Soninke (language)
| Soninke ( Soninkanxaane ) | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Mali , Ivory Coast , Gambia , Guinea-Bissau , Mauritania , Senegal , Burkina Faso | |
| speaker | 1,096,800 | |
| Linguistic classification |
||
| Official status | ||
| Other official status in |
 Mauritania ( national language )
|
|
| Recognized minority / regional language in |
 Senegal
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
snk |
|
| ISO 639-3 | ||
Soninke (own name Soninkanxaane ) is the language of the Soninke and is assigned to the Northwest Mande languages within the Niger-Congo languages .
Soninke has 1,096,800 speakers, mainly along the Mauritanian southern border in Mali , in Mauritania and in neighboring areas of Senegal , but also in other West African countries.
The dialektal highly fragmented language had earlier in the West African Sahel region , the function due to the trading activities of the Soninke a common language but of national importance, was in the last centuries of languages such as Mandinka displaced.
The sentence structure is simple, subject - predicate particle - ( object ) verb , noun and adjective clauses. The two aspects are determined by the verb form, words are often formed using derivation .
alphabet
Soninke uses a slightly modified Latin alphabet . The pronunciation of certain graphemes in Senegal is different from that in Mali.
| Letter | Pronunciation ( IPA ) | |
|---|---|---|
| Mali | Senegal | |
| a | a | |
| b | b | |
| c | ʧ | ɕ |
| d | d | |
| e | e | |
| f | f | |
| G | ɡ | |
| H | H | |
| i | i | |
| j | ʤ | ʑ |
| k | k | |
| l | l | |
| m | m | |
| ny / ñ | ɲ | |
| nw / ŋ | ŋ | |
| O | O | |
| p | p | |
| q | ʔ | q |
| r | r | |
| s | s | |
| t | t | |
| u | u | |
| w | w | |
| x | χ | |
| y | j | |
| ' | not used | ʔ |