Northern Birifor language

Malba Birifor
Malba Birifor
Bɩrfʋɔr
Native to	Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast
Ethnicity	Birifor
Native speakers	(110,000 in Burkina Faso cited 1993)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Gur Northern Oti–Volta Moré–Dagbani Moré Dagaare–Birifor Birifor Malba Birifor; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
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
Plosive/ Affricate	voiced	b	d	ɟ	ɡ	ɡ͡b
Implosive	voiced	ɓ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s				h
Fricative	voiced	v
Nasal	plain	m	n	ɲ		ŋ͡m
Approximant	plain		l	j		w
Approximant	glottal		ˀl	ˀj
Trill			r

Orthography

It is written in this alphabet:^[2]

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

[e26-1] Malba Birifor at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)

[2] ttp://vimeo.com/172854837

[1]

[2]