| Baoulé | |
| Region: | Ivory Coast |
| Ethnicity: | Baoulé people |
| Speakers: | million |
| Date: | 2021 |
| Ref: | e26 |
| Script: | Latin |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Volta-Congo |
| Fam4: | Kwa |
| Fam5: | Potou–Tano |
| Fam6: | Tano |
| Fam7: | Central Tano |
| Fam8: | Bia |
| Fam9: | North Bia |
| Iso3: | bci |
| Glotto: | baou1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Baoule |
Baoulé, 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.[1] It is the common language of the Baoulé people, the largest ethnic group in Ivory Coast.[2]
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.
| 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 | |||||
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | ||
| Close-mid | e | o | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | ||
| Open | a |
Baoulé has five tones: high, low, mid, rising, and falling.[5]
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/ |