Mende language
{{Short description|Mande language of southern Sierra Leone}}
{{distinguish|Mende language (Papua New Guinea)}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Mende
|nativename={{lang|men|Mɛnde yia}} {{lang|men-Mend|𞠗𞢱 𞡓𞠣}}
|states=Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea
|region=South central Sierra Leone
|ethnicity=Mende people
|speakers={{sigfig|2.541600|2}} million
|date=2020–2021
|ref=e27
|dia1=Ko
|dia2=Kpa
|dia3=Sewawa
|dia4=Wanjama
|image=Mendeirv.svg
|imagescale=0.7
|script=Latin
Mende Kikakui script
|familycolor=Niger-Congo
|fam1=Niger–Congo?
|fam2=Mande
|fam3=Western
|fam4=Southwestern
|fam5=Mende–Loma
|fam6=Mende–Bandi
|fam7=Mende–Loko
|iso2=men
|iso3=men
|glotto=mend1266
|glottorefname=Mende (Sierra Leone)
|notice=IPA
}}
Mende {{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɛ|n|d|i}}Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh (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.{{Cite journal |last=Sengova |first=Joko |date=1987 |title=The national languages of Sierra Leone: A decade of policy experimentation |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0001972000083194/type/journal_article |journal=Africa |language=en |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=521–522 |doi=10.2307/1159897 |issn=0001-9720|url-access=subscription }}
Mende is a tonal language belonging to the Mande language family. Early systematic descriptions of Mende were by F. W. MigeodMigeod, F. W. 1908. [https://archive.org/details/mendelanguagecon00migeuoft The Mende language]. London and Kenneth Crosby.Crosby, Kenneth. 1944. An Introduction to the Study of Mende. Cambridge University Press. Ethel Aginsky decoded the language in her doctoral work.{{Cite news |last=Murphy |first=Patricia |date=1972-09-24 |title=Meeting of science, society |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-meeting-of-science/145709550/ |access-date=2024-04-20 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=70}}
Phonology
= Consonants =
| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2" | |
| align="center"
! rowspan="3" |Plosive !plain |p |t | |k |k͡p | |
| align="center"
!voiced |b |d | |ɡ |ɡ͡b | |
| align="center"
!prenasalized |m͡b |n͡d | |ŋ͡ɡ |ŋɡ͡b | |
| align="center"
! rowspan="2" |Fricative !plain |f |s | | | |h |
| align="center"
!voiced |v | | | | | |
| align="center"
! rowspan="2" |Affricate !voiced | | |d͡ʒ | | | |
| align="center"
!prenasalized | | |ɲd͡ʒ | | | |
| align="center"
! colspan="2" |Lateral | |l | | | | |
| align="center"
! colspan="2" |Nasal |m |n |ɲ |ŋ | | |
| align="center"
! colspan="2" |Approximant |w | |j | | | |
= Vowels =
Written forms
In 1921, Kisimi Kamara invented a syllabary for Mende he called Kikakui ({{Script|Mend|𞠀𞠁𞠂}} / File:Ki-ka-ku.svg). The script achieved widespread use for a time, but has largely been replaced with an alphabet based on the Latin script, and the Mende script is considered a "failed script".{{cite book |last=Unseth |first=Peter |title=The Success–Failure Continuum in Language and Ethnic Identity Efforts |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |editor1-last=Fishman |editor1-first=Joshua A. |location=New York |pages=23–32 |chapter=Invention of Scripts in West Africa for Ethnic Revitalization |editor2-last=García |editor2-first=Ofelia}} The Bible was translated into Mende and published in 1959, in Latin script.{{Cite journal |last=Tuchscherer |first=Konrad |date=1995 |title=African Script and Scripture: The History of the Kikakui (Mende) Writing System for Bible Translations |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1771691 |journal=African Languages and Cultures |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=169–188 |issn=0954-416X}}
The Latin-based alphabet is: a, b, d, e, ɛ, f, g, gb, h, i, j, k, kp, l, m, n, ny, o, ɔ, p, s, t, u, v, w, y. [http://aboutworldlanguages.com/mende Coble, Scott. n.d. "Mende." AboutWorldLanguages.com] (accessed 8 October 2014){{Cite web |title=Langue : mende |url=http://sumale.vjf.cnrs.fr/phono/PhonologieN.php |access-date=2019-02-14 |website=Systèmes alphabétiques des langues africaines}}
Mende has seven vowels: a, e, ɛ, i, o, ɔ, u. [https://books.google.com/books?id=a1AHAQAAIAAJ A Mende Orthography Workshop: Ministry of Education, Freetown, January 21-25, 1980][https://books.google.com/books?id=fFK5AAAAIAAJ Pemagbi, Joe. 1991. "A guide to Mende orthography." SLADEA.]
Media
= Film =
Mende was used extensively in the films Amistad and Blood Diamond and was the subject of the documentary film The Language You Cry In about the connections between the Gullah people of present-day Georgia and their ancestors from Sierra Leone, beginning with the work of Lorenzo Dow Turner who documented Gullah memories of the Mende language.{{cite web | title=THE LANGUAGE YOU CRY IN | website=California Newsreel | url=https://newsreel.org/video/THE-LANGUAGE-YOU-CRY-IN | access-date=2024-08-11}}
= Oral literature =
In 1908, F.W.H. Migeod, a British civil servant,{{cite web | title=F. W. H. Migeod | website=Horniman Museum and Gardens | url=https://www.horniman.ac.uk/agent/agent-2182/ | access-date=2024-08-11}} published The Mende Language, which contains 17 stories in Mende with facing-text English translations, along with 13 Mende songs (lyrics only, no music).Migeod, Frederick William Hugh (1908). [https://archive.org/details/mendelanguageco02migegoog/page/n206/mode/2up?view=theater The Mende Language, Containing Useful Phrases, Elementary Grammar, Short Vocabularies, Reading Materials.] pp. 200-271.
Ralph Eberl-Elber, an Austrian ethnologist,{{cite web | title=Ralph Eberl-EIber | website=Wien Geschichte Wiki | url=https://www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at/Ralph_Eberl-EIber | language=de | access-date=2024-08-11}} published two Mende tales with English translations as he heard them in Sierra Leone in the 1935.{{cite journal | last=Eberl-Elber | first=Ralph | title=Two Mende Tales | journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London | publisher=Cambridge University Press | volume=10 | issue=1 | year=1939 | issn=13561898 | jstor=607935 | pages=223–234 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/607935 | access-date=2024-08-11}}
The American anthropologist Marion Dusser de Barenne Kilson worked with Mende storytellers in Sierra Leone as a graduate student in 1959 and 1960 (her husband, the political scientist Martin Kilson, was also conducting research in Sierra Leone at the time). Marion Kilson then returned to Sierra Leone in 1972 for further research and in 1976 she published Royal Antelope and Spider: West African Mende Tales,Kilson, Marion (1976). [https://archive.org/details/royalantelopespi0000unse Royal Antelope and Spider: West African Mende Tales.] which contains 100 Mende folktales in both the original Mende and in English translation. The introduction provides an overview of Mende culture along with detailed information about Mende storytelling traditions.{{cite book |last1=Gibbs |first1=Laura |title=Reader's Guide to African Folktales at the Internet Archive |date=25 March 2022 |url=https://archive.org/stream/guideafricafolktales/guideafricafolktales_djvu.txt}}{{Creative Commons text attribution notice|cc=by4|from this source=yes}}
For Mende proverbs in Mende and English translation, see "Some Mεnde Proverbs," an article published by M. Mary Senior in 1947.{{cite journal | last=Senior | first=M. Mary | title=Some Mεnde Proverbs | journal=Africa: Journal of the International African Institute | publisher=[Cambridge University Press, International African Institute] | volume=17 | issue=3 | year=1947 | issn=00019720 | jstor=1156011 | pages=202–205 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1156011 | access-date=2024-08-11}}
Sample text
Numuvuisia Kpɛlɛɛ ta ti le tɛ yɛ nduwɔ ya hu, tao ti nuvuu yei kɛɛ ti lɔnyi maa hɛwungɔ. Kiiya kɛɛ hindaluahu gɔɔla a yɛlɔ ti hun. Fale mahoungɔ ti ti nyɔnyɔhu hoi kia ndeegaa.
= Translation =
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/afrlg/data/0445.html Bibliography on Mende]
- [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/mende.htm The Mende syllabary (Omniglot)]
- [http://www.bisharat.net/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/MendeBandiLoko PanAfrican L10n page on Mende, Bandi & Loko]
- [http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Mende/index.html Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Mende (1916)]
- [http://www.language-archives.org/language/men OLAC resources in and about the Mende language]
{{Languages of Liberia}}
{{Languages of Sierra Leone}}
{{Mande languages}}
{{Authority control}}