Manding languages

Common card · No. 289614

The Manding languages (sometimes spelt Manden, and archaically Mandingo) are a dialect continuum within the Mandé family (itself possibly within the larger Niger-Congo family) spoken in West Africa. Varieties of Manding are generally considered (among native speakers) to be mutually intelligible – dependent on exposure or familiarity with dialects between speakers – and spoken by around 37 million people in The Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Their best-known members are Mandinka or Mandingo, the principal language of The Gambia; Bambara, the most widely spoken language in Mali; Maninka or Malinké, a major language of Guinea and Mali; and Jula, a trade language of Ivory Coast and western Burkina Faso.

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