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 9 to 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 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.

Nasal sounds in Eastern Dan
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)
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), 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 LMNOϪ ƆPRST UƜƲVW YZ
aœbbhd dheʌɛæ fggbgwh iɩkkpkw lmnoɤ ɔprst uɯʋvw yz
IPA value
aɒbɓd ɗeʌɛæ fɡɡ͡bɡʷh iɪkk͡pkʷ lmnoɤ ɔprst uɯʊvw jz

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


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