Mende language

Mende
Mende
Mɛnde yia / 𞠗𞢱𞡓𞠣 /
Native to	Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea
Region	South central Sierra Leone
Ethnicity	Mende people
Native speakers	2.5 million (2020–2021)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Mande Western Southwestern Mende–Loma Mende–Bandi Mende–Loko Mende; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Ko; Kpa; Sewawa; Wanjama;
Writing system	Latin; Mende Kikakui script
Language codes
ISO 639-2	men
ISO 639-3	men
Glottolog	mend1266
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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]

^ Mende at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
^ 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.
^ Migeod, F. W. 1908. The Mende language. London
^ Crosby, Kenneth. 1944. An Introduction to the Study of Mende. Cambridge University Press.
^ Murphy, Patricia (1972-09-24). "Meeting of science, society". The Los Angeles Times. p. 70. Retrieved 2024-04-20.