Manding (language)

Manding dialect continuum in West Africa

Manding (also Mandingue , Mandingo , Mandekan , Mandé-kan ) is a collective name for a group of dialects in West Africa that form a dialect continuum . The varieties of Manding can partly also be understood as independent languages.

It belongs to the Mande language family within the Niger-Congo language phylum .

Manding is spoken in Mali , Ivory Coast , Gambia and in parts of Burkina Faso , Guinea and Senegal by around 7 million people as their mother tongue and another 5-7 million as a second language. It is an important lingua franca.

The manding includes:

• Bambara
• Dioula
• Mandinka
• Maninka

swell

• Helmut Glück (Ed.): Metzler Lexicon Language . Metzler, Stuttgart a. Weimar 1993, ISBN 3-476-00937-8 .
• Herrmann Jungraithmayr u. Wilhelm JG Möhlig (Ed.): Lexicon of African Studies . Reimer, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-496-00146-1 .