| Balanta | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in | (Balanta-Kentohe) Guinea-Bissau, (Balanta-Ganja) The Gambia, Senegal |
| Ethnicity | Balanta people |
| Native speakers | 423,000 Balanta-Kentohe and 86,000 Balanta-Ganja (date missing) |
| Language family |
Niger–Congo
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | either: ble – Balanta-Kentohe bjt – Balanta-Ganja |
Balanta is a Bak language of west Africa spoken by the Balanta people.
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Balanta has case prefixes and suffixes alternatively interpreted as a definite article dependent on the noun class. Balanta is divided into two languages Balanta-Kentohe language and Balanta-Ganja, which are separate languages and are distinct from one another.[1][2]
Balanta-Kentohe language is spoken by a total of 423,000 people on the north central and central coast of Guinea-Bissau (where as of 2006 it is spoken by 397,000 people, many of which can be found in the Oio Region[3]) as well as in The Gambia. Films and portions of the Bible have been produced in Balanta-Kentohe.
Ethnologue lists alternative names as Alante, Balanda, Balant, Balanta, Balante, Ballante, Belante, Brassa, Bulanda, Frase, Fora, Kantohe (Kentohe, Queuthoe), Naga, and Mane. The Naga, Mane, and Kantohe dialects may be separate languages.
Balanta-Ganja is spoken by 86,000 people (as of 2006) in the southwest corner of and the south of Senegal. Literacy is less than 1% for Balanta-Ganja.[1][2] In September 2000, Balanta-Ganja was granted the status of a national language in Senegal, and as of then can now be taught in elementary school.
Ethnologue lists alternative names as Alante, Balanda, Balant, Balante, Ballante, Belante, Brassa, Bulanda, Fjaa, Fraase, Fganja (Ganja) and Fjaalib (Blip).
In Senegal, Decree No. 2005-979 regulates the orthography of Balanta as follows:[4][5]
| Letters of the alphabet (Senegal) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | B | Ɓ | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | L | M | N | Ñ | Ŋ | O | R | S | T | Ŧ | U | W | Y |
| a | b | ɓ | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | l | m | n | ñ | ŋ | o | r | s | t | ŧ | u | w | y |