What ߘ means
It writes the d consonant inside an N’Ko word.
By itself, ߘ is a letter sample or fragment, not a translation or reaction. Vowels and tone marks help readers finish the word; Maninka, Bamanan, Jula, and Mandinka readers may pronounce the same N’Ko spelling differently.
With a diacritic, N’Ko DA can also represent the Arabic consonant ḍād (ض) in a borrowed word. Plain ߘ represents the ordinary d sound.
Why was N’Ko created?
N’Ko was made for reading and writing Manding languages.
In 1949, Sulemaana Kantè unveiled the recognizable script after experimenting with ways to write Manding in its own languages. The alphabet includes letters and marks for distinctions such as vowels and tone.
Manding writing also used Arabic letters in a tradition called Ajami. N’Ko is a separate alphabet; its history connects with Islamic learning, Manding literacy, and cultural solidarity. Choosing the script can carry cultural meaning as well as a practical writing choice.
A lone ߘ is an N’Ko letter sample or text fragment, not a general-purpose reaction.
A lone letter does not tell you what its word means.
Part of the collection
Who writes ߘ
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Related characters
1
Questions people ask
1Why does ߘ change shape in a word?
N’Ko is written from right to left and normally joins neighboring letters in cursive text, so a letter’s outline can change. A box instead means the active font lacks N’Ko support.
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Collections with ߘ
2
How to type or find ߘ
- Search it as
- N’Ko · NKo · da · d · Manding alphabet · N’Ko keyboard · Ajami · tone marks
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
ߘ\07D8d produces ߘ; type tone marks before the base letter.Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.