Mende language
Mande language of southern Sierra Leone / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Not to be confused with Mende language (Papua New Guinea).
Mende /ˈmɛndi/[2] (Mɛnde yia) is a major language of Sierra Leone, with some speakers in neighboring Liberia and Guinea. It is spoken by the Mende people and by other ethnic groups as a regional lingua franca in southern Sierra Leone.[3]
Quick Facts Native to, Region ...
Mende | |
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Mɛnde yia / 𞠗𞢱𞡓𞠣 / | |
Native to | Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea |
Region | South central Sierra Leone |
Ethnicity | Mende people |
Native speakers | 2.5 million (2020–2021)[1] |
Dialects |
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Latin Mende Kikakui script | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 | men |
ISO 639-3 | men |
Glottolog | mend1266 |
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. |
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Mende is a tonal language belonging to the Mande language family. Early systematic descriptions of Mende were by F. W. Migeod[4] and Kenneth Crosby.[5] Ethel Aginsky decoded the language in her doctoral work.[6]