The Bwa languages (Bwamu, Bomu) are a branch of the

Gur languages 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 by over half a million

Bwa people The Bwa is an African society that is native to Burkina Faso. This society has an approximate population of over 300,000 persons. The Bwa people live in a number of individualized communities. They have no central government, and rely on their c ...

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

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 ...

. The Bwa people, and their languages, are one of several called

Bobo Bobo may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Comic strips * ''Bobo'' (Belgian comics) * ''Bobo'' (Italian comics) * ''Bobo'' (Swedish comics) Fictional characters * Bobo the Bear, in ''The Muppets'' series * Professor Bobo, from ''My ...

in Bambara. The Bwa are distinguished as the ''Bobo Wule/Oule'' "Red Bobo". The Bwa languages are not

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...

; ''Ethnologue'' calculates that the intelligibility of the Ouarkoye and Cwi is 30%, though other varieties are closer.

Languages

* Bwamu (Ouarkoye) * Láá Láá Bwamu * Cwi Bwamu (Bwamu Twi) * Bomu

References

Gur languages Languages of Burkina Faso Languages of Mali {{gur-lang-stub