Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set

International Organization for Standardization

Organisation Internationale de Normalisation

_______ ____ ___ ___ _ _ ______ _ ___

A. Administrative

1. Title

Proposal to encode the NKo script in the SMP of the UCS.

2. Requesters name

Mamadi Doumbouya, Mamadi Baba Diane.

3. Requester type

Professors of NKo, Publishers, and Manden Community Leaders.

4. Submission date

2002-04-06.

5. Requesters reference

www.nkoinstitute.com/nkounicode.html

6a. Completion

This is a complete proposal.

6b. More information to be provided?

No.

B. Technical General

1a. New script? Name?

Yes. NKo ( Manden kan ).

1b. Addition of characters to existing block? Name?

No.

2. Number of characters

53.

3. Proposed category

Category A.

4. Proposed level of implementation and rationale

As a simple right-to- left alphabetic script, NKo requires Level 1. ?

5a. Character names included in proposal?

Yes.

5b. Character names in accordance with guidelines?

Yes.

5c. Character shapes reviewable?

Yes

6a. Who will provide computerized font?

Mamadi Doumbouya, Diane Baba Mamadi.

6b. Font currently available?

Yes.

6c. Font format?

TrueType

7a. Are references (to other character sets, dictionaries, descriptive texts, etc.) provided?

7b. Are published examples (such as samples from newspapers, magazines, or other sources) of use of proposed characters attached?

Yes, (see below).

8. Does the proposal address other aspects of character data processing?

C. Technical Justification

1. Contact with the user community?

Yes

2. Information on the user community?

Yes, see www.nkoinstitute.com/nkounicode/nkospeakers.html

3a. The context of use for the proposed characters?

Used to write Manden language groups (Manden Kan) mostly in West Africa (In ECOWAS treaty member nations).

3b. Reference

4a. Proposed characters in current use?

Yes.

4b. Where?

Used in West Africa an principally by Manden people in Guinea, Mali, Cote dIvoire, Burkina-Faso, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Benin, Gambia, Senegal etc,

5a. Characters should be encoded entirely in BMP

Yes

5b. Rationale

Accordance with the Roadmap.

6. Should characters be kept in a continuous range?

Yes

7a. Can the characters be considered a presentation form of an existing character or character sequence?

No.

7b. Where?

7c. Reference

8a. Can any of the characters be considered to be similar (in appearance or function) to an existing character?

No.

8b. Where?

8c. Reference

9a. Combining characters or use of composite sequences included?

Yes.

9b. List of composite sequences and their corresponding glyph images provided?

See www.fakoli.net/kanjamadi/kogbe-4.htm

10. Characters with any special properties such as control function, etc. included?

Proposal for the Universal Unicode Character Set

Row xx: NKO

Xx0

Xx1

Xx2

Xx3

Xx4

Xx5

0	q	k	Q	K	0	`
1	o	f	O	F	1	%
2	u	g	U	G	2	\|
3	x	s	X	S	3	~
4	i	@	I	@	4	^
5	e	z	E	Z	5
6	a	y	A	Y	6	$
7	r	w	R	W	7	&
8	d	h	D	H	8	*
9	c	n	C	N	9
A	j	v	J	V
B	t	\	t
C	p		P
D	b		B
E	m		M		,
F	l		L		&

Michael Everson Proposal for the Universal Character Set

Row xx: NKO

hex

Name

hex

Name

NKO LETTER O (showing conjoined form)

NKO LETTER OO

NKO LETTER U

NKO LETTER E

NKO LETTER I

NKO LETTER EE

NKO LETTER A

NKO LETTER RA

NKO LETTER DA

NKO LETTER CHA

NKO LETTER JA

NKO LETTER TA

NKO LETTER PA

NKO LETTER BA

NKO LETTER MA

NKO LETTER LA

NKO LETTER KA

NKO LETTER FA

NKO LETTER GBA

NKO LETTER SA

NKO LETTER RRA

NKO LETTER NNA

NKO LETTER YA

NKO LETTER WA

NKO LETTER HA

NKO LETTER NA

NKO LETTER NYA

NKO LETTER NLA

(This position shall not be used)

NKO LETTER O (showing isolated form)

NKO LETTER OO

NKO LETTER U

NKO LETTER E

NKO LETTER I

NKO LETTER EE

NKO LETTER A

NKO LETTER RA

NKO LETTER DA

NKO LETTER CHA

NKO LETTER JA

NKO LETTER TA

NKO LETTER PA

NKO LETTER BA

NKO LETTER MA

NKO LETTER LA

NKO LETTER KA

NKO LETTER FA

NKO LETTER GBA

NKO LETTER SA

NKO LETTER RRA

NKO LETTER NNA

NKO LETTER YA

NKO LETTER WA

NKO LETTER HA

NKO LETTER NA

NKO LETTER NYA

NKO LETTER NLA

(This position shall not be used)

NKO DIGIT ZERO

NKO DIGIT ONE

NKO DIGIT TWO

NKO DIGIT THREE

NKO DIGIT FOUR

NKO DIGIT FIVE

NKO DIGIT SIX

NKO DIGIT SEVEN

NKO DIGIT EIGHT

NKO DIGIT NINE

(This position shall not be used)

NKO PUNCTUATION COMMA

NKO PUNCTUATION QUOTATION MARK

NKO COMBINING NASALIZER

NKO COMBINING SHORT MIDDLE TONE

NKO COMBINING RISING-FALLING TONE

NKO COMBINING LOW TONE

NKO COMBINING LONG DESCENDING MIDDLE TONE

NKO COMBINING SUSPENDED BRUSK MIDDLE TONE

NKO COMBINING LONG RISING-FALLING TONE

NKO COMBINING LONG LOW TONE

NKO COMBINING SECOND CONSONANT MODIFIER

NKO COMBINING THIRD CONSONANT MODIFIER

(This position shall not be used)

Group 00 Plane 00 Row XX

E. Proposal

Manden people live mainly in West Africa, however other people of Manden origin can be found in other part of the world. They are also known as Bamanan, Dioula, Maninka, and Mandingo, etc. The language they speak is known as Mandenkan. The suffix, -kan in means language of. A suffix of -ka, would means the people of.

The language is a combination of multiple languages, dialects, and accents. It comprises four main branches, Bambara, Dioula, Mandinko, Maninka, and many sub-groups who speak the various branches of these branches. Some of the branches are different only by the dialect or by simple accents while subgroups can be vastly different in many aspects.

When Mandens from different sub-groups talk to each other, it is common practice for them to switch, consciously or sub-consciously, from one's own dialect to a conventional dialect known as, commonly known as Kangbe (the clear language). N'Ko is Kangbe. This is even true, sometimes, during conversations between the Bamanan of Mali, the Maninka of Guinea, and the Mandinko of Gambia or Senegal. Although the pronunciations of those languages are practically the same it is sometimes necessary to switch to kangbe (NKo) either by the use of a central word or a central phrase. As an example, the word Name in Bamanan is Toko, and in Maninka it is Toh. In written communications each will write it as T (^Qt) in NKo, and yet may read and pronounce it differently.

Throughout the centuries people of Manden origin are referred to or have referred to themselves as NKo speakers. The great Sundiata Kante, emperor of Manden (Mali) referred to the delegation from every Corners of Manden gathered to sign treaty of Kurukafuwa generally as NKo speakers. It was natural therefore that the great Solomana Kante the inventor of the Manden writing system will call it NKo.

There are various accounts for the number of NKo speakers. Depending on the system used for accounting the number varies widely from 18 to 20 millions. The reason for this variation is due to the method of inclusion of various subgroups or the method used to determine those groups. Nevertheless there exists not only a substantial number of Mandens, but other non Mandens that speak Mandenkan as a second language. The inclusion of NKo will benefit all these people by contributing to their literacy in the region.

Structure

NKo is written from right to left.
It is very orderly writing system for those who understand it. That is because it is read as it is written. It is written as heard.
It contains 7 vowels and each of the vowels can be accented in 4 ways : 4 short, 4 long, 4 short nasal, and 4 long nasal or a combination of 16X16. It also contains 19 consonants and 2 abstracts. All can be pronounced in 16 ways by adding accents. The consonant and accent combination is considered extended characters because they are used only to include foreign sounds that are not generally used by NKo speakers.
The N character (Z) is a neutral character therefore is not considered a vowel or consonant. Nevertheless it can be accented but has no nasal form.
The system also contains 10 numeric characters 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0) also written from right to left.

Ordering and names

Ordering

The collating sequence of in NKo starts with the 7 vowels followed by the N character, the 19 consonants, the wild characters. However the wild character follows immediately the characters that transforms to it. Next in the sequence are the accents, and finally the punctuations. (See Collating)

Names

The names of the consonant are constructed by adding the vowel A (A) to them. Thus the name of the letter B (B) is AB or ab . Similarly the name of the letter M will be AM or am. The names of the vowels take their sounds as their name. (see English approximations)

0	q	k	Q	K	0	`
1	o	f	O	F	1	%
2	u	g	U	G	2	\|
3	x	s	X	S	3	~
4	i	@	I	@	4	^
5	e	z	E	Z	5
6	a	y	A	Y	6	$
7	r	w	R	W	7	&
8	d	h	D	H	8	*
9	c	n	C	N	9
A	j	v	J	V
B	t	\	t
C	p		P
D	b		B
E	m		M		,
F	l		L		&

0	q	k	Q	K	0	`
1	o	f	O	F	1	%
2	u	g	U	G	2	\|
3	x	s	X	S	3	~
4	i	@	I	@	4	^
5	e	z	E	Z	5
6	a	y	A	Y	6	$
7	r	w	R	W	7	&
8	d	h	D	H	8	*
9	c	n	C	N	9
A	j	v	J	V
B	t	\	t
C	p		P
D	b		B
E	m		M		,
F	l		L		&

Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set

Proposal for the Universal Unicode Character Set

Row xx: NKO

Xx0

Xx1

Xx2

Xx3

Xx4

Xx5

0

q

k

Q

K

0

`

1

o

f

O

F

1

%

2

u

g

U

G

2

|

3

x

s

X

S

3

~

4

i

@

I

@

4

^

5

e

z

E

Z

5

6

a

y

A

Y

6

$

7

r

w

R

W

7

&

8

d

h

D

H

8

*

9

c

n

C

N

9

A

j

v

0	q	k	Q	K	0	`
1	o	f	O	F	1	%
2	u	g	U	G	2	\|
3	x	s	X	S	3	~
4	i	@	I	@	4	^
5	e	z	E	Z	5
6	a	y	A	Y	6	$
7	r	w	R	W	7	&
8	d	h	D	H	8	*
9	c	n	C	N	9
A	j	v	J	V
B	t	\	t
C	p		P
D	b		B
E	m		M		,
F	l		L		&