Jalonke is a language spoken in Guinea, West Africa. It is a variety of Yalunka, which is spoken in Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, and Sierra Leone.
According to oral tradition, Yalunka had its origins in the Futa Jalon, a mountainous region in the north of Guinea. Jalonke continues to be spoken in this area today, although the number of speakers is rapidly decreasing.
Jalonke and most varieties of Yalunka are spoken in small, isolated pockets consisting of a few villages, surrounded by speakers of majority languages. Speakers of Yalunka are bilingual in Yalunka and the respective contact language.
In the village where I conducted my field work, the children no longer tend to learn
Jalonke, especially if the mother speaks Fula, the dominant
language of the region. In the public sphere, Jalonke is losing more and more ground;
at the mosque, at public gatherings, and at the market it is not heard any more.
In view of this situation, and due to the political instability in Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone, efforts to document and revitalise Yalunka should be undertaken right now: I started working on Jalonke four years ago.
Please view my short slide-show about the Jalonke language - Friederike Lüpke.