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Wikipedia / Dan language

Dan 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

A syllable is minimally /V/ or /ŋ/, and maximally /ClVV/ or /ClVŋ/.

Vowels

Color coding:

Only in Eastern Dan when in the position of extra-high tone

Only in Liberian Dan

Consonants

Only in Liberian Dan

Not in Western Dan

Not in Liberian Dan

  • all consonants are nasalized in nasal feet

  • occurs only as a syllable or a syllable coda and has been treated as a vowel. it carries tone.

  • is heard as when preceded by alveolar or palatal consonants.

  • Consonant combinations are heard as lateral fricative sounds .

Tones

Dan has four to five level tones, depending on the variety, with level and contour tones.

Writing system

The orthography of Liberia includes this alphabet: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 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 .

References

Further reading