Dan language

Dan
Dan
Yacouba
Native to	Ivory Coast, Guinea, and Liberia
Ethnicity	Dan people
Native speakers	1.6 million (2012)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Mande Eastern Mande Southeastern Mano–Dan Guro–Dan Tura–Dan Dan; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; dnj – Dan; lda – Kla
Glottolog	dann1241
	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

	Front	Central		Back
	Front	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
	Front	Unrd.	Rnd.
Close	ĩ	ɯ̃	ũ
Open-mid	ɛ̃	ʌ̃	ɔ̃
Open	æ̃	ɑ̃	ɒ̃

Consonants


		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Labial- velar	Glottal
		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	plain	lab.	Labial- velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ	ŋʷ	ŋ͡m
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	kʷ	k͡p
Plosive	voiced	b	d		ɡ	ɡʷ²	ɡ͡b
Implosive		ɓ	ɗ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s		x¹			h³
Fricative	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)
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

^[4]^[5]

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

^ Dan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Kla at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
^ 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.
^ "ScriptSource - Error - Writing System Not Found".
^ "Proposal to Encode Additional Latin and Cyrillic Characters" (PDF).
^ "Proposal to encode a capital Ram's Horn" (PDF).

External links

English-Dan Online Dictionary
Roberts, David, Ginger Boyd, Johannes Merz, & Valentin Vydrin. 2020. Quantifying written ambiguities in tone languages: A comparative study of Elip, Mbelime, and Eastern Dan. Language Documentation & Conservation 14: 108-138. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/24915.