Balanta language
Encyclopedia
Balanta is an Atlantic language
of west Africa spoken by the Balanta people
.
es and suffix
es alternatively interpreted as a definite article
dependent on the noun class
.
Balanta is divided into two languages Balanta-Kentohe language and Balanta-Ganja, which are separate languages and are distinct from one another.
(where as of 2006 it is spoken by 397,000 people, many of which can be found in the Oio Region
) as well as in The Gambia
. Films and portions of the Bible
have been produced in Balanta-Kentohe.
.
Literacy
is less than 1% for Balanta-Ganja. In September 2000, Balanta-Ganja was granted the status of a national language
in Senegal, and as of then can now be taught in elementary school
.
of Balanta as follows:
Atlantic languages
The Atlantic or West Atlantic languages of West Africa are an obsolete proposed major group of the Niger–Congo languages. They are those languages west of Kru which have the noun-class systems characteristic of the Niger–Congo family; in this they are distinguished from their Mande neighbors, which...
of west Africa spoken by the Balanta people
Balanta people
The Balanta , meaning literally "those who resist", are an ethnic group found in Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and Gambia. They are the largest ethnic group of Guinea-Bissau, representing more than one-quarter of the population...
.
Description
Balanta has case prefixPrefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...
es and suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
es alternatively interpreted as a definite article
Definite Article
Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
dependent on the noun class
Noun class
In linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of characteristic features of its referent, such as sex, animacy, shape, but counting a given noun among nouns of such or another class is often clearly conventional...
.
Balanta is divided into two languages Balanta-Kentohe language and Balanta-Ganja, which are separate languages and are distinct from one another.
Balanta-Kentohe
Balanta-Kentohe language is spoken by a total of 423,000 people on the north central and central coast of Guinea-BissauGuinea-Bissau
The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north, and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west....
(where as of 2006 it is spoken by 397,000 people, many of which can be found in the Oio Region
Oio Region
Oio is a region in Guinea-Bissau. Its capital is Farim. Other major cities and towns include Nhacra, Mansoa, Bissorã and Cumeré. The region borders Senegal to the north, the Guinea-Bissau regions of Bafatá, Bissau and Biombo to the east, the Rio Geba/Guinea-Bissau region of Quinara to the south and...
) as well as in The Gambia
The Gambia
The Republic of The Gambia, commonly referred to as The Gambia, or Gambia , is a country in West Africa. Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, surrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean in the west....
. Films and portions of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
have been produced in Balanta-Kentohe.
Alternative names for and Dialects of Balanta-Kentohe
Ethnologue lists alternative names as Alante, Balanda, Balant, Balanta, Balante, Ballante, Belante, Brassa, Bulanda, Frase, Fora, Kantohe (Kentohe, Queuthoe), Naga, and Mane. The Naga, Mane, and Kantohe dialects may be separate languages.Balanta-Ganja
Balanta-Ganja is spoken by 86,000 people (as of 2006) in the southwest corner of and the south of SenegalSenegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
.
Literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
is less than 1% for Balanta-Ganja. In September 2000, Balanta-Ganja was granted the status of a national language
National language
A national language is a language which has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a people and perhaps by extension the territory they occupy. The term is used variously. A national language may for instance represent the national identity of a nation or country...
in Senegal, and as of then can now be taught in elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
.
Alternative names for and Dialects of Balanta-Ganja
Ethnologue lists alternative names as Alante, Balanda, Balant, Balante, Ballante, Belante, Brassa, Bulanda, Fjaa, Fraase, Fganja (Ganja) and Fjaalib (Blip).Writing
In Senegal, Decree No. 2005-979 regulates the orthographyOrthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
of Balanta as follows:
| Letters of the alphabet (Senegal) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | B | Ɓ | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | L | M | N | Ñ | Ŋ | O | R | S | T | Ŧ | U | W | Y |
| a | b | ɓ | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | l | m | n | ñ | ŋ | o | r | s | t | ŧ | u | w | y |