Soninke | |
---|---|
Sooninkanxanne سࣷونِکَنْخَنّࣹ | |
Native to | Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ghana and Burkina Faso |
Ethnicity | Soninke people |
Native speakers | 2.1 million (2006–2011)[1] |
Niger-Congo
| |
Latin Arabic (Wolofal) | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 | snk |
ISO 639-3 | snk |
Glottolog | soni1259 |
The Soninke language (Soninke: Sooninkanxanne,[2] سࣷونِکَنْخَنّࣹ), also known as Serakhulle or Azer or Maraka,[3] is a Mande language spoken by the Soninke people of West Africa. The language has an estimated 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.
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | ⟨m⟩ m | ⟨n⟩ n | ⟨ñ⟩ ɲ | ⟨ŋ⟩ ŋ | |||
Stop and Affricate |
voiceless | ⟨p⟩ p | ⟨t⟩ t | ⟨c⟩ t͡ʃ | ⟨k⟩ k | ⟨q⟩ q | |
voiced | ⟨b⟩ b | ⟨d⟩ d | ⟨j⟩ d͡ʒ | ⟨g⟩ ɡ | |||
Fricative | ⟨f⟩ f | ⟨s⟩ s | ⟨x⟩ x ~ χ | ⟨h⟩ h | |||
Trill | ⟨r⟩ r | ||||||
Approximant | ⟨w⟩ w | ⟨l⟩ l | ⟨y⟩ j |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i, iː | u, uː | |
Close-mid | e, eː | o, oː | |
Open | a, aː |
Long vowels are written double: aa, ee, ii, oo, uu.