The Soninke language (Soninke: Sooninkanxanne,[2] سࣷونِکَنْخَنّࣹ), also known as Serakhulle or Azer or Maraka,[3] 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.
| 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] |
| Dialects | |
| Latin Arabic (Wolofal) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | snk |
| ISO 639-3 | snk |
| Glottolog | soni1259 |
Phonology
editConsonants
edit| 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
edit| 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.
Dialects
editDialects of Soninke include the Berber-inflected Azer dialect.
References
edit- ^ a b Soninke at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
- ^ "Lexicon Soninke-French-English". Archived from the original on 2008-12-30.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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
edit- 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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