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Language code: bm

Technical information about ISO 639 language code bm

Documentation

The table below provides technical details for the Bambara language, designated by the bm code from the ISO 639-1 standard.

Code

bm

Name

Official

Bambara

Native

Bamanankan

Family
Mande
Text direction

Left-to-Right

Language varieties
BamakoBeleduguSegu (Segou)SanSomono
Related languages
Dyula (Jula)MandinkaManinka (Malinke)Kassonke
Key facts
Uses a Latin-based orthography that includes the special letters Ŋ/ŋ and Ɛ/ɛ, Ɔ/ɔTonal language (high and low tones) but tones are rarely writtenPredominant basic word order is Subject–Object–VerbContains a large number of Arabic loanwords due to long-standing Islamic influenceServes as a major lingua franca across much of the Mande cultural area.
Sample phrase

Aw ni ce, i ka kɛnɛ?

Character encodings

UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32

Supported in Localizely

Bambara is part of the Mande language family. It is widely used in Mali and is primarily written in Latin, Arabic, and N'ko scripts. It is estimated that there are more than 14 million speakers worldwide, including both first-language and additional-language speakers.

Language presence globally

Speakers

Mali

11M

*The graph shows a rough estimate of Bambara speakers in countries where it is an official or minority language.

Related locale codes

bm-ML – Bambara (Mali)

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