Editing Mali (section)

== Etymology ==
The name ''Mali'' is taken from the name of the [[Mali Empire]]. It means "the place where the king lives"<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u5HnAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA7|title=Discovering the Empire of Mali|last=Wolny|first=Philip|date=15 December 2013|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=9781477718896|page=7|access-date=24 August 2020|archive-date=16 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416180418/https://books.google.com/books?id=u5HnAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA7|url-status=live}}</ref> and carries a connotation of strength.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/educationalsyste0000sasn|url-access=registration|title=Educational Systems of Africa: Interpretations for Use in the Evaluation of Academic Credentials|last1=Sasnett|first1=Martena Tenney|last2=Sepmeyer|first2=Inez Hopkins|date=1 January 1967|publisher=University of California Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/educationalsyste0000sasn/page/673 673]}}</ref>

Fourteenth-century Maghrebi traveller [[Ibn Battuta]] reported that the capital of the empire was called Mali.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zf6xAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA231|title=Historical Dictionary of Mali|last1=Imperato|first1=Pascal James|last2=Imperato|first2=Gavin H.|date=25 April 2008|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810864023|page=231|access-date=24 August 2020|archive-date=27 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827043448/https://books.google.com/books?id=zf6xAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA231|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[[Djibril Tamsir Niane|Niane, Djibril]] (1965). ''Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali''.</ref> One [[Mandinka people|Mandinka]] tradition tells that the legendary first emperor [[Sundiata Keita]] changed himself into a hippopotamus upon his death in the [[Sankarani River]] and that it was possible to find villages in the area of this river called "old Mali". A study of Malian proverbs noted that in old Mali, there is a village called Malikoma, which means "New Mali", and that ''Mali'' could have formerly been the name of a city.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh/bitstream/123456789/8845/1/A%20Study%20of%20Proverbs%20in%20Things%20Fall%20Apart%20and%20Sundiata%3B%20An%20Epic%20of%20Old%20Mali%20(Sundiata)%20-%202014.pdf|title=A STUDY OF PROVERBS IN THINGS FALL APART AND SUNDIATA: AN EPIC OF OLD MALI (SUNDIATA)|last=Aku Adjandeh|first=Evelyn|date=July 2014|publisher=University of Ghana, Legon – Institute of African Studies |page=100|access-date=19 March 2017|archive-date=20 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320054429/http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh/bitstream/123456789/8845/1/A%20Study%20of%20Proverbs%20in%20Things%20Fall%20Apart%20and%20Sundiata%3B%20An%20Epic%20of%20Old%20Mali%20(Sundiata)%20-%202014.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

Another theory suggests that ''Mali'' is a [[Fula language|Fulani]] pronunciation of the name of the [[Mandé peoples|Mande peoples]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LY5Lmc-To7cC&pg=PA92|title=African Glory: The Story of Vanished Negro Civilizations|last=Graft-Johnson|first=John Coleman De|date=1 January 1986|publisher=Black Classic Press|isbn=9780933121034|page=92|access-date=24 August 2020|archive-date=16 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416180445/https://books.google.com/books?id=LY5Lmc-To7cC&pg=PA92|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontohi0001fyle|url-access=registration|title=Introduction to the History of African Civilization: Precolonial Africa|last=Fyle|first=C. Magbaily|date=1999|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=9780761814566|pages=[https://archive.org/details/introductiontohi0001fyle/page/11 11]}}</ref> It is suggested that a sound shift led to the change, whereby in Fulani the alveolar segment {{IPA|/nd/}} shifts to {{IPA|/l/}} and the terminal vowel denasalizes and raises, leading "Manden" to shift to {{IPA|/mali/}}.<ref name=":0" />