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Dogon language
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distribution of the Niger-Congo languages
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Dogon language

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Article History

Dogon language, language of the Niger-Congo language family spoken by some 600,000 Dogon people in northeastern Mali to the east of Mopti and along the border between Mali and Burkina Faso. Earlier classifications of Niger-Congo have included Dogon within the Gur branch on the basis that it had some general lexical affinity to that group. The most recent research in the Gur languages, however, reveals no evidence in either Dogon vocabulary or Dogon grammar that would confirm this belief, and there is increasing agreement among scholars that Dogon must be treated as an isolate until further evidence clarifies its status. In 2004 researchers identified more than 15 varieties of Dogon, some of which are mutually unintelligible.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.