Editing Mandinka language (section)

===Tone===
Mandinka has two tones, high and low. Unmodified nouns are either high tone on all syllables or low tone on all syllables. The definite suffix ''-o'' takes a low tone on high-tone nouns and a falling tone on low-tone nouns. It also assimilates any preceding short vowel, resulting in a long /oo/ with either low or falling tone. It shortens a preceding long high vowel (''ii'' > ''io'', ''uu'' > ''uo''; ''ee'' optionally > either ''eo'' or ''ee'') or assimilates itself (''aa'' remains ''aa'') leaving only its tone:
:/búŋ/ 'a room' > /búŋò/ 'the room'
:/tèŋ/ 'a palm tree' > /tèŋô/ 'the palm tree'
:/kídí/ 'a gun' > /kídòò/ 'the gun'
:/kòrdàà/ 'a house' > /kòrdáà/ 'the house'

In Senegal and Gambia, Mandinka is approaching a system of [[pitch accent]] under the influence of local non-tonal languages such as [[Wolof language|Wolof]], [[Serer language|Serer]], and [[Jola languages|Jola]].

The tonal system remains more robust in the Eastern and Southern Mandinka dialects (Tilibo) spoken in the Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Eastern Senegal. These conservative dialects merge into other conservative Manding languages like [[Maninka language|Maninka]], the once official language of the [[Mali Empire]], [[Bambara language|Bambara]], and [[Susu language|Susu]]. All of these preserve the typical West African terraced downstep in tonality that is only lightly alluded to in the Western Mandinka dialects spoken in much of Gambia and Senegal.