Balanta (or Balant) is a group of two closely related Bak languages of

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

spoken by the

Balanta people The Balanta (Guinea-Bissau Creole and Portuguese: ''balanta''; ; lit. “those who resist” in Mandinka) are an ethnic group found in Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Senegal, Cape Verde and The Gambia. They are the largest ethnic group of Guinea-Bissau, ...

Description

Balanta is now generally divided into two distinct languages: Balanta-Kentohe and Balanta-Ganja.

Balanta-Kentohe

The Balanta-Kentohe (''Kəntɔhɛ'') language is spoken by about 423,000 people on the north central and central coast of

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 ), ...

(where as of 2006 it is spoken by about 397,000 people, many of whom can be found in the

Oio Region Oio (historically WoyeBühnen, Stephan (1992). ''Place Names as an Historical Source: An Introduction with Examples from Southern Senegambia and Germany.'' History in Africa, 19, 45-101. doi:10.2307/3171995. (UR(14-06-2021))) is a region in Guine ...

) as well as in

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 ...

. Films and portions of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

have been produced in Balanta-Kentohe. The ''Kəntɔhɛ'' dialect is spoken in the north, while the ''Fora'' dialect is spoken in the south. Ethnologue lists the alternative names of Balanta-Kentohe as Alante, Balanda, Balant, Balanta, Balante, Ballante, Belante, Brassa, Bulanda, Frase, Fora, Kantohe (Kentohe, Queuthoe), Naga and Mane. The Naga, Mane and Kantohe dialects may be separate languages.

Balanta-Ganja

Balanta-Ganja is spoken by 86,000 people (as of 2006) in the southwest corner of and the south of

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

Literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

is less than 1% for Balanta-Ganja. In September 2000, Balanta-Ganja was granted the status of 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 ...

in Senegal, and as of then can now be taught in elementary school. Ethnologue lists the alternative names of Balanta-Ganja as Alante, Balanda, Balant, Balante, Ballante, Belante, Brassa, Bulanda, Fjaa, Fraase (Fraasɛ). Its dialects are Fganja (Ganja) and Fjaalib (Blip).

Grammar

Balanta has case prefixes and suffixes alternatively interpreted as a

definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" a ...

dependent on the

noun class In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some a ...

Phonology

The following are the phonemes of the Balanta dialects.

Consonants

Voiceless sounds are only heard in the Guinea Bissau dialect.

Vowels

Writing

In Senegal, Decree No. 2005-979 provides for an

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...

of Balanta as follows:Gouvernement du Sénégal, Décret n° 2005-979.

References

Relevant literature

* Creissels, Denis. 2016. A sketch of Ganja (Balant). In Friederike Lüpke (ed.), ''The Oxford guide to the Atlantic languages of West Africa''. Oxford University Press. * Mansaly, Jules. 2018. ''Dictionnaire des proverbes balant: Une langue du groupe atlantique-ouest de la famille niger-congo au Sénégal''. (Series: Verbal Art and Documentary Literature in African Languages Volume 37.) Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. * Migeod, F.W.H., '' The Languages of West Africa Volume II'' London 1913. * Westermann, D. & Bryan, M.A. ''The Languages of West Africa.'' Published for the International African Institute by Dawsons of Pall Mall, Folkestone & London 1970.

External links

Video about the Balanta language

Swadesh List for Balanta-Kentohe

Decree No. 2005-979 of 21 October 2005 relating to the spelling and the separation of words in Balanta
via the website of the ''Journal officiel'' {{Authority control Languages of Guinea-Bissau Languages of the Gambia Languages of Senegal Bak languages