Phonology and orthography

 

Orthography

Moore, as other Burkina languages, uses the Latin alphabet with the addition of some phonetic symbols approved by the Burkina government:

Symbols of the Burkina National Alphabet:

national alphabet Burkina

Symbols used in the Moore alphabet:

the moore alphabet

In most cases, the relation between the sounds of Moore and their orthographic representation is one-to-one although exceptions exist.

Tone is not thought necessary to be represented in the Moore orthography. Tonal representations would make the orthography rather cumbersome and the tones on words change according to their context in a sentence.

In the following, a few additional features of Moore orthography are listed.

  • Long vowels are written as two signs in the orthography: aa, ee, ɛɛ, ii, ɩɩ, etc.
  • Nasal vowels are marked by a tilde on top of them: ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ. In the case of long vowels, only the first one is marked by a tilde: ãa, ẽe, ĩi, etc.