Southwestern Mande languages explained

Southwestern Mande
Familycolor:Niger-Congo
Fam3:Western Mande
Child1:Kpelle
Child2:Loma-Mende
Glotto:sout2842
Glottorefname:Southwest Mande

The Southwestern Mande languages are a branch of the Mande languages spoken in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia. There are around 2.8 million total speakers. The largest languages by far are Mende of Sierra Leone, with 1.4 million, and Kpelle of Liberia and Guinea, with 1.2 million.

Member languages

Classification

A likely internal classification is as follows.[1]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Kastenholz, Raimund. Sprachgeschichte im West-Mande : Methoden und Rekonstruktionen. 1996. Köppe. 3896450719. Köln. 281. 42295840.