Balanta languages
Balanta (or Balant or Bulanda) is a group of two closely related Bak languages of West Africa spoken by the Balanta people. DescriptionBalanta is now generally divided into two distinct languages: Balanta-Kentohe and Balanta-Ganja.[2][3] Balanta-KentoheThe Balanta-Kentohe (Kəntɔhɛ) language is spoken by about 423,000 people on the north central and central coast of Guinea-Bissau (where as of 2006 it is spoken by about 397,000 people, many of whom can be found in the Oio Region[4]) as well as in the Gambia. Films and portions of the Bible have been produced in Balanta-Kentohe. The Kəntɔhɛ dialect is spoken in the north, while the Fora dialect is spoken in the south.[5] Ethnologue lists the alternative names of Balanta-Kentohe as Alante, Balanda, Balant, Balanta, Balante, Ballante, Belante, Brassa, Bulanda, Frase, Fora, Kantohe (Kentohe, Queuthoe), Naga and Mane. The Naga, Mane and Kantohe dialects may be separate languages. Balanta-GanjaBalanta-Ganja is spoken by 86,000 people (as of 2006) in the southwest corner of and the south of Senegal. Literacy is less than 1% for Balanta-Ganja.[2][3] In September 2000, Balanta-Ganja was granted the status of a national language in Senegal, and as of then can now be taught in elementary school. Ethnologue lists the alternative names of Balanta-Ganja as Alante, Balanda, Balant, Balante, Ballante, Belante, Brassa, Bulanda, Fjaa, Fraase (Fraasɛ). Its dialects are Fganja (Ganja) and Fjaalib (Blip). GrammarBalanta has case prefixes and suffixes alternatively interpreted as a definite article dependent on the noun class.[citation needed] PhonologyThe following are the phonemes of the Balanta dialects.[6][7] Consonants
Voiceless sounds [c k kp] are only heard in the Guinea Bissau dialect. Vowels
WritingIn Senegal, Decree No. 2005-979 provides for an orthography of Balanta as follows:[8][9]
The distinction between tense and non-tense vowels is indicated by the addition of an acute diacritic above tense vowels. Pre-nasalised consonants are indicated by preceding their consonant with a homorganic nasal (i.e. mp, nt, ñj). Unvoiced consonants are represented by doubling voiced consonants (i.e. bb = /p/) References
Relevant literature
External links
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
