What is Bambara?

-          Alternative names include Bamanan (the name for the ethnic group or Bamanankan.

-          Bambara belongs to the Manding group, which is part of the Mande language family

-          Manding is a group of very similar varieties or languages; in addition to Bambara, it includes Dyula, Mandinka, Maninka, Malinke, and others, whose speakers can largely understand one another


You can find some additional information  here.

A video with a brief introduction to the Bambara language by our colleague Valentin Vydrin (in French) can be found  here.

The map of the Manding languages is taken from the following  publication:

Vydrin, Valentin & Bergman, T. G. & Benjamin, Matthew. 2000. Mandé language family of West Africa: location and genetic classification. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2000-003: SIL International (p. 50). Link to publication

 Manding varieties

  

Where is it spoken?

Tour d'Afrique

-          The Manding languages are spoken in many countries in West Africa, including Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Senegal, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

-          Manding has well over 20 million speakers; it is not only a native language but also a lingua franca for millions more.

-          There are also significant communities of Bambara speakers living abroad, with the largest ones in Paris and other major cities in France.

Back to the main page

This page was created by Klaudia Dombrowsky-Hahn on 04.10.2026.
Click here to get directly to Klaudia Dombrowsky-Hahn's page at the University of Bayreuth.