The Manding languages (sometimes spelt Manden ) are a dialect continuum within the Niger-Congo family spoken in West Africa . Varieties of Manding are generally considered (among native speakers) to be mutually intelligible – dependent on exposure or familiarity with dialects between speakers – and spoken by 9.1 million people in the countries Burkina Faso , Senegal , Guinea-Bissau , Guinea , Sierra Leone , Mali , Liberia , Ivory Coast and The Gambia . Their best-known members are Mandinka or Mandingo , the principal language of The Gambia ; Bambara , the most widely spoken language in Mali ; Maninka or Malinké , a major language of Guinea and Mali ; and Jula , a trade language of Ivory Coast and western Burkina Faso . Manding is part of the larger Mandé family of languages.
2-569: Diawara may refer to: Diawara is the French transcription of a surname of Manding origin (the English transcription is Jawara ). Notable people with this name include: Manding languages The Manding languages, the differences from one another and relationships among them are matters that continue to be researched. In addition, the nomenclature is a mixture of indigenous terms and words applied by English and French speakers since before
4-459: The colonisation of Africa , which makes the picture complex and even confusing. The Mandinka people speak varieties from the first two groups. The differences between the western and eastern branches manifest themselves primarily phonetically . While dialects of the western group usually have 10 vowels (5 oral and 5 long/ nasal ), the eastern group, typified by Bambara, has 14 vowels (7 oral and 7 nasal): In addition, Sininkere (Burkina Faso)
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