Koromfé is a

Gur language The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur or Mabia, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. They are spoken in the Sahelian and savanna regions of West Africa, namely: in most areas of Burkina Faso, and in south-central Mali, northeastern Ivor ...

spoken in a U-shaped area around the town of Djibo, in the north of

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...

and southeastern

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

, bordering Dogon Country.

Geographic Distribution

The Koromfé language is spoken in the provinces of Bam and Sanmatenga in the

Centre-Nord Region Centre-Nord (, "North Central") is one of thirteen administrative regions of Burkina Faso Per Law No.40/98/AN in 1998, Burkina Faso adhered to decentralization to provide administrative and financial autonomy to local communities. Most of the ...

, in the Provinces of Loroum and

Yatenga Yatenga is one of the provinces of Burkina Faso, located in the Nord Region (Burkina Faso), Nord Region of the country. In modern Yatenga, the most prominent city is Ouahigouya (also known as Waiguya). This city served as the capital of the kingdom ...

(

Titao Titao is a town located in the province of Loroum in Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory C ...

Subdistrict) in the Nord Region and in the

Soum Province Soum is one of the 45 provinces of Burkina Faso, located in its Sahel Region. Its capital is Djibo. Departments Soum is divided into 9 departments: See also *Regions of Burkina Faso *Provinces of Burkina Faso *Departments of Burkina Faso Th ...

of the

Sahel Region Sahel (, "Sahel") is one of Burkina Faso's 13 administrative regions. It was created on 2 July 2001. The region's capital is Dori. Four provinces make up the region— Oudalan, Séno, Soum, and Yagha. This region is the northernmost part of ...

( Djibo– Aribinda Subdistrict).

Dialects

Koromfé has two dialects: The western dialect (also known as Koromba or Kurumba) and the eastern dialect (Fulse or Folse). There are two major dialect areas, most conveniently termed East and West. The traditional centre of the Eastern area is Aribinda and of the Western area Pobé-Mengao. The western area is also known as Lorom (with two short close mid vowels), which should not be confused with the recently created province of Loroum centred on

. (Titao is ethnically Kurumba.) The grammar of Rennison (1997) describes the Western dialect.

Phonology

The alveolar flap is an allophone of , which occurs as only word-initially and after nasal consonants. There also exists a spirantised allophone of , i.e. ; phonetic only occurs word-initially, after a nasal consonant, or between two ATR high vowels. Before nasal vowels the approximants and are nasalised, and the nasalised in slow, careful speech can even harden to . However, there is no phonemic palatal series of consonants in Koromfe. The vowel system comprises 5 ATRvowels and their ATRcounterparts . All vowels occur both orally and (context-free) nasally, and long and short, giving 40 full vowels. There is also a schwa which alternates with zero and disappears in faster, casual speech. Koromfe is the only

, and one of only five Niger-Congo languages, listed in the

World Atlas of Language Structures The World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) is a database of structural (phonological, grammatical, lexical) properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials. It was first published by Oxford University Press as a book with CD-RO ...

that is not tonal.

Writing system

Koromfé has no written form. A 2007 dictionary uses a IPA based orthography with "y" replacing "j".John R. Rennison; Micaïlou Konfé
''Dictionnaire Lorom koromfe – anglais / français / allemand''
2007.01.17

References

* {{Gur languages Gur languages