Mossi language

Mossi
Mooré
Native to Burkina Faso, Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Togo
Ethnicity Mossi
Native speakers
 7.6 million (2007)[1]
Niger–Congo
Latin
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-2 mos
ISO 639-3 mos
Glottolog moss1236[2]
Majority areas of Mossi speakers, in pink, on a map of Burkina Faso.
Person Moaaga
People Moose
Language Mòoré
The distribution of Mossi

The Mossi language (known in the language as Mooré; also Mòoré, Mõõré, Moré, Moshi, Moore, More) is a Gur language of the Oti–Volta branch and one of two official regional languages of Burkina Faso, closely related to the Frafra language spoken just across the border in the northern half of Ghana and less-closely to Dagbani and Mampruli further south. It is the language of the Mossi people, spoken by approximately 5 million people in Burkina Faso, plus another 60,000+ in Mali and Togo.

Phonology

The Mossi language consists of the following sounds:[3]

Consonants

Mossi consonant phonemes
Labial Alveolar Postalveolar
/ palatal		 Velar Glottal
Nasal m ⟨m⟩ n ⟨n⟩ ɲ ⟨ny⟩
Stop prenasalized
implosive
tenuis p ⟨p⟩ t ⟨t⟩ k ⟨k⟩
aspirated
Fricative prenasalized
voiced v ⟨v⟩ z ⟨z⟩
voiceless f ⟨f⟩ s ⟨s⟩ h ⟨h⟩
Liquid ɾ ⟨r⟩, l ⟨l⟩
Approximant j ⟨y⟩ w ⟨w⟩

Remark:

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

Vowels

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

Notes:

  • All vowels (other than /e/ and /o/) are pronounced like their nasal counterparts.
  • All vowels (oral and nasal) are pronounced like their lengthened counterparts.
  • 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 Mossi alphabet uses the letters specified in the national Burkinabé alphabet.

Burkinabé Mossi 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. ↑ Mikael Parkvall, "Världens 100 största språk 2007" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007), in Nationalencyklopedin
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Mossi". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Cf. Kabore (1985) : (p.44) for the consonants, (p.85-86) for the vowels.

Learning materials

  • Protestant Mission, Assemblies of God (Around 1955 CE - 1961 CE). More (Language of the Mossi Tribe) Phrase Book. Ouagadougou, Upper Volta: World Digital Library. Check date values in: |date= (help)
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