Mende language

Not to be confused with Mende language (Papua New Guinea).
Mende
Mɛnde yia / 𞠗𞢱 𞡓𞠣‎ / Mɛnde yia
Native toSierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea
RegionSouth central Sierra Leone
EthnicityMende people
Native speakers
2.5 million (2020–2021)[1]
Dialects
  • Ko
  • Kpa
  • Sewawa
  • Wanjama
Latin
Mende Kikakui script
Language codes
ISO 639-2men
ISO 639-3men
Glottologmend1266
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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]

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]

  1. ^ Mende at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
  3. ^ Sengova, Joko (1987). "The national languages of Sierra Leone: A decade of policy experimentation". Africa. 57 (4): 521–522. doi:10.2307/1159897. ISSN 0001-9720.
  4. ^ Migeod, F. W. 1908. The Mende language. London
  5. ^ Crosby, Kenneth. 1944. An Introduction to the Study of Mende. Cambridge University Press.
  6. ^ Murphy, Patricia (1972-09-24). "Meeting of science, society". The Los Angeles Times. p. 70. Retrieved 2024-04-20.