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Manding languages
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Manding | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: |
West Africa |
| Genetic classification: |
Niger-Congo Mande Manding |
| Subdivisions: |
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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 the most widely spoken language in Mali), Mandinka (the main language of Gambia), Maninka (or Malinké, a major language of Guinea), and Dioula (Dyula or Jula) (an important language of the northern Côte d'Ivoire and western Burkina Faso.) Smaller languages/dialects belonging to the group include Khassonké or Xaasongaxango.
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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.
SIL identifies five groups, Manding-East, Manding-West, Bohon, Jahanka and Sininkere. [1]
The ISO 639-3 draft defines (among others) one language as macrolanguage: Mandingo [man], with the seven individual languages coming from both the first two groups:
- Eastern Maninkakan [emk] (East)
- Forest Maninka [myq] (East -> Southeast)
- Kita Maninkakan [mwk] (West)
- Konyanka Maninka [mku] (East)
- Mandinka [mnk] (West)
- Sankaran Maninka [msc] (East)
- Western Maninkakan [mlq] (West)
- Xaasongaxango language [kao] (Mali)
- Maninkakan, Western [mlq] (Senegal)
- Mandinka language [mnk] (Senegal)
- Maninkakan, Kita [mwk] (Mali)
- Kagoro language [xkg] (Mali)
- Marka-Dafin
- Marka language [rkm] (Burkina Faso)
- Northeastern Manding
- Bamana languages
- Bamanankan [bam] (Mali)
- Dioula language [dyu] (Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire)
- Bamana languages
- Southeastern Manding
- Maninkakan, Eastern [emk] (Guinea)
- Maninka-Mori
- Wojenaka [jod] (Côte d'Ivoire)
- Worodougou [jud] (Côte d'Ivoire)
- Koro [kfo] (Côte d'Ivoire)
- Koyaga [kga] (Côte d'Ivoire)
- Mahou [mxx] (Côte d'Ivoire)
- Maninka, Forest [myq] (Côte d'Ivoire)
- Maninka, Konyanka [mku] (Guinea)
- Maninka, Sankaran [msc] (Guinea)
- Manya language [mzj] (Liberia)
see also: Maninka language
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 failrly widely, with "official" versions in many countries, for teaching, literacy and publication.
- The N'Ko alphabet, developed in 1948 by Souleyman 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.
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