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

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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)

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3.  Number of Speakers / Nombre de locuteurs

According to Ethnologue (accessed 2015; figure for Mali from 2007):

• 5,000,000 in Burkina Faso
• 33,300 in Togo (Gblem-Poidi 2012)
• 17,000 in Mali (1980)
• Population total all countries: 5,075,300

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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.

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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)

According to Ethnologue: "Dominant African language of Burkina Faso." "De facto language of national identity. Used as trade language in the central part of the country..."

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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 : ɛ, ɩ, ʋ )

See:

• Data from Hartell (1993) as presented in
  • Systèmes alphabétiques: http://sumale.vjf.cnrs.fr/phono/AfficheTableauOrtho2N.php?choixLangue=moore
  • Extended characters table at http://www.bisharat.net/A12N/BF-table.htm
• Mimer "Moore Alphabet Collation Chart" http://developer.mimer.com/charts/moore.htm
• Keyboard layout for the language available at http://www.abcburkina.net/sedelan/contenu/services/edition.html

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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:

• "Moore" http://www.abcburkina.net/sedelan/contenu/services/edition.html
• "Moor gʋndga" http://www.tavultesoft.com/keyman/downloads/keyboards/details.php?KeyboardID=394&FromKeyman=0

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 639-3: mos

7.6  Other / Autre

Outline of an approach for TTS for Moore:
Benemanda Medard Zoungrana, "Towards a Text-to-Speech System for Moore: Procedure and Analysis," M.A. Thesis, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota, May, 2012. http://orthographyclearinghouse.org/theses/texttoSpeechApproachtoMooreOrthographybyZoungrana.pdf

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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

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9.  Comments / Remarques

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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://africa.isp.msu.edu/afrlang/hiermenu.html (page on "Moore," http://africa.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).

SIL International, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, "Moore," http://www.ethnologue.com/language/mos

SIL International, "ISO 639 Code Tables," http://www-01.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, "Moré," https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moré

______, "Mossi language," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossi_language

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Categories: Languages, Burkina Faso, Northern Togo