Western Sudanic languages
| Mande | |
|---|---|
| West Sudanic | |
| Ethnicity | Mandé peoples |
| Geographic distribution |
West Africa |
| Linguistic classification |
Niger–Congo?
|
| Subdivisions |
|
| ISO 639-5 | |
| Linguasphere | 00- (phylozone) |
| Glottolog | mand1469 |
The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé people and include Maninka, Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Dioula, Bozo, Mende, Susu, and Vai. There are millions of speakers, chiefly in Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ivory Coast. The Mande languages have traditionally been considered a divergent branch of the Niger–Congo family, but that has always been controversial.
The group was first recognized in 1854 by Sigismund Wilhelm Koelle, in his Polyglotta Africana. He mentioned 13 languages under the heading North-Western High-Sudan Family, or Mandéga Family of Languages. In 1901, Maurice Delafosse made a distinction of two groups in his Essai de manuel pratique de la langue mandé ou mandingue. He speaks of a northern group mandé-tan and a southern group mandé-fu. The distinction was basically done only because the languages in the north use the expression tan for ten, and the southern languages use fu. In 1924, Louis Tauxier noted that the distinction is not well founded and there is at least a third subgroup he called mandé-bu. It was not until 1950, when André Prost supported that view and gave further details.
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