Manding languages
| Manding | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: |
West Africa |
| Linguistic classification: | Niger–Congo ?
|
| Subdivisions: |
Manding-East
Manding-West
|
| ISO 639-2 and 639-5: | man |
The Manding languages are a fairly mutually intelligible group of dialects or languages in West Africa, belonging to the Mande languages. Their best-known members are Bambara, the most widely spoken language in Mali; Mandinka, the main language of Gambia; Maninka or Malinké, a major language of Guinea; and Dyula, an trade language of the northern Côte d'Ivoire and western Burkina Faso.
Contents |
[edit] Subdivisions
The Manding tongues, and what distinguishes one from the rest and relationship among all of them are matters that continue to be researched. In addition, the nomenclature - being a mixture of indigenous terms and words applied by English and French speakers since before colonization - makes the picture complex and even confusing.
The Mandinka people speak varieties from the first two groups; the differences between the western and eastern branches manifest themselves primarily phonetically. While dialects of the western group usually have 10 vowels (5 oral and 5 long/nasal), the eastern group, typified by Bambara, has 14 vowels (7 oral and 7 nasal):
- Manding-West
- Kassonke – Western Maninka (Mali, Senegal)
- Mandinka (Senegal, Gambia)
- Kita Maninka (Mali)
- Jahanka (Guinea; one of several dialects under this name)
- Manding-East
- Marka (Dafin) (Burkina Faso)
- Bambara–Dyula (Northeastern Manding; Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire)
- Eastern Maninka (Southeastern Manding; multiple varieties)
- Bolon (Burkina Faso)
In addition, Sininkere (Burkina Faso) is of unclear placement within Manding.
[edit] Writing
The Manding languages have a strong oral tradition, but also have written forms - adaptations of Arabic and Latin alphabets, and at least two indigenous scripts.
- Arabic was introduced into the region with Islam, and the writing was adapted to write in Manding languages to a certain degree. Arabic script or Ajami is still commonly used for Mandinka.
- The Latin alphabet was introduced into the region following European conquest and colonization. It is used fairly widely, with "official" versions in many countries, for teaching, literacy and publication.
- The N'Ko alphabet, developed in 1949 by Solomana Kante, is designed to write Manding using a common literary standard comprehensible to speakers of all these varieties. It is gaining in popularity.
- A lesser-known alphabet for Bambara was developed in the early 20th century but is not used.
