Soninke language
| Soninke | |
|---|---|
| Sooninkanxanne | |
| Native to | Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Ghana |
| Ethnicity | Soninke people |
Native speakers | 2.1 million (2006–2011)[1] |
Niger-Congo
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | snk |
| ISO 639-3 | snk |
| Glottolog | soni1259 |
The Soninke language (Soninke: Sooninkanxanne[2]), also known as Serakhulle or Azer[3] is a Mande language spoken by the Soninke people of Africa. The language has an estimated 2.1 million speakers, primarily located in Mali, and also (in order of numerical importance of the communities) in Senegal, Ivory Coast, The Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Ghana. It enjoys the status of a national language in Mali, Senegal, The Gambia and Mauritania.
The language is relatively homogeneous, with only slight phonological, lexical, and grammatical variations.
Linguistically, its nearest relatives is the Bozo language [citation needed], which is centered on the Inner Niger Delta.
It is possible that the language of the Imraguen people and/or the Nemadi dialect are dialects of, or closely related to, Soninke.[4]
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | ⟨m⟩ m | ⟨n⟩ n | ⟨ñ⟩ ɲ | ⟨ŋ⟩ ŋ | |||
| Stop and Affricate |
voiceless | ⟨p⟩ p | ⟨t⟩ t | ⟨c⟩ t͡ʃ | ⟨k⟩ k | ⟨q⟩ q | |
| voiced | ⟨b⟩ b | ⟨d⟩ d | ⟨j⟩ d͡ʒ | ⟨g⟩ ɡ | |||
| Fricative | ⟨f⟩ f | ⟨s⟩ s | ⟨x⟩ x ~ χ | ⟨h⟩ h | |||
| Trill | ⟨r⟩ r | ||||||
| Approximant | ⟨w⟩ w | ⟨l⟩ l | ⟨y⟩ j | ||||
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i, iː | u, uː | |
| Close-mid | e, eː | o, oː | |
| Open | a, aː |
Long vowels are written double: aa, ee, ii, oo, uu.
References
- ^ Soninke at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Lexicon Soninke-French-English Archived 2008-12-30 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Olsen, James Stuart; Meur, Charles (1996). The Peoples of Africa: an Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 532-533. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
- ^ Nemadi entry in the Languages of Mali Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine, 13th edition (1996)
- ^ Moussa Diagana, Ousmane (2013). Dictionnaire soninké-français (Mauritanie). Karthala.
- ^ Gràcia; Contreras, Lluïsa; Joan Miquel (2005). El Soninké i el Mandinga. Universitat de Girona.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
External links
- PanAfriL10n page on Soninke
- Soninkara.org: La langue soninké
- Collection of documents in Soninke
- Decree No. 2005-991 of 21 October 2005 relating to the spelling and the separation of words in Soninke via the website of the Senegalese Journal officiel (in French)
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