Maninka language

Not to be confused with Mandinka language.
Maninka
Malinke
Maninkakan
Native to Guinea, Mali, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast
Native speakers
 5 million  (1999–2012)[1]
Niger–Congo
N'Ko, Latin
Official status
Official language in
 Guinea, Mali
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Variously:
mku – Konyanka
emk – Eastern Maninkaka
msc – Sankaran Maninkaka
mzj – Manya (Liberia)
jod – Wojenaka (Odienné Jula)
jud – Worodougou
kfo – Koro (Koro Jula)
kga – Koyaga (Koyaga Jula)
mxx – Mahou (Mawukakan)
Glottolog mane1267  (Manenkan)[2]
mani1303  (Maninka–Mori)[3]

Maninka (Malinke), 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, where it is the main language in the Upper Guinea region, and Mali, where the closely related Bambara is a national language, as well as in Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, where it has no official status. It was the language of court and government used during the Mali empire.

Linguistic features

Like all Manding languages, Maninka is a tonal language.

Writing

Maninka in Guinea is written in an official Latin-based script, an older official orthography (also Latin-based), and the N'Ko alphabet.

References

  1. ↑ Konyanka at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Eastern Maninkaka at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Sankaran Maninkaka at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Manya (Liberia) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Wojenaka (Odienné Jula) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    (Additional references under 'Language codes' in the information box)
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Manenkan". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Maninka–Mori". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

External links