Gourmanché (Goulmacema, Gourma, Gourmantche, Gulimancema, Gulmancema, Gurma, Gourmanchéma) is the language of the

Gurma people Gurma (also called Gourma or Gourmantché) is an ethnic group living mainly in northeastern Ghana, Burkina Faso, around Fada N'Gourma, and also in northern areas of Togo and Benin, as well as southwestern Niger. They number approximately 1,7 ...

. It is the largest by number of speakers of the Gurma subgroup of the Oti-Volta languages, which includes among others the

Moba language Moba or Moba–Bimoba is a major language of the Moba people of Togo and Ghana. However, in Ghana only 60% of ethnic Bimoba speak the language. There are also about 2,000 Moba speakers in Burkina Faso. It has two dialects (Moba In Togo and Burkin ...

and the

Konkomba language Konkomba is a Gurma language spoken in Ghana, Togo Geography Konkomba is spoken in Ghana ( Northern Region, Volta Region, Brong Ahafo Region, Eastern Region and Accra), and Togo ( Savanes Region, Kara Region and Plateaux Region). Dia ...

. It is the major language of the easternmost parts of

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 ...

, around the traditional Gurma capital

Fada N'Gourma Fada N'gourma, also written Fada-Ngourma or Noungu, is a city and an important market town in eastern Burkina Faso, lying east of Ouagadougou, in the Gourmantché area. It is the capital of the East region and of Gourma province. It is known for ...

; it is also spoken in neighbouring parts of northern

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its ...

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesGhana 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 Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...

and

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of G ...

Writing system

Grammar

Like all its close relations and neighbours, Gourmanché is a tone language; it distinguishes high, mid, and low tones. In the standard orthography the symbols ''c j'' represent palatal stops; they sound somewhat similar to English "ch" and "j" respectively. Gourmanché preserves most of the noun-class based grammatical gender system characteristic of the Niger-Congo family, with eight classes and regular agreement of pronouns, adjectives and numerals. As with other Gur languages, the noun classes are marked by suffixes (not prefixes, as in Bantu); the suffixes come in singular/plural pairs for count nouns, e.g. ''tibu'' "tree", ''tiidi'' "trees" and are unpaired for mass nouns, e.g. ''ñima'' "water", ''soama'' "blood", ''gulimancema'' "Gourmanché language." Gourmanché has sometimes been said to have noun prefixes as well as suffixes, agreeing in class. However, these "prefixes" are in fact proclitic particles with an article-like function. They are written as separate words in the standard orthography: ''bu tibu'' "a/the tree", ''i tiidi'' "(the) trees", ''mi ñima'' "(the) water", and they are omitted, for example, when the noun is preceded by a possessor or followed by ''kuli'' "each"; thus ''u nuu'', "hand", ''ki biga'' "child", ''o joa'' "man" but e.g ''o joa muubi o biga nuu'' "the man holds his child's hand"; ''o nilo'' "a person" but ''nilo kuli'' "each person." Gourmanché verbs do not agree with subjects or inflect for tense but as with almost all Oti-Volta languages, they inflect for aspect (perfective vs imperfective.) The system is complex and unpredictable, with imperfective forms differing from perfective by the addition or dropping of several different suffixes, and/or tone changes. The language is SVO. Possessors precede their heads. Gourmanché shares with other Oti-Volta languages the characteristic that adjectives regularly compound with their head nouns; the noun precedes as a bare stem, followed by the adjective, which carries the noun class suffix appropriate to the gender and number of the head: ''yankpaalo'' "shepherd", ''yankpaaŋamo'' "good shepherd."

Lexicography

There is a fairly full Gourmanché-French dictionary but no readily accessible complete grammar.

Literature

There is a complete Bible translation.

Animal names

Gulmancéma frog names and their Mooré and English equivalents (nearly all of the frogs species are consumed as food):

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gourmanchema Language Languages of Burkina Faso Languages of Benin Languages of Niger Languages of Togo Gurma languages