Editing Manding languages (section)

{{short description|Dialect continuum of Mande languages of West Africa}}
{{Infobox language family
|name=Manding
|altname=Manden
|region=[[West Africa]]
|speakers= {{sigfig|9.134300|2}} million
|date=2017–2021
|ref=e27
|familycolor=Niger-Congo|fam1=[[Niger–Congo|Niger-Congo]]?
|fam2=[[Mande languages|Mande]]
|fam3=[[Mande languages|Western Mande]]
|fam4=[[Mande languages|Central Mande]]
|fam5=[[Mande languages|Manding–Jogo]]
|fam6=[[Mande languages|Manding–Vai]]
|fam7=[[Mande languages|Manding–Mokole]]
|child1=Manding-East
|child2=Manding-West
|iso3=man
|glotto=mand1435
|glottorefname=Manding
|map=Map of the Manding language continuum.png
|mapcaption=Map of the Manding language continuum
}}

The '''Manding languages''' (sometimes spelt '''Manden''')<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IKE8AAAAIAAJ&dq=manden+manding&pg=PR18|title=Misreading the African Landscape: Society and Ecology in a Forest-Savanna Mosaic|last1=Fairhead|first1=James|last2=Leach|first2=Melissa|date=1996-10-17|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=9780521563536|pages=xviii|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/epictraditionsof00belc|url-access=registration|quote=manden manding.|title=Epic Traditions of Africa|last=Belcher|first=Stephen Paterson|date=1999-01-01|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0253212812|pages=[https://archive.org/details/epictraditionsof00belc/page/89 89]|language=en}}</ref> are a [[dialect continuum]] within the [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger-Congo]] family spoken in [[West Africa]]. Varieties of Manding are generally considered (among native speakers) to be mutually intelligible – dependent on exposure or familiarity with dialects between speakers – and spoken by 9.1 million people in the countries [[Burkina Faso]], [[Senegal]], [[Guinea-Bissau]], [[Guinea]], [[Sierra Leone]], [[Mali]], [[Liberia]], [[Ivory Coast]] and [[The Gambia]].<ref name=e27/> Their best-known members are [[Mandinka language|Mandinka or Mandingo]], the principal language of [[The Gambia]]; [[Bambara language|Bambara]], the most widely spoken language in [[Mali]]; [[Maninka language|Maninka or Malinké]], a major language of [[Guinea]] and [[Mali]]; and [[Dyula language|Jula]], a [[trade language]] of [[Ivory Coast]] and western [[Burkina Faso]]. Manding is part of the larger [[Mande languages|Mandé]] family of languages.