Mande languages

The Mande languages (called Mande for short ) form a primary branch of the Niger-Congo languages .

The approximately 60 languages are spoken by around 19 million people in the West African countries of Mali , Liberia , Ivory Coast , Guinea-Bissau , Sierra Leone , Guinea , Senegal , Gambia , in north-west and south-east Burkina Faso and in the border area between Benin and Nigeria .

The Mande peoples found empires

The Mande ethnic groups founded large empires in Mali and neighboring states at an early stage , so the Soninke ruled the Ghana Empire from the 8th to 11th centuries (within today's Mali, today's Ghana has no relation to this empire apart from its name). In the 13th century who founded Malinke the Mali Empire (whose name of "Malinke" is derived), today's traffic and majority language in Mali, the Bambara , another Mande language from the Manding group.

The group of Mande languages

The Mande languages - like the Kordofan - also split off from the other Niger-Congo languages relatively early and have a number of specific features, in particular they have no nominal classes . Nevertheless, their affiliation to the Niger-Congo languages is considered certain, even if similarities with the Songhai, which is now classified as Nilo-Saharan , have been established by several researchers. As a group of related languages, the Mande languages were identified as early as the 19th century. In 1854, Sigismund Wilhelm Koelle was the first to use the name "Mandenga" for this group, which goes back to local names.

Mande is divided into two main branches, the larger West Mande branch with 16 million speakers with Manding languages as the core and the East Mande with a total of only 2.5 million speakers.

The most important Mande languages according to the number of speakers are:

Bambara : 2.8 million native speakers, lingua franca in Mali with up to 10 million speakers including second speakers

Dioula (Jula): 1.5 million native speakers, 4 million including second speakers

Maninka : East Maninka, 2 million

Mandinka : Manding, Mandinga and Mandingo, 1.2 million

These languages all belong to the main Manding branch. Other million languages of the Western Mande are:

Mende : 2.1 million
Soninke : 1.1 million
Susu : 1 million
Kpelle : 1 million

Dan (also Yakuba ): 1 million speakers, spoken in Ivory Coast, is the largest language in the eastern Mande branch.

Classification of the Mande languages

The following classification of the Mande languages is based on Kastenholz (1996, West Mande) and Dwyer (1989, 1996 East Mande). It contains all languages of the group with their number of speakers (according to Ethnologue and the web link below).

Classification of the Mande languages

Mande
- West Mande
  - Central
    - Jogo-Jeri: Ligbi (15 thousand), Jeri (less than 1 thousand)
    - Manding-Vai
      - Manding
        
        east
        
        Northeast
        Bambara (Bamanankan) (2.8 million, S2 8 to 10 million), Jula (Dyula) (1.5 million, S2 4 million), Marka (230 thousand)
        
        Southeast
        Maninka (East Maninka, East Malinke) (2 million); Wojenaka (120 thousand), Worodugu (80 thousand), Koro (40 thousand),
        Koyaga (60 thousand), Mahou (Mauke) (170 thousand), Wasulu (Busch-Maninka) (15 thousand)
        
        Konyakan (130k)
        
        Manya (70k)
        
        west
        Mandinka (Manding, Mandinga, Mandingo, Mandingue, Mandinque) (1.2 million)
        Malinke (West-Maninkakan, West-Malinke) (500,000)
        Kita-Malinke (600,000), Kasonke (Xaasongaxango) (130,000 .), Kagoro (15 thousand)
        
        Bolon (20k)
        
        Jahanka (15 thousand)
        
        Sininkere (10 thousand)
      - Mokole: Kuranko (300 thousand), Lele (20 thousand), Mixifore (5 thousand), Kakabe (4 thousand)
      - Kono-Vai: Kono (200k), Vai (100k)
    - Susu-Yalunka: Susu (1 million), Yalunka (Jalonke) (150 thousand)
  - southwest
    - Kpelle (800 thousand)
    - Loma-Mende: Loma (140 thousand), Toma (140 thousand); Mende (2.1 million), Loko (120 thousand), Bandi (120 thousand)
  - northwest
    - Soninke-Bobo: Soninke (1.1 million), Boso (120 thousand); Bobo Fing (Bobo Madare) (230k)
    - Dzuun-Seeku: Duungoma (70 thousand), Dzungoo (15 thousand), Jowulu (10 thousand); Seeku , Bankagoma
- East Mande
  - Bissa-samo
    - Bissa (500k)
    - Busa: Boko (110 thousand), Bokobaru (30 thousand), Busa (20 thousand), Tyenga (5 thousand), Shanga (10 thousand)
    - Samo (230 thousand)
  - Southeast
    - Guro-Dan: Guro (Kweni) (330 thousand), Mano (250 thousand); Dan (Yakuba, Gio) (1 million)
    - Nwa-Beng: Beng (20 thousand), Gagu (35 thousand); Mwan (Muan) (20k), Wan (Nwa) (20k)

Linguistic characteristics

The Mande languages have no nominal classes like most other Niger-Congo languages , which is why their affiliation with the Niger-Congo has been questioned more often. The languages of the southwest group have a morphologically conditioned consonantic initial change . Almost all Mande languages are tonal languages with up to five tonal levels. There are free and bound nouns , the latter are always accompanied by a noun or pronoun ; this includes the relatives and names of body parts (basically "my, your ... hand", but not "the hand").

Word equations

The following word equations show the closeness of the relationship between the West Mande languages. They are from Dwyer 1989.

language	head	moon	bird	hoe	arc	healthy
Bambara	ku (n)	kalo	kono	.	kala	kɛnɛ
Mandinka	kun	karu	kono	.	kala	kɛndɛ
Wasulu	kun	katu	.	.	.	.
Vai	wu	check	konde	kali	kara	kɛnɛ
Kpelle	wu (n)	galong	ngweni	kaali	kelan	kɛnɛ
Mende	wu	yalu	nwani	kali	kala	kɛnɛ
Susu	xuni	.	xoni	keri	xali	.

Font development

Some Mandevils in Sierra Leone and Liberia have developed their own syllabary , first the Vai (the Vai script was discovered by SW Koelle in 1849), later also the Mende with the Mende script , Loma and Kpelle ( Kpelle script ). A new invention of an alphabetical character set is the so-called N'Ko font (1949), which z. B. can be used for the Bambara . N'Ko is becoming increasingly widespread, numerous keywords in the Bambara Wikipedia are displayed in the N'Ko transliteration, a Unicode character set exists, schools in Guinea and Mali have been teaching N'Ko for many years becomes.

literature

General

Joseph Greenberg: The Languages of Africa. Mouton, The Hague and Indiana University Center, Bloomington 1963.
Bernd Heine and others (ed.): The languages of Africa. Buske, Hamburg 1981.
Bernd Heine and Derek Nurse (eds.): African Languages. An Introduction. Cambridge University Press 2000.
John Bendor-Samuel (Ed.): The Niger-Congo Languages: A Classification and Description of Africa's Largest Language Family. University Press of America, Lanham, New York, London 1989.
Therein: David J. Dwyer: Mande.

Literature on the N'Ko script

Dianne White Oyler: Mande identity through literacy, the N'ko writing system as an agent of cultural nationalism. African Studies Association, Toronto 1994.
Souleymane Kanté: Méthode pratique d'écriture n'ko. Kankan (Guinea) 1995 (first published in 1961).
Valentin F. Vydrine: Souleymane Kanté, a philosopher-innovateur traditionnaliste maninka vu à travers ses écrits en nko. Mande Studies No. 3, 2001, pp. 99-131.