Symbols
59Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Bambara alphabet
One row per letter, in Bambara alphabetical order. The open vowels Ɛ ɛ and Ɔ ɔ stand next to E and O, and Ɲ ɲ and Ŋ ŋ next to N, right where they come in the alphabet. There is no q, v or x.
Apostrophe and quotes
The apostrophe marks a dropped vowel in everyday spelling (b’a, k’a, n’a); printed Bambara in Mali quotes with French guillemets.
Where it's spoken
Mali, where Bambara is the most widely spoken language. Prices there are in CFA francs, written F CFA, which have no symbol of their own.
Bambara culture
The djembe and the other drums of Mande music, played wherever Bambara is spoken.
On the map
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The Bambara alphabet from A to Z
Bambara, called Bamanankan by its speakers (the language, kan, of the Bamana people), has been written in the Latin alphabet officially since 1967, and the spelling took its present form in a reform of 1982. The alphabet has 27 letters in this order: A B C D E Ɛ F G H I J K L M N Ɲ Ŋ O Ɔ P R S T U W Y Z, each with a capital and a small form. There is no Q, V or X, and four letters are added: ɛ comes straight after e, ɲ and ŋ straight after n, and ɔ straight after o.
The plain letters are read more regularly than in English or French. C is always the ch of church, as in I ni ce (hello, thank you), j is the j of jam, g is always hard, and r is a quick tap of the tongue. A long vowel is written twice, as in baara (work) and naani (four), and a nasal vowel is written with an n after it, as in Bamanankan itself.
What Ɛ ɛ, Ɔ ɔ, Ɲ ɲ and Ŋ ŋ do
Bambara has seven vowels, and the Latin alphabet only has letters for five. The open e, Ɛ ɛ, is close to the vowel of English bed, while plain e is the closed é of French. The open o, Ɔ ɔ, is close to the vowel of British law, while plain o is the closed ô of French. They turn up constantly in the language: bɛ and tɛ are the everyday words for "is" and "is not", and tɔgɔ (name), sɔgɔma (morning) and dɔrɔn (only) are full of ɔ.
Ɲ ɲ is one sound, the ny of canyon or the ñ of Spanish, as in ɲuman (good) and ɲɔgɔn (each other). Ŋ ŋ is the ng of English sing; it is one of the less common letters of the alphabet. Before the 1982 reform the open vowels were spelled è and ò and ɲ was spelled ny, and many people still write that way, or simply e, o and ny, when their keyboard lacks the letters. In a chat that is understood, but in a book, a name or anything that should be found by search, the real letters are the standard.
Bambara is a tonal language, with high and low tones that can tell words apart, but everyday spelling does not mark them. Linguists and some dictionaries add accents to show tone, so you may meet à or á in learning material; you do not need them to write ordinary Bambara. Watch out for look-alikes: Ɛ is not the Greek epsilon ε, Ɔ is not the reversed c ↄ, and Ɲ ɲ (hook on the left) is not ɳ, the retroflex n of the phonetic alphabet with its hook on the right.
How to type Bambara letters: ɛ, ɔ, ɲ and ŋ on a keyboard
On a phone, add a keyboard that supports Bambara or another West African language; several free keyboard apps for Android and iPhone include it, with ɛ, ɔ, ɲ and ŋ under long-press of e, o and n or on their own keys. Otherwise copy them from the grid above.
On a Windows PC in Microsoft Word, type the code and press AltX: 025B gives ɛ, 0190 Ɛ, 0254 ɔ, 0186 Ɔ, 0272 ɲ, 019D Ɲ, 014B ŋ and 014A Ŋ. For typing in every program, install a free keyboard layout for Bambara or for Mali's languages, for example through Keyman. On a Mac, switch to the Unicode Hex Input layout and hold Option while typing the same four-digit codes.
In HTML, write ɛ for ɛ, Ɛ for Ɛ, ɔ for ɔ, Ɔ for Ɔ, ɲ for ɲ, Ɲ for Ɲ, and ŋ or ŋ for ŋ, Ŋ or Ŋ for Ŋ. Most modern system fonts draw all eight, but some decorative fonts do not, so check capitals such as Ɲ before you pick a font.
Apostrophes, quotes and prices in Bambara
The apostrophe ’ is part of normal Bambara spelling: short words run together and lose a vowel, so bɛ a becomes b’a, ka a becomes k’a and ni a becomes n’a. That is why so many Bambara sentences are dotted with apostrophes, as in N b’i fɛ, I love you.
Printed Bambara in Mali follows French typography, so quotations sit in guillemets: « Aw ni ce ». Prices are in West African CFA francs, whose CLDR currency symbol is F CFA; the abbreviation FCFA is also commonly written after amounts, as in 1 000 FCFA.
Where Bambara is spoken
Bambara is the most widely spoken language of Mali . Ethnologue has estimated roughly 15 million speakers overall, including about 4 million native speakers in Mali and 10 million second-language users. Mali's constitution of 2023 made the country's national languages, Bambara among them, official languages, with French kept as a working language.
Bambara belongs to the Manding group of the Mande languages, and speakers understand much of Dyula, the trade language of Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, and of Mandingo in Guinea and The Gambia; each has its own page on this site. Bambara is also written in N’Ko, the right-to-left script Solomana Kanté created in 1949 for the Manding languages, and that version has its own collection, Bambara (N’Ko). In Mali, Bambara lives next to Fula, Soninke, the Songhay languages Koyraboro Senni and Koyra Chiini, and French, and the Mali collection gathers the country's flag and emoji.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyBambara Alphabet (Bamanankan) combos
11Worth knowing
- In Malian markets prices are often spoken in dɔrɔmɛ, units of five CFA francs, so a price of 500 francs is said as dɔrɔmɛ kɛmɛ, a hundred dɔrɔmɛ.
- The small ɛ, ɔ and ɲ sit in Unicode's IPA Extensions block, because phoneticians used them first, while the capitals Ɛ, Ɔ and Ɲ were added in Latin Extended-B for African alphabets that needed capitals the phonetic alphabet never had.
- Bɔgɔlanfini, the famous Malian mud cloth, is a Bambara word: bɔgɔ is earth or mud, and fini is cloth.
- Q, V and X are not in the standard Bambara alphabet, but it has four letters, ɛ ɲ ŋ ɔ, that no French or English keyboard carries.
Questions people ask
7How many letters are in the Bambara alphabet?
27: a b c d e ɛ f g h i j k l m n ɲ ŋ o ɔ p r s t u w y z. It has no q, v or x, and adds ɛ, ɲ, ŋ and ɔ.
What is the Bambara alphabet?
A B C D E Ɛ F G H I J K L M N Ɲ Ŋ O Ɔ P R S T U W Y Z in capital letters and a b c d e ɛ f g h i j k l m n ɲ ŋ o ɔ p r s t u w y z in small letters, with ɛ after e, ɲ and ŋ after n, and ɔ after o.
How to type ɛ on keyboard?
In Word, type 025B and press AltX (0190 for the capital Ɛ). In HTML use ɛ. For everyday typing install a Bambara or West African keyboard layout, or copy ɛ from this page.
How to type ɛ on iPhone?
Add a keyboard app that supports Bambara or another West African language, then long-press e or use its own ɛ key. Or copy ɛ and Ɛ from this page and save them as a text replacement.
How to say hello in Bambara?
I ni ce, or Aw ni ce to more than one person. In the morning say I ni sɔgɔma, in the afternoon I ni tile and in the evening I ni wula. The same I ni ce also means thank you.
Is Bambara written with è and ò?
That was the official spelling before the 1982 reform. Today the standard letters are ɛ and ɔ, and ɲ replaces ny, though many people still type è, ò and ny when they have no other keyboard.
Is Bambara written in N'Ko?
Yes, many Bambara speakers also write it in the N’Ko script, which runs right to left. The Latin alphabet on this page is Mali's official one; the N’Ko letters are on the Bambara (N’Ko) page.
