Alternate Names: Black Bobo, Bobo, Bobo Fi, Bobo Fign, Bobo Fing, Northern Bobo Madare
Dialects: Jèrè, Kukoma (Koma), Kure, Sankuma (Sarokama), Tankri, Yaba. Northern Bobo Madaré has 20%–30% intelligibility of Southern Bobo Madaré. All dialects of Northern understand Yaba, centered in Tansilla. Separate literature may be needed for the Mali dialect. Some linguists treat Bobo as a separate major branch of Mande. Sya is the prestige dialect in Mali and used for literature.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 35,000 in Burkina Faso (1995 SIL). Population total all countries: 60,000.
Language Use: Home. French [fra] is spoken by the educated. Jula [dyu] is also used by most men with good proficiency and some women for common topics, government, and trade.
Language Development: Literacy rate in L2: 5% or below. Grammar. Bible: 2005.
Typology: CV, CVC, CVV, CCV; tonal.
Writing System: Latin
Nation of Origin: Burkina Faso
Other Comments: Ethnonym: Bobo Madaré. ‘Bobo’ is Bambara word for Bobo Madaré, Buamu or Bomu. Traditional religion, Christian, Muslim.