What language did the Mande people speak?

The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé peoples and include Maninka, Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Kpelle, Dioula, Bozo, Mende, Susu, and Vai.

What are the main language families of Africa?

Most languages spoken in Africa belong to one of three large language families: Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan and Niger–Congo.

What are the three major language families in Africa?

It is home to the three major language families on the African continent: Niger-Congo, Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan.

How did Niger-Congo family get its name?

In a series of articles published between 1949 and 1954, he argued that Westermann’s ‘West Sudanic’ and Bantu formed a single genetic family, which he named Niger-Congo; that Bantu constituted a subgroup of the Benue-Congo branch; that Adamawa-Eastern, previously not considered to be related, was another member of this …

What is Mande in Africa?

Mande, also called Mali or Mandingo, group of peoples of western Africa, whose various Mande languages form a branch of the Niger-Congo language family.

How old is Mande language?

Mande is a mid-range language family in Western Sub-Saharan Africa that includes 60 to 75 languages spoken by 30 to 40 million people. According to the glottochronological data, its genetic depth is between 5,000 and 5,500 years.

How many languages are spoken in West Africa?

in West Africa. These languages are of very unequal importance. The 130 languages most spoken (with more than 200,000 speakers) represent more than 80\% of the regional population i.e. 240 million people. And the first five languages alone are spoken by 120 million people (see Figure 1).

What language do they speak in West Africa?

English. In West Africa, English is the primary language of many countries. Nations like Nigeria, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana speak it officially.

Where is Mande spoken?

Mande languages, a branch of the Niger-Congo language family comprising 40 languages spoken by some 20 million people in a more or less contiguous area of southeastern Senegal, The Gambia, southern Mauritania, southwestern Mali, eastern Guinea, northern and eastern Sierra Leone, northern Liberia, and western Côte d’ …

Where are Niger-Congo languages spoken?

In two countries, Niger and Chad, Niger-Congo languages are spoken by a minority. In northern Nigeria, northern Uganda, and Kenya there are substantial populations speaking other languages, but even in these countries the majority of the population speaks a Niger-Congo language.

What does it mean Mande?

Mande is the second-person conjugation of the verb mandar which means “to order” or “to command.” However, it uses the formal second person (you) which is usted, instead of the informal one, tú.

How many languages are there in the Niger-Congo family?

Niger-Congo, with approximately 1,350 – 1,650 languages is the largest of the four; it is also the largest language family in the world. The Niger-Congo languages inhabit Western, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa.

What are the prosodic features of West African languages?

So prosodic are the primarily tonal languages of West Africa, that most speech reverberates far, able to be beautifully mimicked, rhythmically reproduced, and literally “banged out” through the elaborate talking drum motifs inherent to this region of the world.

How many languages are there in West Africa?

West Africa, with its 500 plus indigenous languages, eclipses other regions of the world by its incredible linguistic diversity and density. Languages of West Africa.

What are the three major clusters of West African languages?

This rise and fall of pitch is characteristic of West African languages― with some non-tonal language exceptions like Fula, Wolof, and Koyra Chiini ― within its three major language clusters: Niger-Congo (i.e. Ewe , Igbo , Malinké , Yoruba ), Afroasiatic (i.e. Hausa ), and Nilo-Saharan (i.e. Songhay) ​1​.