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 2.3 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.[1] It enjoys the status of a national language in Mauritania, Mali, Senegal and The Gambia.

Soninke
Sooninkanxanne سࣷونِکَنْخَنّࣹ
Native toMali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ghana, Burkina Faso
RegionWest Africa
EthnicitySoninke
Native speakers
2.3 million (2017–2021)[1]
Dialects
Latin
Arabic (Wolofal)
Language codes
ISO 639-2snk
ISO 639-3snk
Glottologsoni1259
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Phonology

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Consonants

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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

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Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open a

[4][5]

Long vowels are written double: aa, ee, ii, oo, uu.

Dialects

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Dialects of Soninke include the Berber-inflected Azer dialect.

References

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  1. ^ a b Soninke at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)  
  2. ^ "Lexicon Soninke-French-English". Archived from the original on 2008-12-30.
  3. ^ Olsen, James Stuart; Meur, Charles (1996). The Peoples of Africa: an Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 532-533. ISBN 9780313279188. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  4. ^ Moussa Diagana, Ousmane (2013). Dictionnaire soninké-français (Mauritanie). Karthala.
  5. ^ Gràcia; Contreras, Lluïsa; Joan Miquel (2005). El Soninké i el Mandinga. Universitat de Girona.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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