Mankanya language

Mankanya
Mancanha, Mancagne, Mankaañ
Native to	Gambia
Region	Southwest Senegal coast
Ethnicity	Mankanya
Native speakers	89,000 (2021–2022)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo ? Manjaku–Papel Mankanya
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	knf
Glottolog	mank1251

The Mankanya language (

.

Mancanha is spoken east of the Manjak language area and to the north of Bissau Island. It is also called Brame.^[2]

Sociolinguistic situation

The language has status as a national language in Senegal, and an

for the name of the people-group itself.

The language contains many

. Finally, Mankanya speakers in Senegal also know French, and those in Gambia know English.

Literature

There is a translation of the Christian Bible in the Mankanya language, available via the YouVersion app. It includes a spoken recording (audio-bible).^{[citation needed]}

Phonology

Consonants^[3]

	Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	p b	d	ʈ	(c) ɟ	k g
Fricative	f	θ, (s)	ʂ		x
Nasal	m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Approximant	w	l		j

• Every non-nasal consonant besides /s/ and /c/ can be prenasalised, however it is possible to analyse these consonants as nasal-consonant sequences instead of distinct phonemes.
• The phoneme /c/ is very rare, occurring only in ideophones and loanwords.
• The phoneme /s/ is only found in loanwords.
• Speakers born in Dakar tend to pronounce /θ/ as [s].
• /ʈ/ tends to be pronounced as an affricate [ʈʂ] word-finally.

Vowels^[3]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		u uː
Near-high			ʊ ʊː
Mid	e eː	ə	o oː
Low		a aː

• /a/ is in free variation with [ɜ] in closed syllables.

Stress is placed on the first syllable of the root. Mankanya is not tonal.^[3]

Writing system

Mankanya uses the Latin alphabet. In Senegal, a decree of 2005 provides for an orthography for Mankanya.^[4]

Mankanya Alphabet (Senegal)
A	B	C	D	E	Ë	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	Ñ	Ŋ	O	P	R	S	[illegible]	T	Ŧ	[illegible]	U	W	Y
a	b	c	d	e	ë	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	ñ	ŋ	o	p	r	s	[illegible]	t	ŧ	[illegible]	u	w	y

References

Further reading