Editing N'Ko script (section)

{{short description|Alphabet for the Manding languages of West Africa}}
{{distinguish|N'Ko language}}
{{Infobox writing system
|name      = NKo
|native_name = ߒߞߏ
|type      = [[Alphabet]]
|time      = 1949–present
|languages = [[N'Ko language|NKo]], [[Manding languages]] ([[Mandingo language|Mandingo]], [[Maninka language|Maninka]],<br />[[Bambara language|Bambara]], [[Dyula language|Dyula]])
|creator   = [[Solomana Kante|Solomana Kanté]]
|unicode   = [https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U07C0.pdf U+07C0–U+07FF]
|iso15924  = Nkoo
|sample    = NKo-script.svg
}}

'''NKo''' (ߒߞߏ), also spelled '''N'Ko''', is an [[alphabetic script]] devised by [[Solomana Kante|Solomana Kanté]] in 1949, as a modern [[writing system]] for the [[Manding languages]] of West Africa.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/nqo|title=N'ko|date=2019|editor-last=Eberhard|editor-first=David|editor2-last=Simons|editor2-first=Gary|website=Ethnoloque|access-date=June 12, 2019|editor3-last=Fennig|editor3-first=Charles}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Oyler|first=Dianne|date=Spring 2002|title=Re-Inventing Oral Tradition: The Modern Epic of Souleymane Kanté|journal=Research in African Literatures|volume=33|issue=1|pages=75–93 |doi=10.1353/ral.2002.0034|jstor=3820930|s2cid=162339606|oclc=57936283}}</ref> The term ''NKo'', which means ''I say'' in all Manding languages, is also used for the [[NKo language|Manding literary standard]] written in the NKo script.

The script has a few similarities to the [[Arabic script]], notably its direction ([[right-to-left]]) and the letters that are connected at the base. Unlike Arabic, it is obligatory to mark both [[Tone (linguistics)|tone]] and [[vowel]]s. NKo tones are marked as [[diacritic]]s.