Mali Language Areas

The official language of Mali is French, a by-product of 68 years of European colonization. While French is the official language of Mali, it is only mastered by 5 percent to 10 percent of the population. There are many ethnic groups and tribes in Mali, each of which belongs to an indigenous language sub-group. In addition to tribal-level languages, 80 percent of Malians speak Bambara, part of the Mande language family and the tribal language of the Bambara people –the predominant ethnic group in the country. Bambara is spoken by 40 percent as their mother tongue and another 40 percent as a lingua franca. The Tuareg make up much of the population in the desert north, leading to a predominance of the Tamajaq and Tamasheq languages in this area. There is also a prevalence of Hasanya Arabic spoken in the northern region as well, largely as a result of more conservative Islam versus the prevalence to mix African traditions into Islam in the south. The southern portion of the country has more rain and lush vegetation and therefore sustains a higher population consisting of a more diverse group of people. This is reflected in the map in the large amount of overlap between many of the Malian tribal languages. There is a large Dogon population. While there are a large number of languages spoken in Mali, the government has named 13 national languages that are indicated as the most important and therefore requiring official recognition. These are Arabic (Hasanya), Bambara, Bomu, Bozo, Dogon, Fulfulde, Maninkakan, Senofu (Mamara and Syenara), Songhai, Soninke, Tamasheq and Xaasongaxango. These languages are seen as the most important because they are linguistically dominate in their regions.