| Baoulé | |
|---|---|
| wawle | |
| Region | Ivory Coast |
| Ethnicity | Baoulé people |
| Native speakers | 5.3 million (2021) |
| Language family | Niger–Congo?
|
| Writing system | Latin |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bci |
| Glottolog | baou1238 |
Baoulé (native name: wawle), 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. It is a Kwa language of the Central Tano branch, forming a dialect continuum with Anyin and closely related to Nzema and Sehwi. It is the common language of the Baoulé people, the largest ethnic group in Ivory Coast.
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/.
Tones
Baoulé has five tones: high, low, mid, rising, and falling.
Orthography
Baoulé uses the following letters to indicate the following phonemes:
| Uppercase | A | B | C | D | E | Ɛ | F | G | GB | I | J | L | K | KP | 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 | kp | 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/ | /kp/ | /m/ | /n/ | /ɲ/ | /o/ | /ɔ/ | /p/ | /s/ | /t/ | /u/ | /v/ | /w/ | /j/ | /z/ |
See also
References
- ^ Baoulé at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- Koffi, Ettien N'da (1990). The interface between phonology and morpho(phono)logy in the standardization of Anyi orthography (PDF).
- "Baoulé". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2020-01-03.
- ^ "Système alphabétique de la langue baoulé". Retrieved 2017-01-29.
- Kouadio N'guessan, Jérémie; Kouame, Kouakou (2004). Parlons baoulé: langue et culture de la Côte d'Ivoire. Paris: L'Harmattan.
- "PHOIBLE 2.0 -". phoible.org. Retrieved 2020-01-03.
Further reading
- Timyan, Judith E., "A Discourse-Based Grammar of Baule: The Kode Dialect" (1977). CUNY Academic Works.
- Carteron, Michel. 1972. Étude de la langue baoule. Baconda, Cote d'Ivoire: s.n.
External links
- Baoulé entry at the World Atlas of Language Structures
- PanAfriL10n page on Anyi & Baule
- Baoulé Phonology (French)
- Baule kasahorow
| Languages of Ivory Coast | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Official language | |||||||||||||||
| Indigenous languages |
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| Kwa languages | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Potou–Tano |
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| Ghana–Togo |
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| Ga–Dangme | |||||||
| Lagoon | |||||||
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