Soninké

See also: Soninkés

The soninké is a language of the nigéro-Congolese family and sub-group mandé. In West Africa, she is spoken by approximately a million people belonging to the community soninké.

Other names

Sarakholé, Sarakule, Marka, Maraka, Sarawule, Serahuli, Silabe, Toubakai, Wakore, Gadyaga, Aswanik, Diawara, Soninkara

Population

Its zone of expansion includes/understands the two-thirds of the Mali, the south of the Mauritania, most of the Senegal, the North-West of the Burkina Faso, part of the Gambia and Guinea-Bissau.

Because of tradition of emigration practiced by Soninkés, one finds also important communities soninkés out of West Africa, in particular in the Paris region. It is besides the West African community most representative of France.Il is spoken in practically all the hearths about immigration about the Paris region.

Transcription

Soninké has a spoken literature, but can be also written by using the Latin alphabet or in Arab characters, increased some additional letters for the Latin alphabet. In Mali, the Latin orthography is official since 1982.

Pronunciation and orthography

Soninké tonal Langue is a but the let us tons are generally not noted (except in didactic works).

Moreover, there exist differences in pronunciation marked within the zones speakers, with stronger reason between country (Mali and Senegal, for example). The soninké alphabet of Mali (officialized 1982) and Senegal includes/understands the characters below. The differences in C-Ws communication are announced, the C-W communication Malian being indicated in first.

The prenasalized consonants are written by means of Digramme S begin with a N : Nb , Nd , etc the Gémination, according to the zones, is relevant. In Senegal for example: p pː , mm mː , etc the oppositions of vocalic Quantité are relevant; the long vowels are marked by the gemination of the graphème: aa aː , etc

Lexicon

It is composed primarily of mandés roots, but also of loans to the Bambara, the Arab and French.

Syntax

The structure of the sentence is in general SOV and the name precedes the epithet. There does not exist strictly speaking of Conjugaison. The time is indicated by particles.

Examples

Others

man: igo
tomato: mintinge
Rue: kille
Soap: Savon
Bread: bourou
Dress: doorké
loincloth: yiramé

See too

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