Mooré

Mooré is a Gur language of the Oti–Volta branch and one of four official regional languages of Burkina Faso. It is the language of the Mossi people, spoken by approximately 8 million people in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Niger, Mali, Togo and Senegal as a native language, but with many more L2 speakers. Mooré is spoken as a first or second language by over 50% of the Burkinabè population and is the main language in the capital city of Ouagadougou. It is one of the official regional languages in Burkina Faso and is closely related to Dagbani.

Mooré
Mòoré
Native toBurkina Faso, Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Togo, Niger, Senegal
EthnicityMossi
Native speakers
7.83 million (2009–2013)[1]
Niger–Congo?
Latin (Mooré alphabet), N'Ko
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-2mos
ISO 639-3mos
Glottologmoss1236
Majority areas of Mooré speakers (see also on a map of Burkina Faso)
PersonMoaaga
PeopleMosse
LanguageMòoré
Country Moogho

Phonology

The Mooré language consists of the following sounds:[2]

Consonants
Mooré consonant phonemes
Labial Alveolar Postalveolar
/ palatal		 Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ
Stop voiceless p t k ʔ
voiced b d ɡ
Fricative voiceless f s h
voiced v z
Liquid r, l
Approximant j w

Remark:

  • The semivowel /j/ y is pronounced [ɲ] (palatal nasal) in front of nasal vowels.

Vowels
Front Central Back
Close close i u
near-close ɪ ʊ
Close-mid e o
Open a

Notes:

  • All vowels (other than /e/ and /o/) can also be nasalized.
  • All vowels (oral and nasal) can be short or long.
  • Other linguists include the vowels /ɛ/ and /ɔ/; here, they are analysed as diphthongs, (/ɛ/ is considered to be ea and /ɔ/ is considered to be oa).

Orthography

In Burkina Faso, the Mooré alphabet uses the letters specified in the national Burkinabé alphabet. It can also be written with the newly devised goulsse alphabet.


Burkinabé Mooré alphabet
AʼBDE ƐFGHI ƖKLMN OPRST UƲVWY Z
aʼbde ɛfghi ɩklmn oprst uʋvwy z
Phonetic values
aʔbde ɛfɡhi ɪklmn oprst uʊvwj z

See also

References
  1. "Mòoré". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-12-06.
  2. Cf. Kabore (1985) : (p.44) for the consonants, (p.85-86) for the vowels.
Mooré test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

Learning materials
Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for Mooré.
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