Guere language
Kru language spoken in Ivory Coast
title: "Guere language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["wee-languages", "languages-of-ivory-coast"] description: "Kru language spoken in Ivory Coast" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guere_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Kru language spoken in Ivory Coast ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Guéré |
| nativename | Wè, Wɛɛ |
| states | Ivory Coast |
| region | Dix-Huit Montagnes, Moyen-Cavally |
| speakers | |
| date | 2017 |
| ref | e25 |
| familycolor | Niger-Congo |
| fam2 | Atlantic–Congo |
| fam3 | Kru |
| fam4 | Western Kru |
| fam5 | Wee |
| fam6 | Guere–Krahn |
| lc1 | gxx |
| ld1 | Central Gere (Southern Wee) |
| lc2 | wec |
| ld2 | Neyo (Western Wee) |
| glotto | guer1240 |
| glottorefname | Guere |
| notice | IPA |
| :: |
|name=Guéré |nativename=Wè, Wɛɛ |states=Ivory Coast |region=Dix-Huit Montagnes, Moyen-Cavally |speakers= |date=2017 |ref=e25 |familycolor=Niger-Congo |fam2=Atlantic–Congo |fam3=Kru |fam4=Western Kru |fam5=Wee |fam6=Guere–Krahn |lc1=gxx |ld1=Central Gere (Southern Wee) |lc2=wec |ld2=Neyo (Western Wee) |glotto=guer1240 |glottorefname=Guere |notice=IPA
Guéré (Gere), also called Wè (Wee), is a Kru language spoken by over 300,000 people in the Dix-Huit Montagnes and Moyen-Cavally regions of Ivory Coast.
Phonology
The phonology of Guere (here the Zagna dialect of Central Guere / Southern Wè) is briefly sketched out below.
Consonants
The consonant phonemes are as follows:
::data[format=table] | Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar | Labialized velar | Stops | voiceless | voiced | implosive | Nasal | Fricative | voiceless | voiced | Approximant | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::
Allophones of some of these phonemes include:
- is an allophone of before nasal vowels
- is an allophone of before nasal vowels
- is an allophone of before nasal vowels
- is an allophone of in word-initial position
- is an allophone of after a coronal consonant (alveolar or palatal) In addition, while the nasal consonants and contrast with and before oral vowels, and are thus separate phonemes, before nasal vowels only the nasal consonants occur. and do not occur before nasal vowels, suggesting that historically a phonemic merger between these sounds and the nasals may have occurred in this position.
Vowels
Like many West African languages, Guere makes use of a contrast between vowels with advanced tongue root and those with retracted tongue root. In addition, nasal vowels contrast phonemically with oral vowels.
::data[format=table]
| Oral | Nasal | Front | Back | Front | Back | Close (ATR) | Close (RTR) | Mid (ATR) | Mid (RTR) | Open (RTR) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
Tones
Guere is a tonal language and contrasts ten tones:
::data[format=table]
| Tone | IPA | Example | Gloss | Low | Mid | High | Top | Low–high rising | Low–top rising | Mid–high rising | High–top rising | High–low falling | Mid–low falling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "to scatter" | |||||||||||||
| "to destroy" | |||||||||||||
| "to die" | |||||||||||||
| "full" | |||||||||||||
| "hat" | |||||||||||||
| "banana" | |||||||||||||
| "wall" | |||||||||||||
| "younger brother" | |||||||||||||
| "goat" | |||||||||||||
| "penis" | |||||||||||||
| :: |
References
References
- Paradis, Carole. (1983). "Description phonologique du guéré". Institut de Linguistique Appliquée, Université d'Abidjan.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::