World Language Map

Languages spoken in Guinea

49 living languages are mapped in Guinea. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is French (27% of the population). They belong to 3 language families, the largest being Mande (29 languages).

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The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of Guinea at a glance

  • 49living languages
  • 3language families
  • 14 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
  • 2with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in Guinea. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

The 40 most widely spoken languages in Guinea

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
FrenchIndo-European27%3,776,274Not endangered
SusuMande11%1,538,482Not endangered
Baga KogaAtlantic-CongoShifting
Baga ManduriAtlantic-CongoShifting
Baga SitemuAtlantic-CongoShifting
BambaraMandeNot endangered
BandiMandeNot endangered
Bassari-TandaAtlantic-CongoThreatened
Bom-KimAtlantic-CongoNearly extinct
Bullom SoAtlantic-CongoMoribund
DanMandeNot endangered
East LimbaAtlantic-CongoThreatened
Eastern ManinkakanMandeNot endangered
Guinea KpelleMandeNot endangered
Jaad-BadyaraAtlantic-CongoThreatened
JahankaMandeNot endangered
KakabeMandeThreatened
Kita ManinkakanMandeNot endangered
Kono (Guinea)MandeNot endangered
Kono (Sierra Leone)MandeNot endangered
Konyanka ManinkaMandeNot endangered
KrioIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
KurankoMandeNot endangered
LandomaAtlantic-CongoThreatened
Lele (Guinea)MandeNot endangered
Liberia KpelleMandeNot endangered
Loma (Liberia)MandeNot endangered
MahouMandeNot endangered
MandinkaMandeNot endangered
MannMandeNot endangered
ManyaMandeNot endangered
MbulungishAtlantic-CongoShifting
Mende (Sierra Leone)MandeNot endangered
MixiforeMandeNot endangered
NaluAtlantic-CongoThreatened
Northern KissiAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
PukurAtlantic-CongoShifting
PulaarAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
PularAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
Sankaran ManinkaMandeThreatened

Read more: where is French spoken?

Language families in Guinea

All 49 languages in Guinea, A to Z

About these numbers

The list of languages in Guinea comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in Guinea

How many languages are spoken in Guinea?

49 living languages are mapped in Guinea, from 3 families. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in Guinea?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, French is spoken by 27% of the population, about 3,776,274 people, followed by Susu (11%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in Guinea?

Mande (29 languages), Atlantic-Congo (18 languages) and Indo-European (2 languages).

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