Dan language

Mande language of West Africa

Dan
Yacouba
Native toIvory Coast, Guinea, and Liberia
EthnicityDan people
Native speakers
1.6 million (2012)[1]
Language family
Niger–Congo?
  • Mande
    • Eastern Mande
      • Southeastern
        • Mano–Dan
          • Guro–Dan
            • Tura–Dan
              • Dan
Writing system
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
dnj – Dan
lda – Kla
Glottologdann1241
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.
A Dan speaker, recorded in Liberia.

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

Vowels[3]: 451 
Front Central Back
Unrd. Rnd. Unrd. Rnd.
Close i ɯ u
Near-close ɪ[a] ɯ̽[a] ʊ[a]
Close-mid e ɵ[b] ɤ o
Mid ə[b]
Open-mid ɛ ʌ ɔ
Open æ ɑ ɒ
Syllabic ŋ̍
  1. ^ a b c Only in Eastern Dan when in the position of extra-high tone
  2. ^ a b Only in Liberian Dan
Nasal sounds in Eastern Dan[3]: 451 
Front Back
Unrd. Rnd.
Close ĩ ɯ̃ ũ
Open-mid ɛ̃ ʌ̃ ɔ̃
Open æ̃ ɑ̃ ɒ̃

Consonants

Consonants[3]: 451 
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 ɡʷ[a] ɡ͡b
Implosive ɓ ɗ
Fricative voiceless f s x[b] h[c]
voiced v z
Approximant j w
Lateral l
Trill (r)
  1. ^ Not in Liberian Dan
  2. ^ Only in Liberian Dan
  3. ^ Not 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:[4][5]

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 Ɤ 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

  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[relevant?]
  3. ^ a b c d Vydrin, Valentin (2020). "Dan". In Vossen, Rainer; Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of African Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 451–462. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199609895.013.66. ISBN 9780199609895.
  4. ^ "Dan". ScriptSource.
  5. ^ "Proposal to Encode Additional Latin and Cyrillic Characters" (PDF).
  6. ^ "Proposal to encode a capital Ram's Horn" (PDF).

Further reading

  • Roberts, David; Boyd, Ginger; Merz, Johannes; Vydrin, Valentin (2020). "Quantifying written ambiguities in tone languages: A comparative study of Elip, Mbelime, and Eastern Dan". Language Documentation & Conservation. 14: 108–138. hdl:10125/24915.
Dan language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
  • English-Dan Online Dictionary
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