Home to 5 dialects represented on Dialect Atlas, spanning 5 language families.
The French of Francophone West Africa — used in administration, education, and media. Strong contact features from Wolof, Bambara, and other regional languages.
also: Dogoso cluster, Toro So, Tomo Kan, Jamsay
A Niger-Congo branch of around twenty deeply differentiated varieties on and around the Bandiagara escarpment in central Mali, with smaller populations in north-western Burkina Faso. Around 600,000 speakers total; descriptive work since the 2000s treats several Dogon varieties (Toro So, Tomo Kan, Jamsay, others) as separate languages rather than dialects of a single Dogon language.
also: Songhai, Sonrai
A Nilo-Saharan language cluster of the Niger river bend, the language of the medieval Songhay empire. Around 4 million speakers across Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso.
also: Mossi, Moshi
A Gur Niger-Congo language and the largest language of Burkina Faso, spoken by the Mossi people on the Ouagadougou plateau. Around 8 million speakers.
also: Jula, Dioula
A Manding Niger-Congo language used as a trade lingua franca across northern Côte d'Ivoire, western Burkina Faso, and adjoining areas. Closely related to Bambara and Maninka.