Mankanya language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mankanya | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, and the Gambia | |
| Region: | Southwest Senegal coast | |
| Total speakers: | 68,955 | |
| Language family: | Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Atlantic Northern Bak Manjaku-Papel Mankanya |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | nic | |
| ISO 639-3: | knf | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
The Mankanya language is spoken by approximately 70,000 people in Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Gambia primarily belonging to the ethnic group of the same name. It belongs to the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo language family.
The language has status as an official language in Senegal, and an orthography has recently been developed for writing it. Mankanya is known as "Uhula" by the people themselves (the Mankanya people, or "Bahula"). The name 'Mankanya' ('Mancagne' in French) is thought to have been conferred upon the people and their language by colonialists who mistook the name of their chief at the time of colonisation for the name of the people-group itself.
The language contains many loanwords from Kriol. There is also extensive bilingualism in Mandjak, a closely-related language which is largely mutually comprehensible, as well as in other minority languages spoken in the area, such as Mandinka and Jola. Finally, Mankanya speakers in Senegal also know French, and those in Gambia know English.
[edit] External links
Ethnologue entry for "Mankanya"
 |
This Gambia-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 |
This Guinea-Bissau-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 |
This Senegal-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 |
This Niger-Congo languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
