Isolate(d) Languages in the Sahel Isolate(d) Languages in the Sahel: Sillanka and Bangime through a Comparative Perspective

International audience This paper explores two cases of linguistic insularity in the Sahel: Sillanka, a highly distinctive Soninke dialect and linguistic island spoken in central-western Burkina Faso, and Bangime, a language isolate spoken in the Bandiagara region of Mali. Although Sillanka remains genealogically within the Soninke cluster and Bangime does not, both languages reveal how geographical seclusion, historical displacement, and shifting social boundaries can produce language islands in the midst of larger linguistic seas.Drawing on recent fieldwork in Mali and Burkina Faso, as well as Senegal, we examine how local histories of migration, intermarriage, and occupational specialization have shaped the structure and identity of these speech communities. In Sillanka, innovations in phonology, verbal morphology, and lexicon coincide with partial retention of archaic Soninke forms, suggesting long-term semi-isolation from core varieties while maintaining shared identity through trade and kinship ties. In Bangime, meanwhile, typological divergence and substrate traces of Mande—particularly Soninke lexical influence—indicate contact without assimilation, illustrating how an isolate can remain porous yet resistant.By juxtaposing an internal island (Sillanka within Soninke) and an external island (Bangime beyond any known family), we argue that linguistic isolation is not an absolute condition but a gradient state reflecting sociocultural permeability and historical depth. This comparison reframes the Sahel as a region of archipelagic diversity, where language islands, isolates, and contact zones collectively illuminate the processes of differentiation and endurance that define West Africa’s linguistic landscape.