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Mooré

Gur language of Burkina Faso

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
1 min read
Source updated September 11, 2026
Image credit is listed at the end of this article.
PersonMoaaga
PeopleMosse
LanguageMòoré
CountryMoogho

Mooré, also known as Mossi, is a Gur language of the Oti-Volta branch and one of the 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, Ivory Coast, 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 Burkinabé population and is the main language in the capital city of Ouagadougou. It is closely related to Frafra, and less related to Dagbani.

01Phonology

The Mooré language consists of the following sounds:

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close close i u
near-close ɪ ʊ
Close-mid e o
Open a
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).

Consonants

Mooré consonant phonemes
Labial Alveolar Postalveolar
/ palatal		 Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ
Stop voiceless p t k ʔ
voiced b d ɡ
Fricative voiceless f s h
voiced v z
Liquid r
Approximant l j w
Notes
  • The semivowel /j/ ⟨y⟩ is pronounced [ɲ] (palatal nasal) in front of nasal vowels.
The Lord's Prayer in Mooré translation (Church of the Pater Noster)
The Lord's Prayer in Mooré translation (Church of the Pater Noster)

02Orthography

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
AʼBDE ƐFGHİ ƖKLMN OPRST UƲVWY Z
aʼbde ɛfghi ɩklmn oprst uʋvwy z
Phonetic values
aʔbde ɛfɡhi ɪklmn oprst uʊvwj z
Blackboard with text in Mooré, including use of the letter Ʋ (v with hook)
Blackboard with text in Mooré, including use of the letter Ʋ (v with hook)
Watch videos about MooréExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Mooré”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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