Soninke language explained

Soninke
Nativename:Soninke: Sooninkanxanne Soninke: سࣷونِکَنْخَنّࣹ
Region:West Africa
Ethnicity:Soninke
Speakers: million
Date:2017–2021
Ref:e27
Script:Latin
Arabic (Wolofal)
Familycolor:Niger-Congo
Fam1:Niger–Congo?
Fam2:Mande
Fam3:Western
Fam4:Northwestern
Fam5:Soninke–Bobo
Fam6:Soninke–Bozo
Iso2:snk
Iso3:snk
Glotto:soni1259
Glottorefname:Soninke
Notice:IPA
Dia1:Azer

The Soninke language (Soninke: Sooninkanxanne,[1] Soninke: سࣷونِکَنْخَنّࣹ), also known as Serakhulle or Azer or Maraka,[2] 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. It enjoys the status of a national language in Mauritania, Mali, Senegal and The Gambia.

Phonology

Consonants

LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarUvularGlottal
Nasal pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Stop and
Affricate
pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Fricative pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Trill pronounced as /link/
Approximant pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/

Vowels

FrontCentralBack
Closepronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Close-midpronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Openpronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
[3] [4]

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

Dialects

Dialects of Soninke include the Berber-inflected Azer dialect.

References

  1. Web site: Lexicon Soninke-French-English . https://web.archive.org/web/20081230214819/http://www.asawan.org/Documents/Soninke_Lexicon/lexicon/main.htm . 2008-12-30 .
  2. Book: Olsen . James Stuart . Meur . Charles . The Peoples of Africa: an Ethnohistorical Dictionary . 1996 . Greenwood Publishing Group . 532-533 . 9780313279188 . 2 December 2020.
  3. Book: Moussa Diagana, Ousmane. Dictionnaire soninké-français (Mauritanie). Karthala. 2013.
  4. Book: Gràcia; Contreras, Lluïsa; Joan Miquel. El Soninké i el Mandinga. 2005. Universitat de Girona.

External links