Southwestern Mande languages

Southwestern Mande
Geographic distribution	Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia
Linguistic classification	Niger–Congo Mande Western Mande Southwestern Mande
Subdivisions	Kpelle Loma-Mende
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	sout2842

The Southwestern Mande languages are a branch of the Mande languages spoken in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia. There are around 2.8 million total speakers. The largest languages by far are Mende of Sierra Leone, with 1.4 million, and Kpelle of Liberia and Guinea, with 1.2 million.

Member languages

• Mende, spoken by 1.4 million in the Southern and Eastern provinces, Sierra Leone
• Loko, spoken by around 140,000 predominantly in Bombali and Port Loko districts, Sierra Leone.
• Kpelle, spoken by around 1.2 million in central Liberia and Guinée forestière, Guinea.
• Loma, or Toma, spoken by around 300,000 in Guinea and Liberia.
• Zialo, once classified as a dialect of Loma, spoken by around 25,000 around Macenta and Guéckédougou, Guinea.
• Gbandi, spoken by around 100,000 in Liberia.

Classification

A likely internal classification is as follows. ^[1]

Southwestern Mande	Mende–Loma Looma Mende–Bandi Bandi–Zialo Mɛnde–Loko Kpɛllɛ

References

1. Kastenholz, Raimund (1996). Sprachgeschichte im West-Mande : Methoden und Rekonstruktionen. Köln: Köppe. p. 281. ISBN   3896450719. OCLC   42295840.