Baoulé language

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Baoulé (native name: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), also known as Baule or Bawule,Template:Citation needed 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.<ref name=e26/> It is a Kwa language of the Central Tano branch, forming a dialect continuum with Anyin and closely related to Nzema and Sehwi.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is the common language of the Baoulé people, the largest ethnic group in Ivory Coast.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Translations of the BibleEdit

In 1946, portions of the Bible translated into Baoulé were first published; the full New Testament followed in 1953.Template:Citation needed The complete Bible was published first in 1998, by the Bible Society in Abidjan.

PhonologyEdit

ConsonantsEdit

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial- velar
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	c	k	kp
Plosive	voiced	b	d	ɟ	g	gb
Fricative	voiceless	f	s
Fricative	voiced	v	z
Nasal		m	n	ɲ
Lateral			l
Trill			r
Approximant				j		w

VowelsEdit

	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/.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

TonesEdit

Baoulé has five tones: high, low, mid, rising, and falling.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

OrthographyEdit

Baoulé uses the following letters to indicate the following phonemes:<ref name=":0" />

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/