The Kulango or Kulango–Lorhon languages are spoken principally in
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
. They were once classified as part of an expanded
Gur (Voltaic) family and are now part of the
Savannas proposal.
The languages distinguished by ''
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...
'' are:
*
Bondoukou Kulango
Kulango is a Niger–Congo language of Ivory Coast and across the border in Ghana. It is one of the Kulango languages, and it may be classified as a Gur language. There are two principal varieties, distinct enough to be considered separate lang ...
(100,000 speakers in Ivory Coast and Ghana),
*
Bouna Kulango
Kulango is a Niger–Congo language of Ivory Coast and across the border in Ghana. It is one of the Kulango languages, and it may be classified as a Gur language. There are two principal varieties, distinct enough to be considered separate lang ...
(160,000 speakers in Ivory Coast and Ghana),
*
Lomakka ( Loma; 8,000 speakers),
*
Téén (a.k.a. Lorhon, Loghon; 8,000 speakers in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso,
which are not
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
. According to ''Ethnologue,'' Lomakka is closer to Bondoukou Kulango than Téén is, and Téén is closer to Lomakka and Bouna Kulango than it is to Bondoukou Kulango.
References
Gur languages
{{gur-lang-stub