Mende

Mende language, natively spoken in Liberia and Sierra-Leone

Key facts

Native to: Sierra Leone , Liberia , Guinea
Region: South central Sierra Leone
Ethnicity: Mende people
Native speakers: 2.5 million (2020–2021)
Language family: Niger–Congo ? Mande Western Southwestern Mende–Loma Mende–Bandi Mende–Loko Mende
Dialects: Ko Kpa Sewawa Wanjama
Writing system: Latin , Mende Kikakui script
Iso 639 2: men
Iso 639 3: men
Glottolog: mend1266

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Article

Mende /ˈmɛndi/ (Mɛnde yia) is a major language of Sierra Leone, with some speakers in neighboring Liberia and Guinea. 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 language family. Early systematic descriptions of Mende were by F. W. Migeod and Kenneth Crosby. Ethel Aginsky decoded the language in her doctoral work.