Balanta is a member of the Bak branch of the Atlantic-Congo language family spoken by about 423,000 people in northern Guinea-Bissau, particularly in the Oio Region. There are also some speakers of Balanta-Kentohe in the Gambia.
Balanta-Kentohe is also known as Alante, Balanda, Balant, Balanta, Balante, Ballante, Belante, Brassa, Bulanda or Frase. There are two dialects: Nhacra (Fora), and Kantohe (Kentohe, Queuthoe). The Nhacra dialect is spoken in the north of the Oio Region, while the Kantohe dialect is spoken in the south. Balanta-Kentohe is closely related to Balanta-Ganja, which is spoken in southern Senegal.
Balanta-Kentohe can be written with a version of the Latin alphabet, and is taught in schools.
Download an alphabet chart for Balanta-Kentohe (Excel)
Information about the Balanta-Kentohe alphabet supplied by Wolfram Siegel
Information about Balanta-Kentohe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanta_language
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/ble
https://www.balanta.org/language-lessons
http://olac.ldc.upenn.edu/language/ble
Balanta-Ganja, Balanta-Kentohe, Jola-Fonyi, Mankanya
Page created: 28.04.21. Last modified: 01.09.21
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