Bambara

E28452

Mande language language lingua franca

Bambara is a major Mande language widely spoken in Mali and neighboring West African countries, serving as a key lingua franca in the region.

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	Mande language → language → lingua franca →
alsoKnownAs	Bamana → Bamanankan →
approximateSpeakers	more than 10 million →
branchOf	Manding languages →
closelyRelatedTo	Dioula → Mandinka → Maninka →
hasDialects	Beledugu dialect → Kaarta dialect → Segou dialect →
hasEthnologueCode	bam →
hasGlottocode	bamb1269 →
hasISO639-1Code	bm →
hasISO639-2Code	bam →
hasISO639-3Code	bam →
hasLinguisticFeature	agglutinative morphology → subject–object–verb word order → tonal language → two-tone system →
hasNativeName	Bamana kan → Bamanankan →
hasStandardForm	urban Bamako variety →
influencedBy	Arabic → French →
isMacrolanguage	false →
isOfficialLanguageOf	Mali →
languageFamily	Mande →
nativeSpeakers	several million →
primaryRegion	West Africa →
regulatingBody	Direction Nationale des Langues Nationales du Mali →
role	lingua franca in Mali →
secondLanguageSpeakers	several million →
spokenIn	Burkina Faso → Côte d’Ivoire → Gambia → Guinea → Mali → Mauritania → Senegal →
statusInMali	national language →
subclassOf	Western Mande language →
usedIn	literature in Mali → popular music in Mali → radio broadcasting in Mali →
writingSystem	Arabic script → Latin script → N’Ko script →

Subject (surface form when different)	Predicate
Atlantic–Congo languages → Niger–Congo languages → West African languages →	includesLanguage
Mandinka → Mandinka ("Dioula") →	closelyRelatedTo
Mali → Mali Empire →	ethnicGroup
Bambara ("Bamana") →	alsoKnownAs
Mande languages →	hasMajorLanguage
Bamako →	languageInUse
Songhay languages ("Bambara language") →	neighboringLanguages