Languages of Guinea

Languages of Guinea
Sign in French at Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve
Official	French
National	Fula, Maninka, Susu, Kissi, Kpelle (also known in French as Guerzé), Loma
Vernacular	African French
Foreign	English
Signed	American Sign Language (Francophone African Sign Language)
Keyboard layout	French AZERTY
interethnic	French, Fula

The Republic of Guinea is a multilingual country, with over 40 languages spoken. The official language is French.

Several indigenous languages have been given the status of national languages: Fula (or Pular); Malinké (or Maninka); Susu; Kissi; Kpelle (also known in French as Guerzé) and Loma.

Guinea is a Francophone country, where, as of 2024, 4,11 million (27.83%) out of 14.76 million people speak French. ^[1]

Government and institutions

French is the language of state and of official institutions. It is used as a second language by 15% to 25% of the population, and as a first language by a negligible portion of the population. ^[2] At the end of the Ahmed Sékou Touré regime, French was the only language used in business and schools.

By region

Fula (34.6%) is mostly spoken in Middle Guinea, where the major city is Labé. It dominates in the Labé and Mamou regions where it is spoken by 94.5% and 92.4% of the populations respectively. ^[3]

Malinké (24.9%) is mostly spoken in Upper Guinea, where Kankan is the major city. It dominates the Kankan Region where it is spoken by 87.1% of the population. ^[3] The Kankan variety of the language was used by Solomana Kante for the development of N'Ko, a standardized unified written Manding language, which is increasingly used in literacy education and publishing books and newspapers in Guinea and neighboring countries. ^{[4] [5]}

Susu (17.7%) is mostly spoken in Guinée maritime, where the capital is Conakry. ^[6] It dominates the Kindia Region where it is spoken by 54.9% of the population and the plurality (37%) of Conakry also speaks it. ^[3]

Koniaka (4.5%), Kissi (4.1%) and Kpelle (4%) are spoken in Guinée Forestière. More specifically, Kpelle is spoken in Nzérékoré and Yomou. Kissi is spoken in Guéckédou and Kissidougou. Kono is a language used in the south of Guinea, mostly in Lola. ^[3]

French 70 - 80 % Local languages Susu Mandingo Fula Kissi Koniake Toma Gerze Baga ....

References

• Language portal

1. "Accueil-Francoscope". ODSEF (Observatoire démographique et statistique de l'espace francophone de l'Université Laval) (in French). Laval, Québec. Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.
2. Linguistic situation in Guinea
3. "Etat et Structure de la Population Recensement General de la Population et de l'habitation 2014" (PDF). Direction Nationale de la Statistique de Guinée. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 November 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
4. Vydrin, Valentin (1999). Manding-English Dictionary : (Maninka, Bamana). Lac-Beauport. p. 8. ISBN   9780993996931. OCLC   905517929.
5. Donaldson, Coleman (2019-03-01). "Linguistic and Civic Refinement in the N'ko Movement of Manding-Speaking West Africa". Signs and Society. 7 (2): 156–185, 181. doi:10.1086/702554. ISSN   2326-4489. S2CID   181625415.
6. Dalby, Andrew (28 October 2015). Dictionary of Languages: The definitive reference to more than 400 languages. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 590. ISBN   9781408102145.