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| Malba Birifor | |
|---|---|
| Bɩrfʋɔr | |
| Native to | Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast |
| Ethnicity | Birifor |
| Native speakers | (110,000 in Burkina Faso cited 1993) |
| Language family | Niger–Congo? |
| Writing system | Latin (Malba Birifor alphabet) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bfo |
| Glottolog | malb1235 |
Northern Birifor or Malba Birifor is a Gur language of the Niger–Congo family. It is spoken by a few hundred thousand people, mainly in the southwest of Burkina Faso, particularly in the provinces of Bougouriba, Ioba, Noumbiel and Poni and in western Ivory Coast.
Phonology
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː ĩ ĩː | u uː ũ ũː | |
| Near-close | ɪ ɪː ɪ̃ ɪ̃ː | ʊ ʊː ʊ̃ ʊ̃ː | |
| Close-mid | e eː ẽ ẽː | o oː õ õː | |
| Open-mid | ɛ ɛː ɛ̃ ɛ̃ː | ɔ ɔː ɔ̃ ɔ̃ː | |
| Open | a aː ã ãː |
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio- velar |
Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | c | k | k͡p | |
| voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | ɡ͡b | ||
| Implosive | voiced | ɓ | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | h | |||
| voiced | v | ||||||
| Nasal | plain | m | n | ɲ | ŋ͡m | ||
| Approximant | plain | l | j | w | |||
| glottal | ˀl | ˀj | |||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
Orthography
It is written in this alphabet:
| Majuscules | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Ã | B | Ɓ | C | D | E | Ẽ | Ɛ | Ɛ̃ | F | G | Gb | H | I | Ĩ | Ɩ | Ɩ̃ | J | K | Kp | L | ʹL | M | N | Ny | Ŋm | O | Õ | Ɔ | Ɔ̃ | P | R | S | T | U | Ũ | Ʋ | Ʋ̃ | V | W | Y | Ƴ | |||
| Minuscules | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | ã | b | ɓ | c | d | e | ẽ | ɛ | ɛ̃ | f | g | gb | h | i | ĩ | ɩ | ɩ̃ | j | k | kp | l | ʹl | m | n | ny | ŋm | o | õ | ɔ | ɔ̃ | p | r | s | t | u | ũ | ʋ | ʋ̃ | v | w | y | ƴ | |||
| Phonetic value | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | ã | b | ɓ | c | d | e | ẽ | ɛ | ɛ̃ | f | ɡ | ɡ͡b | h | i | ĩ | ɪ | ɪ̃ | ɟ | k | k͡p | l | ˀl | m | n | ɲ | ŋ͡m | o | õ | ɔ | ɔ̃ | p | r | s | t | u | ũ | ʊ | ʊ̃ | v | w | j | ˀj | |||
Long vowels are written double but without doubling the nasal tilde, e.g. ⟨ẽe⟩ for /ẽː/
References
- Malba Birifor at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- http://vimeo.com/172854837