Mande · ISO 639-3 snk
Soninke Language Sooninkanxanne
Soninke is a Mande language spoken by about 1.2 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Soninke is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Soninke
Language family
- Mande
- Western Mande
- Northwestern Mande
- Soninke-Bozo
- Soninkean
- Soninke
Writing system
Latin script
About the Soninke language
Soninke (Sooninkanxanne) is spoken by about 1.2 million people, which makes it the 431st most spoken language in the world — just behind Surjapuri (1.2 million) and ahead of Tswa (1.2 million). It belongs to the Mande language family and, more precisely, to the Soninkean group within the Northwestern Mande branch.
Where is Soninke spoken?
Soninke is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Mali (1.3 million).
Soninke is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Soninke is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 snk.
Frequently asked questions about Soninke
How many people speak Soninke?
Where is Soninke spoken?
What language family does Soninke belong to?
What is Soninke called in Soninke?
Is Soninke 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.