Dan

A language of Côte d’Ivoire

Da, Dàn, Gio, Gio-Dan, Ya, Yacouba, Yakuba

Dã̀ã̀

1,300,000 in Côte d’Ivoire (2012 V. Vydrin). 650,000 in Eastern Dan, 650,000 in western Dan. Total users in all countries: 1,568,800.

Location

Montagnes district: Biankouma, Danané, and Man prefectures, Liberian border area west of Touba. 19 villages.

Language Maps

Côte d’Ivoire

Guinea and Guinea-Bissau

Liberia

Language Status

5 (Developing).

Classification

Niger-Congo, Mande, Eastern, Southeastern, Guro-Tura, Tura-Dan-Mano, Tura-Dan

Dialects

Gweetaawu (Dan-Gwɛɛtaa, Eastern Dan), Blowo (Western Dan). At least 38 subdialects. In Liberia speakers in Garplay understood Côte d’Ivoire Yacouba dialect recordings as follows: Danane, Koulinle, Kale: very well; Blosse: quite well; Bloundo: reasonably well; dialects east of Blouno: considerable difficulty (Bolli and Frick 1971).

Typology

Whistle speech reported.

Language Use

All domains. Used by all. Also use French [fra], especially the educated. Also use Jula [dyu]. Used as L2 by Toura [neb].

Language Development

Literacy rate in L1: 2% or more (2021 SIL). Literacy rate in L2: 25%–50%. Dictionary. NT: 1981–1993.

Language Resources

OLAC resources in and about Dan

Writing

Latin script [Latn].

Other Comments

Christian, Muslim.