This book provides a basic account of the phonological traits of Mandinkakan as spoken in Senegal and the Republic of Guinea Bissau. The book describes the articulation and realization of the sound units of the language and their phonemic realization. Mandinkakan belongs to the Mande language family, which in turn belongs to the larger Niger-Congo phylum. The language is widely spread in West-Africa. Mande languages are spoken by over 15 million people in the following west-African states (Platiel,1978): Mali, Mauritania, Benin, Senegal, Togo, Niger, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Niger, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. Nowadays, Mandinkakan is one of the major languages used both by individuals with different historical and linguistic background, and by the radio stations in The Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea Bissau. Despite the important scope of the language in these countries, its sound system is not well studied and practical work dealing with its pronunciation and phonemic inventory is rare. This book aims at filling that gap. Thus it provides a detailed description of the sound system of two varieties of Mandinkakan spoken in Senegal and in Guinea Bissau based upon field work data collected in Ziguinchor, a place where the two varieties coexist. The first chapter provides a detailed description of the Mandinkakan phonemic system (consonant and vowel system). The second chapter focuses on the phonotactics of the language (acceptable consonantal clusters, syllable types etc.). Finally, the book provides two Mandinkakan texts based upon the two varieties described and their English translation.