Mooré

It is the language of the Mossi people, spoken by approximately 6.46 million people in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Niger, Mali, Togo and Senegal as a native language, but with many more L2 speakers. Mooré is spoken as a first or second language by over 50% of the Burkinabè population and is the main language in the capital city of Ouagadougou. It is closely related to Dagbani.

Mooré
More, Mossi
Mòoré
Native to	Burkina Faso, Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Togo, Niger, Senegal
Ethnicity	Mossi
Native speakers	6.5 million (2009–2013)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Savannas Gur Northern Gur Oti–Volta Western Oti-Volta Northwestern Mooré
Writing system	Latin (Mooré alphabet), N'Ko
Official status
Official language in	BFA
Language codes
ISO 639-2	mos
ISO 639-3	mos
Glottolog	moss1236
Majority areas of Mooré speakers (see also on a map of Burkina Faso)

The Mooré language consists of the following sounds:

Consonants

Remark:

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

Vowels

Notes:

• All vowels (other than /e/ and /o/) can also be nasalized.
• All vowels (oral and nasal) can be short or long.
• 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).

In Burkina Faso, the Mooré alphabet uses the letters specified in the national Burkinabé alphabet. It can also be written with the newly devised goulsse alphabet.

• Languages of Burkina Faso