Kuranko

Primary tabs

A language of Sierra Leone

ISO 639-3

knk

Alternate Names

Koranko, Kurankokole

User Population

415,000 in Sierra Leone (2019). Total users in all countries: 651,000.

Location

Northern province: Kabala area.

Language Maps

Guinea and Guinea-Bissau

Sierra Leone

Language Status

5* (Developing).

Classification

Niger-Congo, Mande, Western, Central-Southwestern, Central, Manding-Jogo, Manding-Vai, Manding-Mokole, Mokole

Dialects

Barrawa, Nieni, Mankaliya, Sambaya, Ney, Sengbe, Mongo. Guinean Kuranko varieties represent a dialectal continuum between the Sierra-Leonean Kuranko and Eastern Maninkakan [emk]. Lexical similarity: 51% with Eastern Maninkakan [emk], 59% with Sankaran Maninka [msc], and 62% with Lele [llc] (2000 D. Rainwater).

Language Use

Also use English [eng].

Language Development

Literacy rate in L2: 5%. Dictionary. Texts. Bible: 2008.

Language Resources

OLAC resources in and about Kuranko

Writing

Latin script [Latn].

Other Comments

Traditional religion, Muslim.