Languages of Guinea

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Languages of Guinea
Francophone African Sign Language)
Keyboard layout
French AZERTY
interethnicFrench, Fula

The

multilingual country, with over 40 languages spoken. The official language is French
, which was inherited from colonial rule.

Several indigenous languages have been given the status of national languages: Fula (or Pular); Malinké (or Maninka); Susu; Kissi; Kpelle (also known in French as Guerzé) and Loma.

Government and institutions

French is the language of state and of official institutions. It is used as a second language by 15% to 25% of the population, and as a first language by a negligible portion of the population.[1] At the end of the Ahmed Sékou Touré regime, French was the only language used in business and schools.

By region

Fula (34.6%) is mostly spoken in Middle Guinea, where the major city is Labé. It dominates in the Labé and Mamou regions where it is spoken by 94.5% and 92.4% of the populations respectively.[2]

Malinké (24.9%) is mostly spoken in Upper Guinea, where Kankan is the major city. It dominates the Kankan Region where it is spoken by 87.1% of the population.[2] The Kankan variety of the language was used by Solomana Kante for the development of N'Ko, a standardized unified written Manding language, which is increasingly used in literacy education and publishing books and newspapers in Guinea and neighboring countries.[3][4]

Susu (17.7%) is mostly spoken in

Guinée maritime, where the capital is Conakry.[5] It dominates the Kindia Region where it is spoken by 54.9% of the population and the plurality (37%) of Conakry also speaks it.[2]

Koniaka (4.5%), Kissi (4.1%) and Kpelle (4%) are spoken in

Kono is a language used in the south of Guinea, mostly in Lola.[2]

Conakry

According to a report by Alpha Mamadou Diallo,[6] the first language of inhabitants of the city of Conakry in decreasing order was: Susu 42%, Pular (Fula) 20%, Maninka (with koniaka) 19%, Kissi 4%, Guerzé 4%, French 2% and Toma 2%.

References

  1. ^ Linguistic situation in Guinea
  2. ^ a b c d "Etat et Structure de la Population Recensement General de la Population et de l'habitation 2014" (PDF). Direction Nationale de la Statistique de Guinée. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  3. OCLC 905517929.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  4. S2CID 181625415
    .
  5. ISBN 9781408102145
    .
  6. ^ Usages et images des langues en guinée, page 17, Alpha Mamadou Diallo, Université de Conakry.
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