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Moore - Mooré - Mòoré

1. Classification / Classification

Moore (or Mòoré), spoken by the Mossi, belongs to the Gur group of Niger Congo. (Webbook)

Ethnologue lists the classification as: Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, North, Gur, Central, Northern, Oti-Volta, Western, Northwest


2. Where Spoken / Localisation géographique

Moore is spoken in Central Burkina Faso with small numbers of speakers in Mali and Togo. It is also spoken by Mossi working in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. (Webbook)


3. Number of Speakers / Nombre de locuteurs

According to Ethnologue:

  • 5,000,000 in Burkina Faso
  • 19,700 in Togo (1991)
  • 17,000 in Mali (1980)

4. Dialect Survey / Enquête de dialecte

Canu (1981) reports that Moore has four main mutually intelligible dialects: Ouagadougu, Ouahigouya, Kaya, and Tendoko. The Moore Language Board (Sous-Commission Nationale du Moore) distinguishes six mutually intelligible dialects: Lallweoogo, Wubrweoogo, Zundweoogo, Saremde, Taoolende, and Yaadre (Nikiema, personal communication, 1986). (Webbook)

According to Ethnologue: Saremdé, Taolendé, Yaadré, Ouagadougou, Yaande, Zaore (Joore), Yana (Yanga, Jaan). Yana has over 90% intelligibility of Ouagadougou Mòoré, 75% to 80% of Joore. Joore with Ouagadougou varies from 88% in Tibga to 95% in Diabo. Yanga dialect is in Togo, completely intelligible with Central Mòoré.


5. Usage / Utilisation

Moore is widely used as a lingua franca as well as for a first language. Broadcasts in Moore are heard in Burkina Faso and [Côte d'Ivoire. (Webbook)

Dominant African language of Burkina Faso. (Ethnologue)


6. Orthography / Orthographe

6.1 Status / Statut

"Moore does have a standard official Latin-based orthography. It was elaborated in 1977 by the Commission nationale des langues voltaïques" (Nikiéma, personal communication, 1985). (Webbook with edit) It includes extended characters.

6.2 Sample Alphabet / Alphabet exemple

The alphabet of Moore in Burkina Faso as reported by several sources is:
a b d e ɛ f g h i ɩ k l m n o p r s t u ʋ v w y z
(There are three extended characters : ʋ, ɛ, ɩ ) :: there are also five nasalised vowels marked with the tilde : ã , ẽ , ĩ , õ , ũ (Nikiéma/Kinda [eds.] 1997

See:


7. Use in ICT / Utilisation dans les TIC

7.1 Fonts / Polices

Unicode fonts with extended Latin ranges including IPA will have the necessary characters.

7.2 Keyboard layouts / Dispositions de clavier

Tavultesoft Keyman keyboards for AZERTY:

Etienne de Boissezon (edbz_at_free.fr) has set up a layout for Moore.

7.3 Content on computers & internet / Contenu en informatique et sur l'Internet

Mooré Primer: http://www.dcaccess.net/~huhtaman/primer/

Ninsaal yel-segdɩ noy gãnegr sebre (Universal Declaration of Human Rights): http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/mhm.htm

Pʋg-taab a yiib solemde (a tale in Moore): http://www.abcburkina.net/contes/conte14_moore.htm

7.4 Localized software / Logiciels localisés

There are several different efforts that were beginning separately. These are now in communication.

7.5 Language codes / Codes de langue

  • ISO 639-1: -
  • ISO 639-2: mos
  • ISO/DIS 639-3: mos

7.6 Locales / Paramètres régionaux

7.7 Other / Autre

Site on Moore language:


http://www.todayloan.co.uk payday loans(approve sites)

8. Localisation resources / Ressources pour localisation

8.1 Individuals (experts) / Individuelles (experts)

8.2 Institutions / Institutions

Sous-Commission Nationale du Moore (does this still exist?)

8.3 On the internet / Sur la toile

Edition en langue nationale de Burkina Faso http://www.abcburkina.net/sedelan/contenu/services/edition.html

Correcteur d'orthographe Moore http://www.abcburkina.net/sedelan/contenu/services/linguistique.htm


9. Comments / Remarques


10. References / Références

Chanard, Christian (2006), Systèmes alphabétiques des langues africaines, LLACAN, CNRS, http://sumale.vjf.cnrs.fr/phono/

Dwyer, David (1997), Webbook of African Languages, http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/hiermenu.html (page on "Moore," http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/Moore_root.html )

Hartell, Rhonda L., ed. (1993), The Alphabets of Africa. Dakar: UNESCO and SIL. (The French edition, published the same year, is entitled Alphabets de Langues Africaines).

Nikiéma, N. / Jules Kinda, eds. (1997), Moor gom-biis no-tũur gʋlsg sebre : Dictionnaire orthographique du mooré. Ouagadougou: Sous-commission nationale du mooré.

SIL International, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, "Moore," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=mos

SIL International, "ISO 639 Code Tables," http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp

U.S. Library of Congress, "ISO 639.2: Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages: Alpha-3 codes arranged alphabetically by the English name of language," http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/English_list.php

Wikipedia, "More language," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_language

______, "Moré," http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moré


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Page last modified on 2012-08-31 10:44