Baoulé language

Baoulé, also known as Baule or Bawule, is a Niger-Congo language spoken in central and southern Ivory Coast, including in the regions of Lacs, Lagunes, Gôh-Djiboua, Sassandra-Marahoué, Vallée du Bandama, Woroba, and Yamoussoukro, by approximately 4.7 million people. It is a Kwa language of the Central Tano branch, forming a dialect continuum with Anyin and closely related to Nzema and Sehwi.[2] It is the common language of the Baoulé people, the largest ethnic group in Ivory Coast.[3]

Baoulé
RegionIvory Coast
EthnicityBaoulé people
Native speakers
4.7 million (2017)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3bci
Glottologbaou1238

Translations of the Bible

In 1946, portions of the Bible translated into Baoulé were first published; the full New Testament followed in 1953.[4] The complete Bible was published first in 1998, by the Bible Society in Abidjan.

Phonology

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labial-
velar
Plosive voiceless p t c k kp
voiced b d ɟ g gb
Fricative voiceless f s
voiced v z
Nasal m n ɲ
Lateral l
Trill r
Approximant j w

Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

Of these vowels, five may be nasalized: /ĩ/, /ɛ̃/, /ã/, /ũ/, and /ɔ̃/.[5][6]

Tones

Baoulé has five tones: high, low, mid, rising, and falling.[7]

Orthography

Baoulé uses the following letters to indicate the following phonemes:[5]

Uppercase A B C D E Ɛ F G GB I J L K M N NY O Ɔ P S T U V W Y Z
Lowercase a b c d e ɛ f g gb i j l k m n ny o ɔ p s t u v w y z
Phoneme /a/ /b/ /c/ /d/ /e/ /ɛ/ /f/ /g/ /gb/ /i/ /ɟ/ /l/ /k/ /m/ /n/ /ɲ/ /o/ /ɔ/ /p/ /s/ /t/ /u/ /v/ /w/ /j/ /z/

See also

References
  1. Baoulé at Ethnologue (22nd ed., 2019)
  2. Koffi, Ettien N'da (1990). The interface between phonology and morpho(phono)logy in the standardization of Anyi orthography (PDF).
  3. "Baoulé". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2020-01-03.
  4. Baoulé at World Scriptures
  5. "Système alphabétique de la langue baoulé". Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  6. Kouadio N'guessan, Jérémie; Kouame, Kouakou (2004). Parlons baoulé: langue et culture de la Côte d'Ivoire. Paris: L'Harmattan.
  7. "PHOIBLE 2.0 -". phoible.org. Retrieved 2020-01-03.

Further reading


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