Balanta languages

Balanta is now generally divided into two distinct languages: Balanta-Kentohe and Balanta-Ganja.{{Cite web |title=Balanta-Kentohe |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/ble |access-date=2021-01-06 |website=Ethnologue |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Balanta-Ganja |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/bjt |access-date=2021-01-06 |website=Ethnologue |language=en}}

The 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{{Cite web |title=Balanta-Kentohe Language (ble) |url=http://rosettapanglossia.longnow.org/wiki/index.php/Balanta-Kentohe_Language_%28ble%29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727041655/http://rosettapanglossia.longnow.org/wiki/index.php/Balanta-Kentohe_Language_(ble) |archive-date=2011-07-27 |access-date=2011-02-28 |website=The Rosetta Project}}) 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.{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=William A. A. |title=Guinea Languages of the Atlantic Group: Description and Internal Classification |date=2007 |publisher=Peter Lang |series=Schriften zur Afrikanistik, 12 |location=Frankfurt am Main |language=en}}

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-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. 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).

Balanta has case prefixes and suffixes alternatively interpreted as a definite article dependent on the noun class.{{Citation needed|date=February 2011}}

The following are the phonemes of the Balanta dialects.{{Cite book |last=Creissels |first=Denis |title=Le balant ganja: phonologie, morphosyntaxe, liste lexicale, textes |last2=Biaye |first2=Séckou |publisher=IFAN Cheikh Anta Diop |year=2016 |location=Dakar |language=fr}}{{Cite thesis |last=Mbodj |first=Chérif |title=Description synchronique du Balante So:fa (Guinée-Bissau) |date=2011 |degree=Doctoral |publisher=Université Cheikh Anta Diop |language=fr |trans-title=Synchronic description of Balante So:fa (Guinea-Bissau)}}

Voiceless sounds {{IPA|[c k kp]}} are only heard in the Guinea Bissau dialect.

In Senegal, Decree No. 2005-979 provides for an orthography of Balanta as follows:{{Cite thesis |last=Gomes |first=Cleonice Candida |title=O sistema verbal do balanta: um estudo dos morfemas de tempo |date=2008 |degree=Doctoral |publisher=Universidade de São Paulo |doi=10.11606/t.8.2008.tde-19012009-154521 |doi-access=free |language=pt |trans-title=The verbal system of Balanta: a study of time morphemes}}Gouvernement du Sénégal, Décret n° 2005-979.

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/)

{{Reflist}}

• Creissels, Denis. 2016. A sketch of Ganja (Balant). In Friederike Lüpke (ed.), The Oxford guide to the Atlantic languages of West Africa. Oxford University Press.
• Mansaly, Jules. 2018. Dictionnaire des proverbes balant: Une langue du groupe atlantique-ouest de la famille niger-congo au Sénégal. (Series: Verbal Art and Documentary Literature in African Languages Volume 37.) Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
• Migeod, F.W.H., The Languages of West Africa Volume II London 1913.
• Westermann, D. & Bryan, M.A. The Languages of West Africa. Published for the International African Institute by Dawsons of Pall Mall, Folkestone & London 1970.

• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDahVuWGV6M Video about the Balanta language]
• [https://archive.org/stream/rosettaproject_ble_swadesh-1/ble.txt Swadesh List for Balanta-Kentohe]
• [http://www.jo.gouv.sn/spip.php?article4789 Decree No. 2005-979 of 21 October 2005 relating to the spelling and the separation of words in Balanta] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304201129/http://www.jo.gouv.sn/spip.php?article4789 |date=4 March 2016 }} via the website of the Journal officiel {{in lang|fr}}

{{Languages of the Gambia}}

{{Languages of Guinea-Bissau}}

{{Languages of Senegal}}

{{Atlantic languages}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Languages of Guinea-Bissau

Category:Languages of the Gambia

Category:Languages of Senegal

Category:Bak languages