Bambara Language
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Bambara (
Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...
: ), also known as Bamana (
N'Ko script N'Ko () is a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949, as a modern writing system for the Mandé languages of West Africa. The term ''N'Ko'', which means ''I say'' in all Mandé languages, is also used for the Mandé literary standard written i ...
: ) or Bamanankan (), is a
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
and
national language A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. There is little consistency in the use of this term. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the te ...
of
Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
spoken by perhaps 15 million people, natively by 5 million
Bambara people The Bambara ( bm, ߓߡߊߣߊ߲, italics=no, ''Bamana'' or ''Banmana'') are a Mandé ethnic group native to much of West Africa, primarily southern Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Senegal. They have been associated with the historic Bambara Emp ...
and about 10 million
second-language A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...
users. It is estimated that about 80 percent of the population of Mali speak Bambara as a first or second language. It has a
subject–object–verb Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to: Philosophy *'' Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing **Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective con ...
clause structure and two lexical tones.


Classification

Bambara is a variety of a group of closely related languages called Manding, whose native speakers trace their cultural history to the medieval
Mali Empire The Mali Empire ( Manding: ''Mandé''Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: ''UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, Abridged Edition: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century'', p. 57. University of California Press, 1997. or Manden; ar, مالي, Māl ...
. Varieties of Manding are generally considered (among native speakers) to be mutually intelligible – dependent on exposure or familiarity with dialects between speakers – and spoken by 30 to 40 million people in the countries
Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...
,
Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...
,
Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ) ...
,
Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
,
Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
,
Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
and
the Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...
. Manding is part of the larger Mandé family of languages.


Geographical distribution

Bambara is spoken throughout Mali as a lingua franca. The language is most widely spoken in the areas east, south, and north of Bamako, where native speakers and/or those that identify as members of the Bambara ethnic group are most densely populated. These regions are also usually considered to be the historical geographical origin of Bambara people, particularly
Ségou Ségou (; bm, ߛߋߓߎ, italic=no, ) is a town and an urban commune in south-central Mali that lies northeast of Bamako on the right bank of the River Niger. The town is the capital of the Ségou Cercle and the Ségou Region. With 130,690 ...
, after diverging from other Manding groups.


Dialects

The main dialect is Standard Bamara, which has significant influence from Maninkakan. Bambara has many local dialects: Kaarta, Tambacounda (west); Beledugu, Bananba, Mesekele (north); Jitumu, Jamaladugu, Segu (center); Cakadugu, Keleyadugu, Jalakadougu, Kurulamini, Banimɔncɛ, Cɛmala, Cɛndugu, Baninkɔ, Shɛndugu, Ganadugu (south); Kala, Kuruma, Saro, dialects to the northeast of Mopti (especially Bɔrɛ); Zegedugu, Bɛndugu, Bakɔkan, Jɔnka (southeast).,


Writing

Since 1967, Bambara has mostly been written in the
Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
, using some additional phonetic characters. The vowels are ''a, e, ɛ'' (formerly '' è''), ''i, o, ɔ'' (formerly '' ò''), ''u''; accents can be used to indicate tonality. The former digraph ''ny'' is now written '' ɲ'' when it designates a palatal nasal glide; the ''ny'' spelling is kept for the combination of a nasal vowel with a subsequent oral palatal glide. Following the 1966 Bamako spelling conventions, a nasal velar glide " ŋ" is written as " ŋ", although in early publications it was often transcribed as ''ng'' or ''nk''. The
N'Ko N'Ko () is a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949, as a modern writing system for the Mandé languages of West Africa. The term ''N'Ko'', which means ''I say'' in all Mandé languages, is also used for the Mandé literary standard written i ...
( nqo, ߒߞߏ) alphabet is a script devised by
Solomana Kante Solomana Kanté (also written as Sùlemáana Kántε, Souleymane Kanté or Sulemaana Kantè; , 1922 – November 23, 1987) was a Guinean writer and educator, best known as the inventor of the N'Ko alphabet for the Mandé languages of Africa. K ...
in 1949 as a writing system for the Manding languages of West Africa; N’Ko means 'I say' in all Manding languages. Kante created N’Ko in response to what he felt were beliefs that Africans were a "cultureless people" since prior to this time there had been no indigenous African writing system for his language. N'ko first gained a strong user base around the Maninka-speaking area of Kante's hometown of Kankan, Guinea and disseminated from there into other Manding-speaking parts of West Africa. N'ko and the
Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...
are still in use for Bambara, although only the Latin-based orthography is officially recognized in Mali. Additionally, a script known as Masaba or Ma-sa-ba was developed for the language beginning in 1930 by Woyo Couloubayi (c.1910-1982) of Assatiémala. Named for the first characters in Couloubayi's preferred
collation Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office fili ...
order, Masaba is a
syllabary In the linguistic study of written languages, a syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) moras which make up words. A symbol in a syllabary, called a syllabogram, typically represents an (optiona ...
which uses diacritics to indicate vowel qualities such as tone,
length Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived. In the Interna ...
, and
nasalization In phonetics, nasalization (or nasalisation) is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is . In the Internationa ...
. Though not conclusively related to other writing systems, Masaba appears to draw on traditional Bambara iconography and shares some similarities with the
Vai syllabary The Vai syllabary is a syllabic writing system devised for the Vai language by Momolu Duwalu Bukele of Jondu, in what is now Grand Cape Mount County, Liberia. Bukele is regarded within the Vai community, as well as by most scholars, as the s ...
of Liberia and with Arabic-derived secret alphabets used in Hodh (now
Hodh El Gharbi Hodh El Gharbi ( ar, ولاية الحوض الغربي, "Western Basin Region") is a region in southern Mauritania, with an area of 53,400 square km. The population at the 2013 census was 294,109. Its capital is Aïoun (formerly called Ayoun el ...
and
Hodh Ech Chargui Hodh Ech Chargui ( ar, ولاية الحوض الشرقي, "Eastern Basin Region") is a large region in eastern Mauritania, with an area of 182,700 km2. Its capital is Néma, but the largest town, in Bassiknou Department, is Fassala (or Vas ...
Regions of Mauritania Mauritania is divided into 15 regions: During the Mauritanian occupation of Western Sahara (1975–79), its portion of the territory (roughly corresponding to the lower half of Río de Oro province) was named Tiris al-Gharbiyya. The regions ...
). As of 1978, Masaba was in limited use in several communities in
Nioro Cercle Nioro Cercle is an administrative subdivision of the Kayes Region of Mali. Its administrative center (''chef-lieu'') is the town of Nioro du Sahel. The commune is on the Mauritanian border and has long been a major stop on the trans-Saharan tra ...
for accounting, personal correspondence, and the recording of Muslim prayers; the script's current status and prevalence is unknown.


Latin orthography

It uses seven vowels a, e, ɛ, i, o, ɔ and u, each of which can be nasalized, pharyngealized and murmured, giving a total number of 21 vowels (the letters approximate their
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...
equivalents). Writing with the Latin alphabet began during the French colonization, and the first orthography was introduced in 1967. Literacy is limited, especially in rural areas. Although written literature is only slowly evolving (due to the predominance of French as the "language of the educated"), there exists a wealth of
oral literature Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used vary ...
, which is often tales of kings and heroes. This oral literature is mainly passed on by the
griot A griot (; ; Manding: jali or jeli (in N'Ko: , ''djeli'' or ''djéli'' in French spelling); Serer: kevel or kewel / okawul; Wolof: gewel) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician. The griot is a repos ...
s (''Jeliw'' in Bambara) who are a mixture of storytellers, praise singers, and human history books who have studied the trade of singing and reciting for many years. Many of their songs are very old and are said to date back to the old empire of Mali.


Alphabet

* A – a – * B – be – * C – ce – ͡ʃ* D – de – * E – e – * Ɛ – ɛ – * F – ef – * G – ge – * H – ha – * I – i – * J – je – ͡ʒ* K – ka – * L – ɛl – * M – ɛm – * N – ɛn – * Ɲ – ɲe – * Ŋ – ɛŋ – * O – o – * Ɔ – ɔ – * P – pe – * R – ɛr – * S – ɛs – * T – te – * U – u – * W – wa – * Y – ye – * Z – ze –


Other letters

* kh – (used for loanwords from other African languages) * -n – nasalises vowel * sh – she – (regional variant of s)


N'ko orthography


Vowels

* ߊ – a – * ߋ – e – * ߌ – i – * ߍ – ɛ – * ߎ – u – * ߏ – o – * ߐ – ɔ –


Consonants

* ߓ – ba – * ߔ – pa – * ߕ – ta – * ߖ – ja – ͡ʒ* ߗ – ca – ͡ʃ* ߘ – da – * ߚ/ߙ – ra – * ߛ – sa – * ߜ? – ga – /ʀ/ɣ* ߜ – gba – ͡b* ߝ – fa – * ߞ – ka – * ߟ – la – * ߡ – ma – * ߢ – nya/ɲa – * ߒ – nga/ŋa – * ߣ – na – * ߥ – wa – * ߦ – ya – * ߤ – ha – * ߲ – nasal vowel – ̃


Tones

* ߫ – short high * ߬ – short low * ߯ – long high * ߰ – long low


Phonology


Consonants

Each consonant represents a single sound with some exceptions: * "W" is pronounced as in English (e.g. wait) except at the end of a word, when it is the plural mark and is pronounced as * "S" is pronounced most often as in the English word "see" but is sometimes pronounced as "sh" as in the word "shoe" or as * "G" is pronounced most often as in the English word "go" but in the middle of a word, it can be pronounced as in the Spanish word "abogado" ( and sometimes at the beginning of a word as w


Vowels


Grammar

Bambara is an agglutinative language, meaning that morphemes are glued together to form a word. The basic sentence structure subject-object-verb (SOV). Take the phrase, ''n t'a lon'' (I don't know t. ''n'' is the subject (I), ''a'' is the object (it), and '' alon'' is the verb ( oknow). The ''t' '' is from the negative present tense marker ''té'', ''bé'' being the affirmative present tense marker (''n b'a don'' would mean "I know it"). Like many SOV languages, Bambara uses
postposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
s rather than prepositions - their role being similar to English prepositions but placed after the noun. The language has two (mid/standard and high) tones; e.g. ''sa'' 'die' vs. ''sá'' 'snake.' The typical argument structure of the language consists of a subject, followed by an aspectival auxiliary, followed by the direct object, and finally a transitive verb. Bambara does not inflect for gender. Gender for a noun can be specified by adding an adjective, ''-cɛ'' or ''-kɛ'' for male and ''-muso'' for female. The plural is formed by attaching a vocalic suffix ''-u'', most often with a low tone (in the orthography, ''-w'') to nouns or adjectives.


Loan words

In urban areas, many Bamanankan conjunctions have been replaced in everyday use by French borrowings that often mark
code-switch In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingualism ...
es. The
Bamako Bamako ( bm, ߓߡߊ߬ߞߐ߬ ''Bàmakɔ̌'', ff, 𞤄𞤢𞤥𞤢𞤳𞤮 ''Bamako'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2009 population of 1,810,366 and an estimated 2022 population of 2.81 million. It is located on t ...
dialect makes use of sentences like: ''N taara Kita mais il n'y avait personne là-bas.'' : ''I went to Kita amanankan but there was no one there
rench The Rench is a right-hand tributary of the Rhine in the Ortenau ( Central Baden, Germany). It rises on the southern edge of the Northern Black Forest at Kniebis near Bad Griesbach im Schwarzwald. The source farthest from the mouth is that of the ...
'' The sentence in Bamanankan alone would be ''Ń taara Kita nka mɔkɔ si tun tɛ yen.'' The French proposition "est-ce que" is also used in Bamanankan ; however, it is pronounced more slowly and as three syllables, . Bamanankan uses many French loan words. For example, some people might say: ''I ka kurusi ye jauni ye'': "Your skirt is yellow" (using a derivation of the French word for yellow, jaune.) However, one could also say: ''I ka kulosi ye nɛrɛmukuman ye'', also meaning "your skirt is yellow." The original Bamanankan word for yellow comes from "''nɛrɛmuku''," being flour (''muku'') made from
néré Néré () is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department in southwestern France. Population See also *Communes of the Charente-Maritime department The following is a list of the 463 communes of the Charente-Maritime department of Fra ...
(locust bean), a seed from a long seed pod. Nɛrɛmuku is often used in sauces in Southern Mali. Most French loan words are suffixed with the sound 'i'; this is particularly common when using French words which have a meaning not traditionally found in Mali. For example, the Bamanankan word for
snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
is ''niegei'', based on the French word for snow ''neige''. As there has never been snow in Mali, there was no unique word in Bamanankan to describe it.


Examples


Music

Malian artists such as
Oumou Sangaré Oumou Sangaré ( bm, Umu Sangare; born 25 February 1968 in Bamako) is a Grammy Award-winning Malian Wassoulou musician, sometimes referred to as "The Songbird of Wassoulou". Wassoulou is a historical region south of the Niger River, where the mu ...
, Sidiki Diabaté,
Fatoumata Diawara Fatoumata Diawara ( bm, ߝߊ߫ߕߎߡߕߊ ߖߊ߯ߥߙߊ߫, Fatumta Jawara, born 1982) is a Malian singer-songwriter currently living in France. Diawara began her career as an actress in theatre and in film, including ''Genesis'' (1999), '' Sia, T ...
,
Rokia Traoré Rokia Traoré (born 24. January 1974) is a Malian-born singer, songwriter and guitarist. She made six albums between 1998 and 2016. ''Bowmboï'' (2003) won the Critics Award category at the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music in 2004 and ''Tcham ...
, Ali Farka Touré,
Habib Koité Habib Koité ( bm, , Habib Kuwatɛ, born 1958 in Thiès, Senegal) is a Malian musician, singer, songwriter and griot based in Mali. His band, Bamada, was a supergroup of West African musicians, which included Kélétigui Diabaté on balafon ...
and the married duo
Amadou & Mariam Amadou & Mariam are a musical duo from Mali, composed of the Bamako-born couple Amadou Bagayoko (guitar and vocals) (born 24 October 1954) and Mariam Doumbia (vocals) (born 15 April 1958). Their album '' Welcome To Mali'' (2008) was nominated ...
often sing in Bambara. Lyrics in Bambara occur on '' Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants"''. Additionally, in 2010,
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
rock group
Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
released its 7th studio album I Ka Kené with the majority of lyrics in the language. American rapper
Nas Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air ( ...
also released a track titled "Sabali" in 2010, which featured
Damian Marley Damian Robert Nesta "Jr. Gong" Marley (born 21 July 1978) is a Jamaican DJ, singer, lyricist and rapper. He is the recipient of four Grammy Awards. Early life, education and family Damian Marley is the youngest son of reggae musician Bob Marle ...
. ''Sabali'' is a Bambara word that means patience.


Legal status

Bambara is one of several languages designated by Mali as a
national language A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. There is little consistency in the use of this term. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the te ...
.


References


Citation


Sources

* Bailleul Ch. ''Dictionnaire Bambara-Français.'' 3e édition corrigée. Bamako : Donniya, 2007, 476 p. * Bird, Charles, Hutchison, John & Kanté, Mamadou (1976) ''An Ka Bamanankan Kalan: Beginning Bambara''. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Linguistics Club. * Bird, Charles & Kanté, Mamadou (1977) ''Bambara-English, English-Bambara student lexicon''. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Linguistics Club. * Dumestre Gérard. ''Grammaire fondamentale du bambara.'' Paris : Karthala, 2003. * Dumestre, Gérard. ''Dictionnaire bambara-français suivi d’un index abrégé français-bambara.'' Paris : Karthala, 2011. p. 1189 * Eidelberg, Joseph
Bambara (A PROTO-HEBREW LANGUAGE?)
* Kastenholz, Raimund (1998) ''Grundkurs Bambara (Manding) mit Texten'' (second revised edition) (Afrikawissenschaftliche Lehrbücher Vol. 1). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. * Konaré, Demba (1998) ''Je parle bien bamanan''. Bamako: Jamana. * Morales, José (2010) ''J'apprends le bambara. 61 conversations'', (book + CD-ROM). Paris: Editions Karthala. * Touré, Mohamed & Leucht, Melanie (1996) ''Bambara Lesebuch: Originaltexte mit deutscher und französischer Übersetzung = Chrestomathie Bambara: textes originaux Bambara avec traductions allemandes et françaises'' (with illustrations by Melanie Leucht) (Afrikawissenschaftliche Lehrbücher Vol. 11) . Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. *


External links


Descriptions




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.

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'
Mobile-friendly Bambara-English dictionary
that includes French and Jula. * Bambara entries (>2300) in the French Wiktionary
Bambara-French-English dictionary
online and downloadable lexicons for language learners


Learning materials



*   on peacecorps.gov


Other


Corpus Bambara de Référence
Corpus Bambara de Référence, an electronic corpus of Bambara texts (about 2,000,000 words end 2014) * Maliyiri.com'
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

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) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bambara Language Languages of Burkina Faso Languages of Ghana Languages of Guinea Languages of Ivory Coast Languages of Mali Languages of Senegal languages of the Gambia languages of Mauritania languages of Niger Manding languages Subject–object–verb languages