Tags: Language.
Maninka (Malinke) or more precisely Eastern Maninka is the name of several closely related languages and dialects of the southeastern Manding subgroup of the Mande branch of the Niger–Congo languages. It is the mother tongue of the Malinké people and is spoken by 3300000 speakers in Guinea and Mali where the closely related Bambara is a national language and also in Liberia Senegal Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast where it has no official status.