Dyula Language
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Dyula (or Jula, Dioula, ''Julakan'' ߖߎ߬ߟߊ߬ߞߊ߲) is a language of the Mande language family spoken mainly in
Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...
,
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 ...
and
Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
, and also in some other countries, including
Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
,
Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
and
Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ) ...
. It is one of the
Manding languages The Manding languages (sometimes spelt Manden) are a dialect continuum within the Mande language family spoken in West Africa. Varieties of Manding are generally considered (among native speakers) to be mutually intelligible – dependent on exp ...
and is most closely related to Bambara, being
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 ...
with Bambara as well as
Malinke Maninka (also known as Malinke), or more precisely Eastern Maninka, is the name of several closely related languages and dialects of the southeastern Manding subgroup of the Mande language family. It is the mother tongue of the Malinké peop ...
. It is a
trade language A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
in
West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
and is spoken by millions of people, either as a first or second language. Similar to the other Mande languages, it uses tones. It may be written in the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
,
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
or
N'Ko script N'Ko () is a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949, as a modern writing system for the Mandé languages of West Africa. The term ''N'Ko'', which means ''I say'' in all Mandé languages, is also used for the Mandé literary standard written i ...
s.


History

Dyula is not an ethonym. The term used to distinguish Muslim traders from the non-Muslim population living in the same area, mainly Senufo agricultors. It comes from the Mandika languages and means "trader". It then became an exonym for Mandikan speaking traders such as the Bambara or the Mandinka and their languages. Later, the term was also used for a simplified version of Bambara, which comes from Mali, mixed with elements of Malinka and Maninka. It became a wiledly used lingua franca. The Mandika native speakers of the Ivory Coast used the pejorative term 'Tagbusik-kan' to refer to this simplified language, while the called their own language 'Konyakakan', 'Odiennekakan' or 'Maukakan'. The influx of millions of migrant workers from the
Sahel The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid c ...
further boostered the use of Dyula in the Ivory Coast due to the need of a lingua franca. Many Burkinabe learned Dyula while staying in the Ivory Coast and further diseminated it back home. Today, Dyula is used to at least some extent by 61 % of the population of the Ivory Coast and by about 35 % of the Burkinabe (mainly those living in the southern or western part of the country).


Phonology


Consonants


Vowels

The seven vowel sounds may also be either lengthened or nasalized .


Writing systems


Latin alphabet and orthography

Dioula orthography is regulated in Burkina Faso by the Dioula Sub-Commission of the National Commission for Languages. On 15 July 1971, the National Sub-Commission for Dioula was created and on 16 July 1971, it began a study in order to set the Dioula alphabet. An alphabet was published on 27 July 1973 and gained official status on 2 February 1979. Some letters were added later, for borrowed words, and others were replaced: by , and by . In Burkina Faso, the Dioula alphabet is made up of 28 letters each representing a single phoneme. In the orthography, long vowels are represented by doubled letters; thus, /e/ is written and /eː/, . The nasalisation of a vowel is written followed by an n; for example, /ẽ/ is written . The notation of tones was recommended in 1973, but in practice they are not written. The transcription guide published in 2003 does not reiterate this recommendation. Tones are noted solely in lexicographical works. However, to avoid ambiguity, tone marking is obligatory in certain cases. For example: * ''he/she'' (third person singular pronoun) * ''you'' (second person plural pronoun)


N'Ko alphabet

The
N'Ko script N'Ko () is a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949, as a modern writing system for the Mandé languages of West Africa. The term ''N'Ko'', which means ''I say'' in all Mandé languages, is also used for the Mandé literary standard written i ...
is an indigenous writing system for the Manding
language continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...
, invented in 1949 by Solomana Kanté, a Guinean educator. Today, the script has been digitised as part of
Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
, which allows it to be used easily online, but the lack of funding and the official status of French means that use of this alphabet largely happens outside of formal education and is not systematically used on street signs, etc.


Use in media

Dioula can be heard spoken in the 2004 film ''
Night of Truth ''Night of Truth'' (french: La nuit de la vérité) is a 2004 French/ Burkinabe film, the first full-length film by director Fanta Régina Nacro. Set in a fictional West-African country, this film tells the story of the night of reconciliation be ...
'', directed by Fanta Régina Nacro, Burkina Faso's first female director.


See also

*
Dyula people The Dyula (Dioula or Juula) are a Mande ethnic group inhabiting several West African countries, including Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Burkina Faso. Characterized as a highly successful merchant caste, ''Dyula'' migrants began establishin ...


References


External links


An ka taa
a website with a dictionary, resources and media in and about Jula and Manding more generally.
Database of audio recordings in Jula (Dioula) - basic Catholic prayers


Bibliography

* Commission nationale des langues burkinabè – Sous-commission du dioula, ''Guide de transcription du Dioula'', Burkina Faso, 2003 * Commission nationale des langues burkinabè – Sous-commission nationale du dioula, ''Règles orthographiques du Dioula'', Ouagadougou, Coopération suisse, 1999, 69 * Moussa Coulibaly et Haraguchi Takehiko, ''Lexique du Dioula'', Institute of Developing Economies, 1993
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/nowiki> * Maurice Delafosse, ''Vocabulaires comparatifs de plus de 60 langues ou dialectes parlés à la Côte d'Ivoire et dans les régions limitrophes'', Paris, E. Leroux, 1904, 284 * Maurice Delafosse, ''Essai de manuel pratique de la langue mandé ou mandingue. Étude grammaticale du dialecte dyoula. Vocabulaire français-dyoula. Histoire de Samori en mandé. Étude comparée des principaux dialectes mandé'', Paris, Publications de l'INALCO, 1904, 304 * Mohamadou Diallo, « Le noyau du code orthographique du dioula du Burkina Faso », ''Mandekan, Bulletin semestriel d’études linguistiques mandé'', o 37, 2001, 9-31 * Mamadou Lamine Sanogo (master's thesis, supervised by Bakary Coulibaly), ''Les syntagmes nominaux du jula véhiculaire'', University of Ouagadougou, 1991, 81 * Mamadou Lamine Sanogo (DEA thesis, supervised by Bakary Coulibaly), ''Approche définitoire du jula véhiculaire'', University of Ouagadougou, 1992, 79 * Mamadou Lamine Sanogo, « Tons, segments et règles transformationnelles en jula », ''Mandenkan'', Paris, o 30, 1995, 41-54 * Mamadou Lamine Sanogo (University of Rouen thesis, supervised by Claude Caitucoli (URA-CNRS 1164)), ''Langues nationales, langues véhiculaires, langue officielle et glottopolitique au Burkina Faso'', 1996, 832 * Mamadou Lamine Sanogo, « Les fondements scientifiques d'une règle d'écriture orthographique : le redoublement de la voyelle finale du défini en jula », ''Cahiers du CERLESHS'', University of Ouagadougou, o 16, 1999, 127-144 * Mamadou Lamine Sanogo, ''À propos de jula à Bobo-Dioulasso'', 2000, 73-83, spécial 2, PUO * Mamadou Lamine Sanogo, « L'ethisme jula : origines et évolution d'un groupe ethnolinguistique dans la boucle du Niger », dans Y. G. Madiéga et O. Nao, 1, 2003, 370-379 * Mamadou Lamine Sanogo, « À propos des constructions du syntagme complétif en dioula », ''Cahiers du CERLESHS'', University of Ouagadougou, o 20, 2003, 179-211 * Mamadou Lamine Sanogo, « Vers une approche sociolinguistique des dérivatifs en dioula véhiculaire », ''Cahiers du CERLESHS'', University of Ouagadougou, o 1* er numéro spécial, June 2003, 221-223 * Mamadou Lamine Sanogo, ''La recherche terminologique dans un dialecte couvert : le cas du dioula'', Paris, Édition des archives contemporaines, 2006, 631-639 * Y. Person, ''Samori : Une révolution dyula'', 1, Dakar, IFAN, « Mémoires de l’Institut fondamental d’Afrique noire », 1968 * Y. Person, ''Samori : Une révolution dyula'', 2, Dakar, IFAN, « Mémoires de l’Institut fondamental d’Afrique noire », 1970 * Y. Person, ''Samori : Une révolution dyula'', 3, Dakar, IFAN, « Mémoires de l’Institut fondamental d’Afrique noire », 1975 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dioula Language Manding languages Languages of Burkina Faso Languages of Mali Languages of Ivory Coast Languages of the Gambia Languages of Guinea Languages of Senegal