Ethnos

Bambara

Bambara, also known as Bamanankan, is a language spoken in Mali by as many six million people. Fewer numbers of people speak or understand the language, or dialects of it, in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, and Gambia.

The differences between Bambara and Dioula are minimal. Bambara belongs to a group of closely-related languages called Manding (related to Mandinka, Mande language group). It is a SVO language and has two tones. It uses seven vowels a, e, é, i, o, ó and u (a like in car, e like in echo, é similar to the second e in echelon but more open, i like in India, o like in for, ó like the final sound in gnaw, and u like in the name Honolulu). Writing was introduced during the French occupation and alphabetisation is a major issue especially in rural areas. Although written literature is only slowly evolving(due to the predominance of French as the "language of the educated"), there exists a wealth of oral literature, which is often tales of kings and heroes. This oral literature is mainly tradited by the "Griot" who are a mixture of storytellers, partysingers and human history books who have studied the trade of singing and reciting for many years. Many of their songs are very old and are said to date back to the old kingdom of Mali. Bambara is a national language of Mali.

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