Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 bsc
Bassari Language
Bassari is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 33,600 people in 2 countries. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Bassari is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
About the Bassari language
Bassari is spoken by about 33,600 people, which makes it the 537th most spoken language in the world — just behind Plains Cree (34,000) and ahead of Mankanya (33,000). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Bassari-Bedik-Bapen group within the Tenda branch.
Where is Bassari spoken?
Bassari is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in Guinea (23,000) and Senegal (18,282).
Share of the population that speaks Bassari: Guinea 0.2% (23,000) and Senegal <0.1% (18,282).
Bassari is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in Senegal.
Writing system and status
Bassari is written in the Latin script. Glottolog classifies it as threatened, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Ménik.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 bsc.
Frequently asked questions about Bassari
How many people speak Bassari?
Where is Bassari spoken?
What language family does Bassari belong to?
Is Bassari 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.