Dyula
/ˈdʒuːlə/noun
A Mande language of West Africa and the name of the people traditionally associated with it.
Did you know?Dyula functioned as a major lingua franca of commerce across parts of West Africa, allowing merchants from different ethnic communities to negotiate and travel through multilingual trade networks.
Etymological Timeline
Precolonial West Africa
Mande
jula
“Merchant or trader; the source form associated with the name”
Medieval period
Mande
jula
“A designation connected with long-distance commercial communities and trading networks”
18th–19th Century
Mande
Dyula / Jula
“Name used for a Mande-speaking trading population and their language”
19th Century
French
Dioula
“Colonial French spelling of the ethnolinguistic name”
Modern English
English
Dyula
“The language and, in some contexts, the associated ethnic group”