Languages of Mali
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Languages of Mali | |
|---|---|
 Sign in French at Ouélessébougou town hall | |
| Official | Arabic, Bambara, Bobo, Bozo, Dogon, Fula, Kassonke, Maninke, Minyanka, Senufo, Songhay languages, Soninke, Tamasheq |
| Semi-official | African French (working language) |
| Indigenous | Bambara, Bomu, Bozo, Mamara, Maninkakan, Soninke, Songhay, Syenara, Tamasheq, Xaasongaxango |
| Vernacular | Arabic |
| Foreign | Arabic |
| Signed | Francophone African Sign Language |
| Keyboard layout | |
Mali is a multilingual country of about 21.9 million people. The languages spoken there reflect ancient settlement patterns, migrations, and its long history. Ethnologue counts more than 80 languages. Of these, Bambara, Bobo, Bozo, Dogon, Fula, Arabic, Kassonke, Maninke, Minyanka, Senufo, Songhay languages, Soninke and Tamasheq are official languages.[1][2]
French is the working language.[1] In 2024, the Francophone population of Mali represents 20%, which is approximately 4,884,000 people. Among them, 6.4% (around 1,491,000 individuals) speak French as their first language.[3] Additionally, approximately 3,329,144 people, or 13.6% of the total population of 24,479,000, use French as a second language.[4]
French was retained as the official language at independence until 2023. As a working language,[5] it is used in government and formal education. Estimates of the number of Malians who actually speak French are low, and almost all of them speak French as a second language. 1993 estimates are that there were only around 9,000 Malian speakers of French as a first language.[6]
Derived from the numbers of school attendees,[7] it was estimated in 1986 that roughly 21% of the population spoke French, a number considerably lower than those who speak Bambara.[8] French is more understood in urban centres, with 1976 figures showing a 36.7% "Francophone" rate in urban areas, but only an 8.2% rate in rural areas. French usage is gender weighted as well, with 1984 figures showing 17.5% percent of males speaking French, but only 4.9% of women.[9]
Bambara (Bambara: Bamanankan), a Manding language (in the Mande family) is said to be spoken by 80% of the population as a first or second language.[citation needed] It is spoken mainly in central and Southern Mali. Bambara and two other very closely related Manding languages Malinke or Maninkakan in the southwest and Kassonke (in the region of Kayes in the west), are among the 13 national languages. It is used as a trade language in Mali between language groups.
(Bambara is also very close to the Dyula language (Dyula: Jula or Julakan; French: Dioula), spoken mainly in Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso. The name "Jula" is actually a Manding word meaning "trader.")
Other Mande languages (not in the Manding group) include Soninke (in the region of Kayes in western Mali) and the Bozo languages (along the middle Niger).
Other languages include Senufo in the Sikasso region (south), Fula (Fula: Fulfulde; French: Peul) as a widespread trade language in the Mopti region and beyond, the Songhay languages along the Niger, the Dogon languages of Pays Dogon or “Dogon country” in central Mali, Tamasheq in the eastern part of Mali's Sahara and Arabic in its western part.
Thirteen of the most widely spoken indigenous languages are considered "national languages."
Most formal education for the deaf in Mali uses American Sign Language, introduced to West Africa by the deaf American missionary Andrew Foster. There are two other sign languages in Mali. One, Tebul Sign Language, is found in a village with a high incidence of congenital deafness. Another, Bamako Sign Language, developed in the after-work tea circles of the cities; it is threatened by the educational use of ASL.