מנינקקאן קיטה

Kita Maninkakan (Maninkakan, "Maninka language") is a Manding variety of the Kita region in southwest Mali, between the Bambara homeland (north) and the Maninka homeland (Guinea). The Kita Manding cluster includes mutually-intelligible varieties stretching from Kita through southwestern Mali to the Guinean border. Kita Maninkakan is recognized by Mali as a national language alongside other Manding varieties (Bambara bm, Xaasongaxango kao, etc.), with bilingual education programs since 1985. Linguistically, Manding varieties share core features (subject-verb-object, verb-final aspect markers, classifier-noun constructions) but differ in tone systems and lexical specifics. The N'Ko script (Souleymane Kanté 1949) is used in some communities for Manding-wide writing.