Mande · ISO 639-3 bam · bm
Bambara Language Bámánánkán
Bambara is a Mande language spoken by about 9.0 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin, N’Ko and Perso-Arabic scripts.
Where Bambara is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Bambara
Language family
- Mande
- Western Mande
- Manding-Kpelle
- Central Mande
- Manding-Jogo
- Manding-Vai
- Manding-Mokole
- Manding
- East Manding
- Bambara
Writing system
Latin, N’Ko and Perso-Arabic scripts
Related languages
About the Bambara language
Bambara (Bámánánkán) is spoken by about 9.0 million people, which makes it the 135th most spoken language in the world — just behind Congo Swahili (9.1 million) and ahead of Bulgarian (9.0 million). It belongs to the Mande language family and, more precisely, to the East Manding group within the Manding-Kpelle branch.
Where is Bambara spoken?
Bambara is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Mali (10 million).
Bambara is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Bambara is written in the Latin, N’Ko and Perso-Arabic scripts. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Eastern Maninkakan, Sankaran Maninka, Dyula, Mandinka, Western Maninkakan, Susu and 1 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 bm, ISO 639-3 bam.
Frequently asked questions about Bambara
How many people speak Bambara?
Where is Bambara spoken?
What language family does Bambara belong to?
What is Bambara called in Bambara?
Is Bambara an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.