Bambara
Bamanankan
Bambara is a Mande language spoken in Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Guinea, by about 4.2 million people.
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Bambara, also known as Malian, Bamana (N'Ko script: ߓߡߊߣߊ߲) or Bamanankan (N'Ko script: ߓߡߊߣߊ߲ߞߊ߲; Arabic script: بَمَنَنكَن), is a lingua franca and national language of Mali spoken by perhaps 14 million people, natively by 4.2 million Bambara people and about 10 million second-language 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 clause structure and two lexical tones.
From Wikipedia · Bambara language · CC BY-SA 4.0
Written down
Hadamaden bɛɛ danmakɛɲɛnen bɛ bange, danbe ni josira la. Hakili ni taasi b’u bɛɛ la, wa u ka kan ka badenɲasira de waleya u ni ɲɔgɔn cɛ.
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR in Unicode).
Words in Bambara
| Meaning | Word | Romanization |
|---|---|---|
| man | cɛ | |
| woman | muso | |
| eye | ɲɛ̀ | |
| ear | tulo | |
| heart | dusu | |
| head | kun | |
| blood | jòli | |
| water | ji | |
| sun | tile | |
| rain | sanji | |
| tree | jiri | |
| dog | wùlù | |
| cat | jakuma | |
| fish | jɛgɛ | |
| horse | so | |
| cow | misi | |
| ten | tan | |
| I | n | |
| you | i | |
| we | an | |
| coffee | kafe | |
| milk | nɔnɔ | |
| hello | i ni ce | |
| book | gafɛ | |
| white | jèman |
Most similar languages
Vocabulary
Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.
Nearby languages
Elsewhere
Glottolog · bamb1269 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · bam