Mende language


Mende is a major language of Sierra Leone, with some speakers in neighboring Liberia. It is spoken by the Mende people and by other ethnic groups as a regional lingua franca in southern Sierra Leone.
Mende is a tonal language belonging to the Mande branch of the Niger–Congo language family. Early systematic descriptions of Mende were by F. W. Migeod and Kenneth Crosby.

Written forms

In 1921, Kisimi Kamara invented a syllabary for Mende he called Kikakui. The script achieved widespread use for a time, but has largely been replaced with an alphabet based on the Latin script, and the Mende script is considered a "failed script". The Bible was translated into Mende and published in 1959, in Latin script.
The Latin-based alphabet is: a, b, d, e, ɛ, f, g, gb, h, i, j, k, kp, l, m, n, ny, o, ɔ, p, s, t, u, v, w, y.
Mende has seven vowels: a, e, ɛ, i, o, ɔ, u.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Mende language in films

Mende was used extensively in the films Amistad and Blood Diamond, and was the subject of the documentary film The Language You Cry In.