Bambara's Latin Alphabet

Chapter 6

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Thus far, we haven’t done any formal study of Bambara’s Latin-based alphabet. That’s because, in general, Bambara’s Latin-based alphabet is easy for English speakers to pick up as they learn.

Still, it can be useful to formally look at the alphabet to get formally acquainted with both so-called special characters (e.g. ɛ, ɲ, ŋ and ɔ) and to know the letters that are the basis for the correct spelling of Bambara words.

Here, I won’t cover everything that one needs to know about Bambara’s spelling system (e.g., the use of w to mark plurals; lengthening, nasalization, etc). That will have to be for future lessons. For now, we’ll simply cover the base letters!

Some Context

The Latin-based system that we’ll cover here is what has been official in Mali since 1982 when the country modified its first Bambara alphabet of 1967.

Similar systems are official in Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire for Jula and in Guinea for Maninka. All of them have origins that go back to the 19th century when Western Christian missionaries, colonial agents and later academic linguists first begin to use the Latin script to write down Manding varieties such as Bambara.

In this sense, it is also important to state that the Latin-based system that I’ll present here is not the only way to write Bambara or Manding in general.

Any serious student of Manding will eventually want to learn to write not just in the Latin script, but also in N’ko. Invented in 1949 by a man named Sulemaana Kantè, N’ko is not an alphabet for Bambara, but a standard writing system meant for all the Manding varieties: Bambara, Jula, Maninka and Mandinka.

(NOTE: If you are interested in learning the N’ko script, check out the "The N'ko Alphabet" chapter or this video tutorial that I made on how to write the letters by hand).

Ok, with that said, let’s jump into the letters and sounds of the Latin-based alphabet!

The Alphabet

The tables below lays out the consonants and vowels. I’ve include some footnotes for additional information regarding some letters that can be tricky for pronunciation, spelling or typing.

Consonants

Letter Example Gloss
b ba river
c cɛ man
d da mouth
f fali donkey
g1 galama ladle
h hɛɛrɛ peace
j je melon
k ko affair; issue
l lɛ pig
m malo (uncooked) rice
n ni and
ɲ2 ɲɔ millet
ŋ3 ŋɔni thorn
p pan jump
r4 baara work
s5 so home; house
t to leave
v6 -  
w wari money
y yan here
z7 Zan Jean

Vowels

Letter Example Gloss
a baba dad
e bere stick
ɛ8 bɛrɛ gravel
i misi cow
o bolo arm
ɔ9 bɔlɔ stake; picket
u muru knife

  1. Officially in Bambara, we only write the letter g. In some words, the letter however can represent one of two sounds: g or gw. In written Jula and in the writings of some Bambara authors, these two sounds are distinguished so don’t be surprised if you also see gw.↩︎

  2. This letter, ɲ (“palatal N”), represents a sound that we don’t have in English, but that many people know because of Spanish words where there is a tilde over an “n” such as mañana or niño. If you can’t type the letter, you can get away with the older convention of simply writing ny.↩︎

  3. This letter, ŋ (“velar N”), represents a sound like the end of the word “king”. Now try to extract that and put it at the beginning of a word like ŋɔmi. In practice, you can normally get away with trying your best or simply using a w sound in its place since historically they were one sound. In terms of typing, when people can’t access the proper Bambara letters, they often use an older convention ng in its place.↩︎

  4. Doesn’t appear at the beginning of words normally.↩︎

  5. Officially in Bambara—and this has varied over time—we only write the letter s. Some words and local pronunciations, however, use a clear [ʃ]. Generally speaking, the difference is not contrastive; that is, it doesn’t change the meaning. That said, /ʃ/ is actually in the process of becoming a full-fledged sound in Bambara, in particular. As such you’ll occasionally see some words written with sh or sy to deal with this fact for words like shɛ.↩︎

  6. Not officially in Bambara, but sometimes used for French loan words such vitamini or vitɛsi. Generally, one writes loan words that have v in them with the w.↩︎

  7. Officially in Bambara, but considered marginal and mainly used for loan words such as the French name Jean given here.↩︎

  8. In a pinch, people often write ɛ (“open E”) using the older convention è.↩︎

  9. Similarly, when you can’t access the special character ɔ (“open O”), you can use the older convention of ò.↩︎

Vocab

(👋 Make sure to turn on the sound! Read the Flashcard overview.)

Coming soon n'Ala sɔnna!

ɛ
open ɛ pronunciation
bɛrɛ
gravel
bere
stick
ɔ
open o pronunciation
bɔlɔ
stake
bolo
arm
ɲ ("ɲa")
palatal n pronunciation
ɲin
tooth
ŋ ("ŋa")
velar n pronunciation
ŋɔni
thorn

 

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Exercises

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