Soninke language (original) (raw)

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Mande language spoken in West Africa

Soninke
Sooninkanxanne سࣷونِکَنْخَنّࣹ
Native to Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ghana, Burkina Faso
Region West Africa
Ethnicity Soninke
Native speakers 2.3 million (2017–2021)[1]
Language family Niger–Congo? MandeWesternNorthwesternSoninke–BoboSoninke–BozoSoninke
Dialects Azer
Writing system Latin Arabic (Ajami) N'ti script[2]
Official status
Official language in Mali
Language codes
ISO 639-2 snk
ISO 639-3 snk
Glottolog soni1259
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The Soninke language (Soninke: Sooninkanxanne,[3] سࣷونِکَنْخَنّࣹ), also known as Serakhulle or Azer or Maraka,[4] is a Mande language spoken by the Soninke people of West Africa. The language has an estimated 2.3 million speakers, primarily located in Mali and Mauritania, and also (in order of numerical importance of the communities) in Senegal, Ivory Coast, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea.[1] It enjoys the status of a national language in Mauritania, Mali, Senegal and The Gambia.

| | Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | Nasal | ⟨m⟩ m | ⟨n⟩ n | ⟨ñ⟩ ɲ | ⟨ŋ⟩ ŋ | | | | | Stop andAffricate | 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 | | | | |

| | Front | Central | Back | | | ------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Close | i iː | | u uː | | Close-mid | e eː | | o oː | | Open | | a aː | |

[5][6]

Long vowels are written double: aa, ee, ii, oo, uu.

Dialects of Soninke include the Berber-inflected Azer dialect.

  1. ^ a b Soninke at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^ "Update on Usage and Implementation Status of African Scripts" (PDF).
  3. ^ "Lexicon Soninke-French-English". Archived from the original on 2008-12-30.
  4. ^ Olsen, James Stuart; Meur, Charles (1996). The Peoples of Africa: an Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 532-533. ISBN 9780313279188. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  5. ^ Moussa Diagana, Ousmane (2013). Dictionnaire soninké-français (Mauritanie). Karthala.
  6. ^ Gràcia; Contreras, Lluïsa; Joan Miquel (2005). El Soninké i el Mandinga. Universitat de Girona.{{[cite book](/wiki/Template:Cite%5Fbook "Template:Cite book")}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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