| Balanta | |
|---|---|
| Native to | (Balanta-Kentohe) Guinea-Bissau, (Balanta-Ganja) the Gambia, Senegal |
| Ethnicity | 400,000 Balanta (2022)[1] |
Native speakers | 460,000 (2021–2022)[1] |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:ble – Balanta-Kentohebjt – Balanta-Ganja |
| Glottolog | bala1300 |
Balanta (or Balant) is a group of two closely related Bak languages of West Africa spoken by the Balanta people.
Balanta is now generally divided into two distinct languages: Balanta-Kentohe and Balanta-Ganja.[2][3]
The Balanta-Kentohe (Kəntɔhɛ) language is spoken by about 423,000 people on the north central and central coast of Guinea-Bissau (where as of 2006 it is spoken by about 397,000 people, many of whom can be found in the Oio Region[4]) as well as in the Gambia. Films and portions of the Bible have been produced in Balanta-Kentohe.
The Kəntɔhɛ dialect is spoken in the north, while the Fora dialect is spoken in the south.[5]
Ethnologue lists the alternative names of Balanta-Kentohe as Alante, Balanda, Balant, Balanta, Balante, Ballante, Belante, Brassa, Bulanda, Frase, Fora, Kantohe (Kentohe, Queuthoe), Naga and Mane. The Naga, Mane and Kantohe dialects may be separate languages.
Balanta-Ganja is spoken by 86,000 people (as of 2006) in the southwest corner of and the south of Senegal. Literacy is less than 1% for Balanta-Ganja.[2][3] In September 2000, Balanta-Ganja was granted the status of a national language in Senegal, and as of then can now be taught in elementary school.
Ethnologue lists the alternative names of Balanta-Ganja as Alante, Balanda, Balant, Balante, Ballante, Belante, Brassa, Bulanda, Fjaa, Fraase (Fraasɛ). Its dialects are Fganja (Ganja) and Fjaalib (Blip).
Balanta has case prefixes and suffixes alternatively interpreted as a definite article dependent on the noun class.[citation needed]
The following are the phonemes of the Balanta dialects.[6][7]
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar |
Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | t | c | k | kp | |||
| voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | ɡb | |||
| prenasal vl. | ⁿt | ᶮc | ᵑk | ᵑkp | ||||
| prenasal vd. | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮɟ | ᵑɡ | ᵑɡb | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | θ | s | h | |||
| prenasal | ᶬf | ⁿθ | ⁿs | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Rhotic | r | |||||||
| Lateral | l | |||||||
| Approximant | j | w | ||||||
Voiceless sounds [c k kp] are only heard in the Guinea Bissau dialect.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i iː | u uː | |
| ɪ ɪː | ʊ ʊː | ||
| Mid | e eː | ə | o oː |
| ɛ ɛː | ɔ ɔː | ||
| Low | a aː |
In Senegal, Decree No. 2005-979 provides for an orthography of Balanta as follows:[8][9]
| Letters of the alphabet (Senegal) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | B | Ɓ | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | L | M | N | Ñ | Ŋ | O | R | S | T | Ŧ | U | W | Y |
| a | b | ɓ | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | l | m | n | ñ | ŋ | o | r | s | t | ŧ | u | w | y |
| a | b | d | varies | f | ɡ | h | varies | ɟ | l | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | varies | r | s | t | θ | varies | w | j | |
The distinction between tense and non-tense vowels is indicated by the addition of an acute diacritic above tense vowels. Pre-nasalised consonants are indicated by preceding their consonant with a homorganic nasal (i.e. mp, nt, ñj). Unvoiced consonants are represented by doubling voiced consonants (i.e. bb = /p/)
