The Dogon languages are a small closely related language family that is spoken by the Dogon people of Mali and may belong to the proposed Niger–Congo family. There are about 600,000 speakers of its dozen languages. They are tonal languages, and most, like Dogul, have two tones, but some, like Donno So, have three. Their basic word order is subject–object–verb.
Jamsay Dogon is one of the Dogon languages spoken in Mali, and the only one spoken in Burkina Faso apart from a few villages of Tomo Kan. It is one of the plains languages spoken in Dogon villages outside the Bandiagara Escarpment. It is a major language in Koro, at the south end of the escarpment, and stretches as far north as Douentza. It is not mutually intelligible with other Plains Dogon languages, but is widely known as the prestige variety due to its use as the language of radio broadcasts. Dialects are Domno tegu, Gono tegu, Bama tegu, and Guru tegu; their degree of mutual intelligibility has not been recorded. Domno is the standard dialect, and considered the purest; Guru (Koro) is the dialect of that town.
The Tepecano language is an extinct indigenous language of Mexico belonging to the Uto-Aztecan language-family. It was formerly spoken by a small group of people in Azqueltán, Jalisco, a small village on the Río Bolaños in the far northern part of the state, just east of the territory of the Huichol people. Most closely related to Southern Tepehuán of the state of Durango, Tepecano was a Mesoamerican language and evinced many of the traits that define the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. So far as is known, the last speaker of Tepecano was Lino de la Rosa, who was still living as of February 1980.
Ana Dogon, or Ana Tiŋa, is a recently discovered Dogon language spoken in Mali. It was first reported online in 2005 by Roger Blench.
Budu Dogon or Bunoge, also known as Korandabo, is a recently discovered Dogon language spoken in Mali. It was first reported online. The plural suffix on nouns is closest to Kolum so, suggesting it should be classified as a West Dogon language.
Bankan Tey Dogon, at first called Walo-Kumbe Dogon after the two main villages it is spoken in, also known as Walo and Walonkore, is a divergent, recently described Dogon language spoken in Mali. It was first reported online by Roger Blench, who reports that it is "clearly related to Nanga", which is only known from one report from 1953.
Naŋa dama, also known as Naŋa tegu, is a Dogon language spoken in Mali that is only known from one report from 1953. Roger Blench reports that its nearest relative is the recently described Walo–Kumbe Dogon, "with which it shares both lexicon and the feature that many nouns have a final -m." Hochstetler thinks they may be the same language. It may be close to Yanda Dogon (Blench) or Jamsai tegu (Hochstetler).
Yanda Dogon is a Dogon language spoken in Mali. It is reported to be lexically similar to Nanga, which is only known from one report from 1953.
The Tebul language, also known as Tebul Ure, is a Dogon language spoken in Mali by the Tebul U. It was first reported under this name online by Roger Blench, who erroneously reported that it appears to be the same as a language called Oru Yille in existing literature. This mistaken name instead means 'two words' in the Tebul language.
The Dogul language, Dogul Dom, is a Dogon language spoken in Mali. It is closest to Bondum Dogon, though not enough for mutual intelligibility.
The Bondum language, Bondum Dom, is a Dogon language spoken in Mali. It is closest to Dogul Dogon, though not enough for mutual intelligibility. Dialects are Kindjim and Nadjamba.
Duleri Dogon or Duleri Dom, also known as Tiranige dige, is a Dogon language spoken in Mali.
Ampari Dogon, also known as Ambange or Ampari kora, is a Dogon language spoken in Mali.
Mombo Dogon is a Dogon language spoken in Mali. Helabo and Miambo are dialects.
The Toro language, Tɔrɔ tegu 'Mountain speech', is a Dogon language spoken in Mali. It is closest to the prestige variety of Dogon, Jamsay tegu, though speakers deny they are related and understand little of it. Hochstetler report difficulties in comprehension between Tɔrɔ tegu and one of the western Plains Dogon languages, Tomo kan.
The Dogon dialects of the western plains below the Bandiagara Escarpment in Mali are mutually intelligible. They are sometimes called the Kan Dogon because they use the word kan for varieties of speech. The dialects are:
Sambe is a presumably extinct Plateau language of Nigeria once spoken in the village of the same name. The Sambe people have shifted to Ninzo.
Ayu is a minor and endangered Plateau language of southern Kaduna State, Middle Belt Nigeria. Its subsequent classification is uncertain, but it may be one of the Ninzic languages. It is not being passed on to many children.
The Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) program is a joint effort between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to help fund fieldwork, research, and community activities that are involved in recording, documenting, and archiving endangered human languages. Linguists estimate that more than 3,000 of the 6,000-7,000 languages currently spoken will soon be extinct due to pressures preventing speakers from passing along knowledge of ancestral/traditional languages to children, and to speakers having fewer daily opportunities to use their languages. To address this issue, the NSF and NEH—in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) serving as a research host, but in a non-funding role—announced the first DEL awards in 2005, in an attempt to preserve records of endangered languages in use.
The Lainong people, also known as the Lainong Naga, are a Tibeto-Burmese ethnic group that mostly resides in Naga Self-Administered Zone in Myanmar. They are one of the major Naga ethnic group of Myanmar and mostly inhabiting the Lahe and Hkamti Townships in Myanmar.
