Bambara language

Bambara

natural language, modern language

Subclass of	Mande
Native label	Bamanankan
Country	Ivory Coast, Mali
Indigenous to	Mali
Coordinate location	13°0′0″N 8°0′0″W
Linguistic typology	subject–object–verb
Writing system	Masaba, Latin script, Latin script, N’ko, Ajami script
Ethnologue language status	4 Educational
Wikimedia language code	bm

Bambara, dem sanso know as Malian, Bamana (N'Ko script: ߓߡߊߣߊ߲) anaa Bamanankan (N'Ko script: ߓߡߊߣߊ߲ߞߊ߲; Arabic script: بَمَنَنكَن), be a lingua franca den national language of Mali wey perhaps 14 million people, natively by 4.2 million Bambara people den about 10 million second-language users dey speak. E be estimated say about 80 percent of de population of Mali dey speak Bambara as a first anaa second language. E get a subject–object–verb clause structure den two lexical tones.

Classification

Bambara be a variety of a group of closely related languages dem call Manding, wey ein native speakers dey trace dema cultural history to de medieval Mali Empire. Varieties of Manding generally be considered (among native speakers) to be mutually intelligible – dependent on exposure anaa familiarity plus dialects between speakers – wey 9.1 million people dey speak am insyd de countries Burkina Faso, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast den the Gambia. Manding be part of de larger Mandé family of languages.

Geographical distribution

Dem dey speak Bambara thru out Mali as a lingua franca. Dem most widely dey speak de language insyd de areas east, south, den north of Bamako, wer native speakers den/anaa those wey identify as members of de Bambara ethnic group most densely be populated. Dese regions sanso usually be considered to be de historical geographical origin of Bambara people, particularly Ségou, after dem diverge from oda Manding groups.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ		ŋ
Plosive	p	b	t	d	t͡ʃ ⟨c⟩	d͡ʒ ⟨j⟩	k	ɡ
Fricative	f		s	z	(ʃ) ⟨sh⟩		(ɣ) ⟨kh⟩		h
Approximant	w		l		j ⟨y⟩
Trill			r

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː ĩ		u uː ũ
Close-mid	e eː ẽ		o oː õ
Open-mid	ɛ ɛː ɛ̃		ɔ ɔː ɔ̃
Open		a aː ã

Writing

Page from Francis Delaforge ein Grammaire et méthode Bambara (1949)

Alphabet

• A – a – [a]
• B – be – [b]
• C – ce – [t͡ʃ]
• D – de – [d]
• E – e – [e]
• Ɛ – ɛ – [ɛ]
• F – ef – [f]
• G – ge – [g]
• H – ha – [h]
• I – i – [i]
• J – je – [d͡ʒ]
• K – ka – [k]
• L – ɛl – [l]
• M – ɛm – [m]
• N – ɛn – [n]
• Ɲ – ɲe – [ɲ]
• Ŋ – ɛŋ – [ŋ]
• O – o – [o]
• Ɔ – ɔ – [ɔ]
• P – pe – [p]
• R – ɛr – [r]
• S – ɛs – [s]
• T – te – [t]
• U – u – [u]
• W – wa – [w]
• Y – ye – [j]
• Z – ze – [z]

Oda letters

• kh – [ɣ] (dem use for loanwords from oda African languages)
• -n – nasalises vowel
• sh – she – [ʃ] (regional variant of s)

N'ko orthography

Vowels

• ߊ – a – [a]
• ߋ – e – [e]
• ߌ – i – [i]
• ߍ – ɛ – [ɛ]
• ߎ – u – [u]
• ߏ – o – [o]
• ߐ – ɔ – [ɔ]

Consonants

• ߓ – ba – [b]
• ߔ – pa – [p]
• ߕ – ta – [t]
• ߖ – ja – [d͡ʒ]
• ߗ – ca – [t͡ʃ]
• ߘ – da – [d]
• ߚ/ߙ – ra – [r]
• ߛ – sa – [s]
• ߜ? – ga – [g/ʀ/ɣ]
• ߜ – gba – [ɡ͡b]
• ߝ – fa – [f]
• ߞ – ka – [k]
• ߟ – la – [l]
• ߡ – ma – [m]
• ߢ – nya or ɲa – [ɲ]
• ߒ – nga or ŋa – [ŋ]
• ߣ – na – [n]
• ߥ – wa – [w]
• ߦ – ya – [j]
• ߤ – ha – [h]
• ߲ – nasal vowel – [-̃]

Tones

• ߫ – short high
• ߬ – short low
• ߯ – long high
• ߰ – long low

External links

Descriptions

• Mali – History – Language

Dictionaries

• Maliyiri.com is a website which provides English-Bambara-French translations and is a community-based project where users can add new words, comments, provide feedback and follow one another.
• Corpus Bambara de Référence - Etiquetage online and downloadable Bambara-French Dictionary (about 11,500 entries by the end of 2014), with a French-Bambara index, linked with the Corpus Bambara de Référence
• An ka taa's Mobile-friendly Bambara-English dictionary that includes French and Jula.
• Bambara entries (mouse) (>2300) in the French Wiktionary
• Bambara-French-English dictionary online and downloadable lexicons for language learners
• Bambara tree names (scientific name -> common name)

Learning materials

• Online Bambara Course from the Indiana University
• "AN INTRODUCTION TO BAMBARA" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 July 2011. (168 KB) on peacecorps.gov

Oda

• Corpus Bambara de Référence Corpus Bambara de Référence, an electronic corpus of Bambara texts (about 2,000,000 words end 2014)
• Maliyiri.com's Android application, with thousands of daily users, provides English-Bambara-French translations and users can choose to get daily/weekly word notifications for continuous learning.
• Bambara Electronic Library, AMALAN – LLACAN
• Proposal for encoding the Masaba script, Unicode
• An ka taa: a website with a dictionary, resources and media for learning Bambara and Manding more generally.
• Bambara at French Wikibooks contains more material
• Mandenkan Journal
• PanAfriL10n page on Manding (includes information on Bambara)
• Maneno in Bambara (a blogging platform with a full Bambara interface)