ɯ | u | ||
Near-close | ɪ² | ɯ̽² | ʊ² | ||
Close-mid | e | ɵ¹ | ɤ | o | |
Mid | ə¹ | ||||
Open-mid | ɛ | ʌ | ɔ | ||
Open | æ | ɑ | ɒ | ||
Syllabic | ŋ̍ |
¹Only in Liberian Dan.
²Only in Eastern Dan when in the position of extra-high tone.
Front | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|
Unrd. | Rnd. | ||
Close | ĩ | ɯ̃ | ũ |
Open-mid | ɛ̃ | ʌ̃ | ɔ̃ |
Open | æ̃ | ɑ̃ | ɒ̃ |
Consonants
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar | Glottal | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | lab. | |||||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ŋʷ | ŋ͡m | ||
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | kʷ | k͡p | ||
voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɡʷ² | ɡ͡b | |||
Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ||||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | x¹ | h³ | |||
voiced | v | z | ||||||
Approximant | j | w | ||||||
Lateral | l | |||||||
Trill | (r) |
¹Only in Liberian Dan.
²Not in Liberian Dan.
³Not in western Dan.
- /l/ is heard as [r] when preceded by alveolar or palatal consonants.
- Consonant combinations /sl, zl/ are heard as lateral fricative sounds [ɬ, ɮ].[3]
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 |
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 | | 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 | ɡʷ | 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.[6]
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
- ^ Dan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Kla at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) - ^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
- ^ Vydrin, Valentin (2020). Dan. In Rainer Vossen and Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of African Languages: Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 451–462.
- ^ "ScriptSource - Error - Writing System Not Found".
- ^ "Proposal to Encode Additional Latin and Cyrillic Characters" (PDF).
- ^ "Proposal to encode a capital Ram's Horn" (PDF).
External links
- English-Dan Online Dictionary
- Roberts, David, Ginger Boyd, Johannes Merz, & Valentin Vydrin. 2020. Quantifying written ambiguities in tone languages: A comparative study of Elip, Mbelime, and Eastern Dan. Language Documentation & Conservation 14: 108-138. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/24915.
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