Baoulé Alphabet

Baoulé (Baule in much English writing) is written in Latin letters with the spelling worked out for the national languages of Côte d’Ivoire. Its two special vowel letters are Ɛ ɛ, the open e of English "bed", and Ɔ ɔ, the open o of British "law"; its palatal nasal, like Spanish ñ or French gn, is written with the digraph ny. In the alphabet ɛ follows e, ny follows n and ɔ follows o. H, q and x are not used.

Some sounds take two letters. kp and gb are single consonants made with the lips and the back of the tongue at the same time, as in the name of the kplé kplé masks. Nasal vowels are written with an n after the vowel: an, ɛn, in, ɔn, un. The word for God shows both habits: Nyanmiɛn, which French-style spelling writes as Nyamien.

Baoulé is a tonal language: the pitch of a syllable can change the meaning of a word. Everyday writing leaves tone unmarked, so there are no accented letters to learn for ordinary texts. The é in the name Baoulé, and the ou of names like Kouassi, come from French spelling, not from the Baoulé alphabet.

How to type ɛ, ɔ and ny on a keyboard

On a phone, the quickest way is to copy the letters from this page, or to add a keyboard app that supports African Latin letters, such as Keyman.

On Windows, in Microsoft Word or WordPad, type the code and press Alt+X: 025B gives ɛ, 0190 Ɛ, 0254 ɔ and 0186 Ɔ. Type the digraph ny with ordinary n and y keys. On a Mac, switch to the Unicode Hex Input layout and hold Option while typing the same four-digit codes, or search the Character Viewer (Control+Command+Space) for "open e" or "open o". In HTML, write ɛ for ɛ, Ɛ for Ɛ, ɔ for ɔ and Ɔ for Ɔ.

Watch the look-alikes: ɛ is not the Greek ε, Ɔ is not the reversed C Ↄ, and the IPA symbol ɲ, with its hook on the left leg, is not ŋ (eng), the ng of "sing", which has its hook on the right. In Baoulé spelling, the palatal nasal sound is written with the digraph ny.

Baoulé names: day names and the N’ of N’Guessan

Like the Akan peoples of Ghana, the Baoulé give children a name for the day of the week they were born. In their usual French spelling, boys born on Sunday to Saturday are Kouamé, Kouassi, Kouadio, Konan, Kouakou, Yao and Koffi, and girls are Amoin, Akissi, Adjoua, Amenan, Ahou, Aya and Affoué. The names are so common that many Ivorians carry two of them, as in Kouassi Konan or Aya Kouamé.

Many Baoulé names begin with N’ in their usual French spelling: N’Guessan, N’Dri, N’Goran, N’Da. The apostrophe is a French-style spelling convention (N’Guessan, for instance, is the written form of a spoken Baoulé name), which is why the apostrophe ’ (and its typewriter form ') belongs in the grid. The river N’Zi, which flows through Baoulé country, is written the same way.

Where the Baoulé language is spoken

Baoulé is the language of the Baoulé people of central Côte d’Ivoire. Unicode's CLDR lists Baoulé's language population in Côte d'Ivoire at about 3.3 million, which makes it one of the country's largest languages after French. Its home is the savanna wedge between the Bandama and N’Zi rivers known as the "V Baoulé", with towns such as Bouaké, Yamoussoukro, Toumodi, Dimbokro, Tiébissou and Sakassou, the seat of the Baoulé kings; it is also heard all over Abidjan.

Baoulé tradition tells that the people came west from the Asante kingdom in the 18th century, led by Queen Abla Pokou. At a flooded river she gave up her infant son to the water spirits so the people could cross, and cried out "ba ou li", "the child is dead", which the story gives as the origin of the name Baoulé.

Baoulé belongs to the Tano group of the Kwa languages, with Akan (Twi) and Abron in Ghana and the east of Côte d’Ivoire, Nzima on the coast, and Anyi, its nearest neighbour. Related collections: Akan, Abron and Nzima; French, the official language of Côte d’Ivoire; Dyula, Cebaara Senoufo and Dan for the country's other large languages; and Côte d’Ivoire for the flag 🇨🇮 and the country's emoji.