mb, nd, ndy, ng occur but are not particularly common; it is not clear whether they should be considered syllabic nasals or additional consonants. Consonants may be geminated in the middles of words (at least /pp, cc, jj, kk, ll, mm, nn, ññ/). The only other consonant found at the ends of syllables in native words is . It assimilates to the following consonant: /ns, nc, mb/ etc. Syllable-final /r/ and /s/ are found in French loans (e.g. /kùrtù/ "pants"). Orthography The Latin alphabet and the Arabic alphabet are widely used for Mandinka; the former is official, but the latter is more widely used and older. In addition, the pan-Manding writing system, the N'Ko script, invented in 1949, is often used in north east Guinea and in bordering communities in Ivory Coast and Mali. Additionally, the Garay alphabet, originally developed for Wolof, has seen some limited use. In the Latin script, c represents , ŋ , and ñ ; the letters v, x, z, and q are not used. Vowels are as in Spanish or Italian and are doubled to indicate length or distinguish words that are otherwise homophones. The Arabic script uses no extra letters (apart from, rarely, an extra vowel mark for e), but some of the letters are pronounced differently from in Arabic. The Latin and Arabic consonants correspond as follows: Letters in italics are not normally used in native Mandinka words. ه (h) may also be used in the Arabic scfy to indicate a final glottal stop, which is not noted in the Latin script. The letter ŋ of the Latin script is often indicated with vowel signs in the Arabic script; see below. The vowels correspond as follows (diacritics are placed over or under the consonant in Arabic): In addition, a small Arabic 2 (۲) may be used to indicate reduplication, and the hamza may be used as in Arabic to indicate glottal stops more precisely. Titles Faama: "father," "leader," or "king" Mansa (title): "sultan", "king" or "emperor" See also Mande languages Manding languages Mandinka people Mandé References Bibliography R. T. Addis, A Study on the Writing of Mandinka in Arabic script, 1963. Dramé, Man Lafi, Parlons Mandinka, L'Harmattan 2003 (in French) External links ELAR archive of Bainouk and its main contact language Mandinka Wolof and Mandinka resources, including grammar and dictionary Mandinka Manding languages Languages of the Gambia Languages of Guinea-Bissau Languages of Senegal