The Baga languages are languages of the Mel family spoken in the coastal region of Guinea

Guinea

Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...

. The total number of speakers is about 30,000, of which Landoma speakers make up almost half.

The varieties apart from Landoma are sometimes considered dialects of one language, Baga or Barka. Landoma is somewhat more distantly related. The Baga languages are in turn related to Temne

Temne language

Temne is a language of the Atlantic subfamily of Niger–Congo languages spoken in Sierra Leone by about 2 million first speakers. One of the country's most widely spoken languages, it is spoken by 30% of the country’s population...

, one of the four official languages of Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...

; together, Baga and Temne belong to the Mel branch of Niger–Congo languages

Niger–Congo languages

The Niger–Congo languages constitute one of the world's major language families, and Africa's largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. They may constitute the world's largest language family in terms of distinct languages, although this question...

.

• Landoma
  Landoma language
  Landoma , or Cocoli, is a language of western Guinea. It is the most populous of the Baga languages, in the Mel branch of the Niger–Congo language family. It is related to Temne of Sierra Leone....
  
  
• Baga: Binari, Koba, Manduri, Sitemú, etc.

External links

• The Baga branch on the Ethnologue