Dan

DNJ

developing

Alternate Names: Da, Gio, Gio-Dan, Ya, Yacouba, Yakuba

Dialects: Blowo (Western Dan), Gweetaawu (Eastern 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).

Genealogy:

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

Demographics: 1,300,000 in Côte d’Ivoire (2012 V. Vydrin). 650,000 in Eastern Dan, 650,000 in western Dan. Population total all countries: 1,610,800.

Language Use: All domains. All ages. Educated Dan also use French [fra]. Also use Jula [dyu]. Used as L2 by Toura [neb].

Language Development: Literacy rate in L1: 1% or more. Literacy rate in L2: 25%–50%. Taught in primary schools. Dictionary. Grammar. NT: 1981–1993.

Typology: Whistle speech reported.

Writing System: Latin

Nation of Origin: Côte d’Ivoire

Other Comments: Christian, Muslim.