| Mooré | |
| Also Known As: | More, Mossi |
| Nativename: | Mòoré |
| Ethnicity: | Mossi |
| States: | Burkina Faso, Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Togo, Niger, Senegal |
| Speakers: | million |
| Date: | 2009–2013 |
| Ref: | e21 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Volta-Congo |
| Fam4: | Savannas |
| Fam5: | Gur |
| Fam6: | Northern Gur |
| Fam7: | Oti–Volta |
| Fam8: | Western Oti-Volta |
| Fam9: | Northwestern |
| Script: | Latin (Mooré alphabet), N'Ko |
| Nation: |  Burkina Faso |
| Iso2: | mos |
| Iso3: | mos |
| Glotto: | moss1236 |
| Glottorefname: | Mossi |
| Map: | Moore Language.png |
| Mapcaption: | Majority areas of Mooré speakers (see also on a map of Burkina Faso) |
Mooré, also called More or Mossi,[1] [2] is a Gur language of the Oti–Volta branch and one of four official languages of Burkina Faso. 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.
The Mooré language consists of the following sounds:[3]
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar / palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /pronounced as /link// | pronounced as /pronounced as /link// | pronounced as /pronounced as /link// | ||||
| Stop | pronounced as /pronounced as /link// | pronounced as /t/ | pronounced as /pronounced as /link// | pronounced as /ʔ/ | |||
| pronounced as /b/ | pronounced as /d/ | pronounced as /ɡ/ | |||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /pronounced as /link// | pronounced as /pronounced as /link// | pronounced as /pronounced as /link// | ||||
| pronounced as /pronounced as /link// | pronounced as /pronounced as /link// | ||||||
| Liquid | pronounced as /pronounced as /link// | ||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /pronounced as /link// | pronounced as /pronounced as /link// | pronounced as /pronounced as /link// | ||||
Remark:
| Front | Central | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
Notes:
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.
| Burkinabé Mooré alphabet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | ʼ | B | D | E | F | G | H | I | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z | ||||
| a | ʼ | b | d | e | f | g | h | i | k | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | t | u | v | w | y | z | ||||
| Phonetic values | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |