Soninke belongs to the Northern Branch of Mande. It is spoken from the intersection of northeast Senegal, south central Mauritania, and west/southwest Mali, to a line running east roughly along the Mali-Mauritanian border. It is also spoken in parts of The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Niger.
Grimes (1996) gives a figure of 1,126,000 speakers. Voegelin and Voegelin (l977) estimated the total number of Soninke speakers at 457,000., and Platiel (1978) 520,000.
Soninke is a national language of Senegal. Most Soninke speakers also know Bambara.
Soninke has an orthography standardized by Senegalese government decree in l975 (see Bibliography), but these conventions have not been accepted in other areas where Soninke is spoken.
One set of learning materials appears to be sufficient for Soninke.
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