Maninka language

Maninka
Malinke
Maninkakan
Spoken in Guinea, Mali, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire
Native speakers 2.8 million  (1986–1999)
Language family
Niger–Congo ?
Writing system N'Ko, Latin
Official status
Official language in Guinea, Mali
Regulated by No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-3 variously:
mku – Konyanka
emk – Eastern Maninkaka
msc – Sankaran Maninkaka
mzj – Manya (Liberia)
myq – Forest Maninka
jod – Wojenaka
jud – Worodougou
kfo – Koro
kga – Koyaga
mxx – Mahou (Mawukakan)

Maninka, or more precisely Eastern Maninka, is the name of several closely related languages and dialects of the southeastern Manding subgroup of the Mande branch of the Niger–Congo languages. It is the mother tongue of the Malinké people and is spoken by 3,300,000 speakers in Guinea and Mali, where the closely related Bambara is a national language, and also in Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire, where it has no official status. The Ethnologue lists the following varieties, but notes that the distinctions between them are largely uncertain:

References

External links