Where are the Dogon Languages spoken?

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.

Total number of speakers (estimated)

Approximately 600 000 speakers based on Ethnologue.com, but this number needs to be confirmed.

Classification

This family of languages includes 20 languages according to University of Michigan’s research as published on dogonlanguages.org

Northeastern Group

Toro-tegu (alternative name: tori-sarinyere) 2900 speakers according to Ethnologue.com

Jamsay approximately 130 000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com

Bakan tey (alternative name: oualo) approximately 2000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com

Ben tey (alternative name: beni) maximum 1000 speakers according to Jeffrey Heath

Central-North Group

Nanga We currently don’t have an estimated number of speakers for this language

Yanda-dom approximately 2000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com

Tebul Ure 3000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com

Ana (alternative name ana tinga, a possible variation of yanda-dom) approximately 500 speakers according to Ethnologue.com

Northwestern Group

Najamba-kindige (alternative name: bondu so) We currently don’t have an estimated number of speakers for this language

Tiranige diga We currently don’t have an estimated number of speakers for this language

Central-Plateau Group

Tommo-So (alternative name: tombo-so) We currently don’t have an estimated number of speakers for this language

Bunoge (alternative name: korandabo) approximately 1000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com

Dogulu-Dom approximately 15,000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com

Donno-So approximately 45,000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com

Central-West Group

Mombo (alternative name: kolu-so) approximately 24 000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com

Ampari (alternative name: ampari pa) approximately 1 000 speakers according to Roger Blench

Escarpment Group

Toro-So approximately 50 000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com

Central-South Group

Tengu-Kan (alternative name tene-kan) approximately 127 000 speakers for the entire tengu-kan and togo-kan group, according to Ethnologue.com

Togo-Kan (alternative name tene-kan) approximately 127000 speakers for the entire tengu-kan and togo-kan group, according to Ethnologue.com

South-West group

Tomo-Kan approximately 133 000 speakers according to Ethnologue.com

Comments on the Classification

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.

It’s therefore impossible to suggest a classification of the Dogon languages everyone agrees on.

We’re currently relying on two sources: Dimmendaal (c.p.) and dogonlanguages.org, a Jeffrey Heath’s website, from the University of Michigan.

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.

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 “genetically” classify the Dogon languages. We relied on data from dogonlanguages.org.

Are the Dogon languages endangered?

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.

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.

Useful Websites

Page dedicated to the Dogon Languages on africanlanguages.org

Jeffrey Heath (linguist at the University of Michigan) has a personal website on which you’ll find descriptions of various Dogon languages. In some instances, it’s the only work that has been done on these languages.

Roger Blench’s article on the Dogon Languages, on Ogmios.org, from the Foundation for Endangered Languages

Web pages from Roger Blench’s website dedicated to the Dogon languages, on which you will find a few articles describing Dogon languages.

Sources

Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. (to be published), Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Sands, Bonny (2009). « Africa’s Linguistic Diversity » in Language and Linguistics Compass 3/2 (2009)