These languages are spoken in the East of Mali, on the Dogon Plateau. There might also be some speakers on the other side of the border, in Burkina Faso.<\/p>\n
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Approximately 600 000 speakers based on Ethnologue.com<\/em>, but this number needs to be confirmed.<\/p>\n \n This family of languages includes 20 languages according to University of Michigan\u2019s research as published on dogonlanguages.org<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n \n Northeastern Group<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Toro-tegu<\/strong> (alternative name: tori-sarinyere<\/em>) 2900 speakers according to Ethnologue.com<\/em><\/p>\n Jamsay<\/strong> approximately 130\u00a0000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com<\/em><\/p>\n Bakan tey <\/strong>(alternative name: oualo<\/em>) approximately 2000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com<\/em><\/p>\n Ben tey<\/strong> (alternative name: beni<\/em>) maximum 1000 speakers according to Jeffrey Heath<\/p>\n Central-North Group<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Nanga<\/strong> We currently don’t have an estimated number of speakers for this language<\/p>\n Yanda-dom<\/strong> approximately 2000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com<\/em><\/p>\n Tebul<\/strong> Ure 3000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com<\/em><\/p>\n Ana<\/strong> (alternative name ana tinga<\/em>, a possible variation of yanda-dom<\/em>) approximately 500 speakers according to Ethnologue.com<\/em><\/p>\n Northwestern Group<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Najamba-kindige<\/strong> (alternative name: bondu so<\/em>) We currently don’t have an estimated number of speakers for this language<\/p>\n Tiranige diga<\/strong> We currently don’t have an estimated number of speakers for this language<\/p>\n Central-Plateau Group<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Tommo-So<\/strong> (alternative name: tombo-so<\/em>) We currently don’t have an estimated number of speakers for this language<\/p>\n Bunoge<\/strong> (alternative name: korandabo<\/em>) approximately 1000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com<\/em><\/p>\n Dogulu-Dom<\/strong> approximately 15,000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com<\/em><\/p>\n Donno-So<\/strong> approximately 45,000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com<\/em><\/p>\n Central-West Group<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Mombo<\/strong> (alternative name: kolu-so<\/em>) approximately 24 000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com<\/em><\/p>\n Ampari<\/strong> (alternative name: ampari pa<\/em>) approximately 1 000 speakers according to Roger Blench<\/p>\n Escarpment Group<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Toro-So <\/strong>approximately 50 000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com<\/em><\/p>\n Central-South Group<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Tengu-Kan<\/strong> (alternative name tene-kan<\/em>) approximately 127 000 speakers for the entire tengu-kan and togo-kan group, according to Ethnologue.com<\/em><\/p>\n Togo-Kan<\/strong> (alternative name tene-kan<\/em>) approximately 127000 speakers for the entire tengu-kan and togo-kan group, according to Ethnologue.com<\/em><\/p>\n South-West group<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Tomo-Kan<\/strong> approximately 133 000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com<\/em><\/p>\n It’s surprising that, while there is a fairly rich ethnological literature on the Dogon people, and there are many exhibitions, films and even television shows about them, the Dogon languages are quite unknown; in fact, some of the Dogon languages have only just been studied.<\/p>\n It’s therefore impossible to suggest a classification of the Dogon languages everyone agrees on.<\/p>\n We\u2019re currently relying on two sources: Dimmendaal (c.p.) and dogonlanguages.org<\/em><\/a>, a Jeffrey Heath\u2019s website, from the University of Michigan.<\/p>\n For a long time, the Dogon languages were classified among the Niger-Congo family of languages, but this is now being questioned. Dimmendaal and Heath would rather consider them as an entirely separate family of languages. However Heath suggests that they are close to the gur languages.<\/p>\n As for language classification within a family, groups suggested here are all geographically related and not purely linguistic. Little is known concerning some of these languages, which makes it too difficult to \u201cgenetically\u201d classify the Dogon languages. We relied on data from dogonlanguages.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n \n To our knowledge, there is no sociolinguistic survey which allows us to precisely determine the strength of these languages. They’re not surveyed by Unesco in its Atlas of endangered languages. This doesn’t mean they’re not threatened.<\/p>\n The Dogon languages are often spoken by relatively small populations (half of the Dogon languages have fewer than 5,000 speakers) who are less and less isolated. They’re all in contact with other Dogon languages and mostly with Fulfude which is the region’s main language, and there’s a high probability that they gradually disappear.<\/p>\n Page dedicated to the Dogon Languages on africanlanguages.org<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Jeffrey Heath (linguist at the University of Michigan) has a personal website<\/a> on which you’ll find descriptions of various Dogon languages. In some instances, it\u2019s the only work that has been done on these languages.<\/p>\nClassification<\/h5>\n
Comments on the Classification<\/h5>\n
Are the Dogon languages endangered?<\/h5>\n
Useful Websites<\/h5>\n