The
seven vowels in the N’Ko writing system are the characters that can be sounded
alone without association with other others. The following are the vowels
of the alphabet. The vowels, their closet English counterparts and
pronunciations are listed in the vowel table below.
Q
O U X I E A
As one can see from the chart below, the English equivalent of N'Ko letter A
is A. It is pronounced the same as the a in Papa.
Unlike in English, whereas the English letter A can have different sounds
depending on the consonant it is associated with, the N’Ko letter A
is always pronounced, “AH,” with the mouth open. Letter E
is equal to the English letter E,
and it is pronounced, “ay,” as one will pronounce Pay.
The
letter I perform
about the same function in the N’Ko alphabet as the I does
in the English language. Like the other characters in the Manden language,
it has only one pronunciation, EE. On
the other hand, in English the sound of I is
different in the words "iron" and
"is".