Soninke language

Soninke

natural language, modern language

Subclass of	Mande
Native label	Sooninkanxanne
Writing system	Latin script
Ethnologue language status	5 Developing

De Soninke language (Soninke: Sooninkanxanne, سࣷونِکَنْخَنّࣹ), dem sanso know as Serakhulle anaa Azer anaa Maraka, be a Mande language wey de Soninke people of West Africa speak. Na de language get an estimated 2.3 million speakers, primarily dey locate insyd Mali den Mauritania, den sanso (in order of numerical importance of de communities) insyd Senegal, Ivory Coast, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, den Guinea. E dey enjoy de status of a national language insyd Mauritania, Mali, Senegal den The Gambia.

Phonology

Consonants

		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

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Close-mid	e eː		o oː
Open		a aː

Dem dey wrep long vowels double: aa, ee, ii, oo, uu.

Dialects

Dialects of Soninke dey include de Berber-inflected Azer dialect.

External links

• PanAfriL10n page on Soninke
• Soninkara.org: La langue soninké
• Collection of documents in Soninke
• Decree No. 2005-991 of 21 October 2005 relating to the spelling and the separation of words in Soninke via the website of the Senegalese Journal officiel (in French)