Baoulé
RegionIvory Coast
EthnicityBaoulé people
Native speakers
5.3 million (2021)[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3bci
Glottologbaou1238

Baoulé, also known as Baule or Bawule, is a 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 5.3 million people.[1] 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]

Translations of the Bible

In 1946, portions of the Bible translated into Baoulé were first published; the full New Testament followed in 1953. 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/.[4][5]

Tones

Baoulé has five tones: high, low, mid, rising, and falling.[6]

Orthography

Baoulé uses the following letters to indicate the following phonemes:[4]

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. 1 2 Baoulé at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
  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. 1 2 "Système alphabétique de la langue baoulé". Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  5. ↑ Kouadio N'guessan, Jérémie; Kouame, Kouakou (2004). Parlons baoulé: langue et culture de la Côte d'Ivoire. Paris: L'Harmattan.
  6. ↑ "PHOIBLE 2.0 -". phoible.org. Retrieved 2020-01-03.

Further reading

Baoulé language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator



This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.