| Maninka | |
|---|---|
| Malinke | |
| Maninkakanߡߊ߬ߣߌ߲߬ߞߊ߬ߞߊ߲ | |
| Native to | Guinea,Mali,Liberia,Sierra Leone,Ivory Coast |
| Ethnicity | Mandinka |
Native speakers | 4.6 million (2012–2021)[1] |
| N'Ko,Latin | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Guinea,Mali |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:mku – Konyankaemk – Eastern Maninkakamsc – Sankaran Maninkakamzj – Manya (Liberia)jod – Wojenaka (Odienné Jula)jud – Worodougoukfo – Koro (Koro Jula)kga – Koyaga (Koyaga Jula)mxx – Mahou (Mawukakan) |
| Glottolog | mane1267 Manenkanmani1303 Maninka–Mori |
| ELP | Koro (Cote d'Ivoire) |
Maninka (also known as Malinke), or more preciselyEastern Maninka, is the name of several closely related languages and dialects of the southeasternManding subgroup of theMande language family (itself, possibly linked to theNiger–Congo phylum). It is the mother tongue of theMalinké people inGuinea, where it is spoken by 3.1 million people and is the main language in theUpper Guinea region, and inMali, where the closely relatedBambara is anational language, as well as inLiberia,Sierra Leone andIvory Coast, where it has no official status. It was the language of court and government during theMali Empire.
The Wudala dialect of Eastern Maninka, spoken in the central highlands of Guinea and comprehensible to speakers of all dialects in that country, has the following phonemic inventory.[2] (Apart from tone, which is not written, sounds are given in orthography, as IPA values are not certain.)
There are four tones: high, low, rising and falling
The marker for definiteness is a fallingfloating tone:
Vowel qualities are/ieɛaɔou/. All may be long or short, oral or nasal:/iːeːɛːaːɔːoːuː/ and/ĩẽɛ̃ãɔ̃õũ/. (It may be that all nasal vowels are long.) Nasal vowels nasalize some following consonants.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Dorsal | Labial–velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||
| Stop | voiced | b | d ~ɾ | ɟ | g ~g͡b | |
| voiceless | p | t | c | k | ||
| Fricative | f | s | h | |||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||
/d/ typically becomes a flap [ɾ] between vowels. /c/ (also written⟨ty⟩) often becomes /k/ before the vowels /i/ or /ɛ/. There is regional variation between /g/ and thelabial–velar /g͡b/. /h/ occurs mostly in Arabic loans, and is established. /p/ occurs in French and English loans, and is in the process of stabilizing.
Several voiced consonants become nasals after a nasal vowel. /b/ becomes /m/, /j/ becomes /ɲ/, and /l/ becomes /n/. For example, nouns ending in oral vowels take the plural in-lu; nouns ending in nasal vowels take-nu. However, /d/ remains oral, as in /nde/ "I, me".
Maninka in Guinea is written in an official Latin-based script, anolder official orthography (also Latin-based), and theN'Ko script.
