MAURITANIA
Population
Population
Population
Mauritania is home to almost 3,758,571 people (2017). The population density is about 3.6 inhabitants per square kilometre and thus extremely low.
- The natural population growth rate is 2.17% (2017).
- Birth rate per 1,000 inhabitants is 30.4 (2017)
- Life expectancy is 63.4 years. (men 61.1 and women 65.8 years (2017)
- The population is 40% black Moors and 30% Arab Moors. The remaining population groups (30%) are heavy Africans.
Language
The official language of Mauritania is Arabic. Poulaar, Soninké, Wolof, Bambara and French are also spoken.
Some pronunciation rules of Arabic:
-all letters are pronounced
-A ' means that a letter is pronounced very briefly.
-the r is a rolling r
-The y is pronounced as sj
-the sh is pronounced as sj
-the gh is pronounced like a brew r or French r
-The kh is pronounced as a hard g.
-The ou is pronounced like the oe
There is no fixed spelling for Arabic words. The names are written as they are pronounced. So Aqaba can just as well be spelled as Akaba.
Arabic is written from right to left and consists of 28 consonants. Vowels are not written, which results in different Latin spellings for the same word. Arabic numerals are written from left to right.
Some words and phrases:
| English | Arabic |
| One | wahed, female: wahda |
| two | etnen |
| three | talata |
| Ten | ‘ashra |
| Hundred | meyya |
| Thousand | ‘alf |
| Sunday | yom el had |
| Wednesday | yom el ’arba’ |
| Yes | ‘aywa |
| No | la’ |
| Summer | sef |
| Winter | sheta |
| Where is the hotel? | fen el fondok? |
| What time is it? | essa’a kam? |
| What is your name? | ‘esm-ak ‘ak? (man) |
| What is your name? | ‘esm-ek ‘eh? (woman) |
| Do you have change? | ‘andokom fakka? |
Religion
The population of Mauritania is entirely devoted to (Sunni) Islam.
Sources
Elmar Landeninformatie
CIA - World Factbook
BBC - Country Profiles
Copyright: Team The World of Info