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Balanta (or Balant) is a group of two closely related Bak languages of West Africa spoken by the Balanta people.
| Balanta | |
|---|---|
| Native to | (Balanta-Kentohe) Guinea-Bissau, (Balanta-Ganja) the Gambia, Senegal |
| Ethnicity | 400,000 Balanta (2022)[1] |
Native speakers | 460,000 (2021–2022)[1] |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:ble – Balanta-Kentohebjt – Balanta-Ganja |
| Glottolog | bala1300 |
Balanta is now generally divided into two distinct languages: Balanta-Kentohe and Balanta-Ganja.[2][3]
The Balanta-Kentohe (Kəntɔhɛ) language is spoken by about 423,000 people on the north central and central coast of Guinea-Bissau (where as of 2006 it is spoken by about 397,000 people, many of whom can be found in the Oio Region[4]) as well as in the Gambia. Films and portions of the Bible have been produced in Balanta-Kentohe.
The Kəntɔhɛ dialect is spoken in the north, while the Fora dialect is spoken in the south.[5]
Ethnologue lists the alternative names of Balanta-Kentohe 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 is spoken by 86,000 people (as of 2006) in the southwest corner of and the south of Senegal. Literacy is less than 1% for Balanta-Ganja.[2][3] 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.
Ethnologue lists the alternative names of Balanta-Ganja as Alante, Balanda, Balant, Balante, Ballante, Belante, Brassa, Bulanda, Fjaa, Fraase (Fraasɛ). Its dialects are Fganja (Ganja) and Fjaalib (Blip).
Balanta has case prefixes and suffixes alternatively interpreted as a definite article dependent on the noun class.[citation needed]
The following are the phonemes of the Balanta dialects.[6][7]
Consonants
Voiceless sounds [c k kp] are only heard in the Guinea Bissau dialect.
Vowels
In Senegal, Decree No. 2005-979 provides for an orthography of Balanta as follows:[8][9]
The distinction between tense and non-tense vowels is indicated by the addition of an acute diacritic above tense vowels. Pre-nasalised consonants are indicated by preceding their consonant with a homorganic nasal (i.e. mp, nt, ñj). Unvoiced consonants are represented by doubling voiced consonants (i.e. bb = /p/)
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