Sanga | minute

[coleman]

RFI Mandenkan uses sánga to mean ‘minute’. For instance, in this news update about them increasing their number of news broadcasts a day, they specify that each broadcast will be sanga 30 or 30 minutes long:

Don o don, an bɛ ɲɔgon sɔrɔ nɛgɛ kaɲɛ 7, kaɲɛ 8, kaɲɛ 12 ani a kaɲɛ 17 Mande duguw waati la. […] Nɛgɛ kaɲɛ 7 mana tɛmɛ ni sanga 30 ye […]

This lines up with Bamadaba, which lists the third sense of the word sánga as ‘minute’.

On a side note, I’d add that I’ve familiar with the term as meaning ‘time; period’ from my time in Burkina Faso. My friend’s elderly mother who was a Kong Jula speaker used it when describing her childhood to me

[Ibrahim]

In Ghana, majority of dioula and dafin speakers use sanga to mean funeral.
E.g.,

N bɛ taa sangaso la.
‘I am going to the house where the funeral is being held’

[coleman]

I ni ce, Ibrahim! Welcome!

Thanks for weighing in The sanga that you are talking about is actually a distinct word and it’s in the dictionary:

It’s low tone (sànga) whereas the word for ‘time/period/minute’ that I was talking about is high tone (sánga; though in the dictionary, high tones are unmarked—read the “About” page for more).