Baga | |
---|---|
Barka | |
Spoken in | Guinea |
Ethnicity | Baga |
Native speakers | 16,000 (no date) |
Language family |
Niger–Congo
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | variously: bcg – Binari bgo – Koga bsp – Sistemu bmd – Mandari bqf – Kaloum (extinct) bsv – Sobané (extinct) |
Baga, or Barka, is a dialect cluster spoken by the Baga people of coastal Guinea. The name derives from the phrase bae raka 'people of the seaside'. Most Baga are bilingual in the Mande language Susu, the official regional language. Two Baga communities, Sobané and Kaloum, are known to have abandoned their language altogether in favour of Susu.
The varieties as distinct enough to sometimes be considered different languages. They are: