Gbandi language

The Bandi language, also known as Bande, Gbande, Gbandi and Gbunde, is a Mande language. It is spoken primarily in Lofa County in northern Liberia by the Gbandi people.

Gbandi
Native to	Guinea, Liberia
Native speakers	160,000 (2014–2020)
Language family	Niger–Congo ? Mande Western Mande Southwestern Mende–Loma Mende–Bandi Bandi–Zialo Gbandi
Dialects	Tahamba Wawoma Vukoha Hasala Lukasu Hembeh
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bza
Glottolog	band1352

Bandi has six dialects: Hasala, Hembeh, Lukasa, Wawana, Wulukoha, and Tahamba, which is the dialect used for literature. The dialects have a lexical similarity of 96% among one another, and 83% with the most similar dialect of the Mende language.

See also

• Languages of Liberia