The
Bambara (Bamana) language,
Bamanankan, is a
lingua franca of Mali spoken by perhaps 15 million people, 4 million
Bambara people and about 10 million second-language users. It is estimated that about 80 percent of the population of Mali speak Bambara as a first or second language. It has a
subject–object–verb clause structure and two lexical
tones.