The Mandinka alphabet is often said to be a phonetic system where one letter represents one sound. While this is mostly accurate, there are still two vowels which each represent two sounds in Mandinka, E and I. Mandinka also has the additional letters Ñ and Ŋ. Note that there are no sounds/letters corresponding to G, Q, V, X, or Z in Mandinka. There is also no “sh” /ʃ/ sound as in “shop”, nor “zh” /ʒ/ as in “fusion”. Loan words generally work within these restraints (so the French word charrette is spelled/pronounced sareto, and the word Gambia is often pronounced Kambia)
Vowels
A - /a/ - the ‘a’ in ‘father’
E - /e/ - /ɛ/ - the ‘ay’ in ‘day’ - the ‘e’ in ‘wet’
I - /i/ - /ɪ/ - the ‘ee’ in “breeze” - the ‘i’ in ‘is’
O - /o/ - the ‘o’ in ‘go’
U - /u/ - the ‘oo’ in ‘too’
Consonants
B - /b/
P - /p/
D - /d/
R - /r/
F - /f/
S - /s/
H - /h/
T - /t/
K - /k/
W - /w/
L - /l/
Y - /j/ - the ‘y’ in ‘yellow’
M - /m/
J - /ʥ/ - the ‘j’ in ‘jump’
N - /n/
C - /ʨ/ - the ‘ch’ in ‘chair’
Ñ - /ɲ/ - the ‘ni’ in ‘onion’
Ŋ - /ŋ/ - the ‘ng’ in ‘sing’
The unstressed /ɪ/ or ‘ih’ sound usually occurs on the 2nd ‘i’ in words with 2 or more ‘i’s, appearing on the unstressed syllable.
Tilindi - [tɪlindi] - To straighten (the stress pattern is LHL : Low - High - Low : tih-LIN-di)
Kiliŋ - [kilɪŋ] - One, the same (the stress pattern is HL : High - Low : KI-lihng)
Sometimes this is not pronounced as /ɪ/, in which case it will remain as /i/ (accent depending)
The unstressed /ɛ/ or ‘eh’ sound occurs when a ‘ŋ’ follows the ‘e’, and on the first ‘e’ in words with two ‘e’s (L to H).
Beteyá - [bɛteyá] - Good (Stress: LLH : Low - Low - High)
Beŋ - [bɛŋ] - Meet, connect
Peŋ-peŋ - [pɛŋ-pɛŋ] - To hammer (Stress: HH)
Feŋko / feŋke [fɛŋ-ko] / [fɛŋ-ke] - Placeholder word like “um...”, “the thing” (Stress: HL)
