- Maninka
Infobox Language
name=Maninka
nativename=Maninka, Maninkakan, Malinke, Malinka
states=Guinea, Mali, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire
nation=Guinea, Mali
speakers=3,300,000
familycolor=Niger-Congo
fam2=Mande
fam3=Western Mande
fam4=Manding
iso2=man
lc1=myg|ld1=Maninka, Forest
lc2=mku|ld2=Maninka, Konyanka
lc3=emk|ld3=Maninkaka, Eastern
lc4=mzj|ld4=Manya|ll4=Manya language
script=N'Ko , LatinManinka is the name of several closely related languages and dialects of the southeastern Manding subgroup of the Mande branch of the
Niger-Congo languages . It is the mother tongue of theMalinké people and is spoken by 3,300,000 speakers inGuinea andMali , where the closely related Bambara is a national language, and also inLiberia ,Senegal ,Sierra Leone andCôte d'Ivoire , where it has no official status. TheEthnologue lists the following varieties, but notes that the distinctions between them are largely uncertain:
*Eastern Maninkakan, also called "Malinke" or "Maninka", spoken by 1,890,000 speakers in Guinea and c.200,000 in Liberia and Sierra Leone;
*Maninka, Konyanka, spoken by 128,000 speakers in Guinea;
*Maninka, Sankaran, also called "Faranah", spoken in Guinea;
*Forest Maninka, a part of the Maninka-Mori group together with "Wojenaka, Worodougou, Koro, Koyaga," and "Mahou", spoken by 15,000 speakers inCôte d'Ivoire .External links
* [http://www.sil.org/silesr/1999/006/ Report on Malinke in Mali en Senegal]
* [http://www.unizh.ch/spw/afrling/afrosympo/abstracts/Vydrine.htm Nko script and a literary Maninka language by Valentin Vydrine]
* [http://www.language-museum.com/m/maninka.htm Some text from the language Museum]
* [http://www.language-museum.com/m/maninka-kankan.htm Language museum in kankan]
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=91249 Ethnologue report]
* [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/8919/yquiche.htm Malinke-Bambara Loan Words in the Mayan Languages]
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