Oti–Volta languages

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title: "Oti–Volta languages" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["oti–volta-languages", "gur-languages", "dagbon"] description: "Gur language subgroup of Burkina Faso" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oti–Volta_languages" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Gur language subgroup of Burkina Faso ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language family"]

Field	Value
name	Oti–Volta
region	Burkina Faso, northern Ghana and Benin
familycolor	Niger-Congo
fam2	Atlantic–Congo
fam3	Savannas
fam4	Gur
fam5	Northern
glotto	otiv1239
glottorefname	Oti–Volta
::

|name=Oti–Volta |region=Burkina Faso, northern Ghana and Benin |familycolor=Niger-Congo |fam2=Atlantic–Congo |fam3=Savannas |fam4=Gur |fam5=Northern |glotto=otiv1239 |glottorefname=Oti–Volta

The Oti–Volta languages form a subgroup of the Gur languages, comprising about 30 languages of northern Ghana, Benin, and Burkina Faso spoken by twelve million people. The most populous language is Mooré, the national language of Burkina Faso, spoken by over 55% of Burkina Faso’s 20 million population and an additional 1 million in neighboring countries such as Ghana, Ivory Coast, Niger, and Mali.

The family is named after the Oti and Volta rivers.

Languages

The internal classification of Oti–Volta, as worked out by Manessy 1975–79 and Naden 1989 (Williamson & Blench 2000) is as follows:

|label1=Oti–Volta |1={{clade |1=Buli–Koma: Buli, Konni |2={{clade |1=Eastern (Somba): Biali, Mbelime, Tammari (Ditammari), Waama |2={{clade |label1=Western (Mole–Dagbani, Mabia) |1={{clade |1=Nootre |2=Northwest: Mõõré, Frafra, Safaliba, Wali, Dagaare–Northern Birifor–Southern Birifor |3=Southeast: Dagbani, Hanga, Kamara, Kusaal, Nabit, Talni, Mampruli, Kantosi |2={{clade |1=Gurma: Ngangam, Gourmanchéma, Moba (Bimoba), Ntcham (Akaselem), Nateni, Miyobe, Konkomba |2=Yom–Nawdm: Nawdm, Yom

Native Dagbani speakers assert that Dagbani is mutually intelligible with Dagaare, Frafra, Mamprusi, and Wali, but in the case of Dagaare, Frara and Wali it is rather the case that many people can understand some of a language which is not their mother tongue. These languages are not mutually intelligible with Mõõré or Kusaal (a language spoken in Bawku West District and adjacent areas).

Bodomo (2017)

Bodomo (2017) refers to the Western Oti–Volta group (and also including Buli–Koma) as Central Mabia. The term Mabia is a portmanteau of the two lexical innovations ma- 'mother' + bia 'child'.

The following is a classification of the Central Mabia languages from Bodomo (2017), as cited in Bodomo (2020). Bodomo's Central Mabia group consists of 7 subgroups.

• Central Mabia
  • Dagaare
    • Dagaare
    • Waale
    • Northern Birifor
    • Southern Birifor
    • Safaliba
  • North
    • Moore
  • Mid-Central
    • Mabiene
    • Nankanè
    • Nabit
  • South
    • Dagbane
    • Mampruli
    • Nanuni
  • Kusaal
    • Kusaal
    • Talni
  • Buli–Konni
    • Buli
    • Konni
  • Hanga–Kamara
    • Hanga
    • Kamara

Bibliography

• Bodomo, Adams, Hasiyatu Abubakari and Samuel Alhassan Issah (2020). Handbook of the Mabia Languages of West Africa. Glienicke: Galda Verlag. .

References

References

1. Manessy, Gabriel. (1975). "Les langues Oti-Volta". SELAF.
2. Manessy, Gabriel. (1979). "Contribution à la classification généalogique des langues voltaïques : - le proto-central". PARIS.
3. Naden, Tony. (1989). "Gur". University Press of America.
4. Bendor-Samuel, John T. [ed.]. (1989). "The Niger-Congo Languages". University Press of America.
5. Heine, Bernd and Derek Nurse [eds]. (2000). "African Languages — An Introduction". Cambridge University Press.
6. Williamson, Kay and [[Roger Blench]]. (2000). "Niger–Congo". Cambridge University Press.
7. [[Adams Bodomo. Bodomo, Adams]]. 2017. ''Mabia: its etymological genesis, geographical spread and some salient genetic features''. Paper presented at the Mabia Languages Conferences in Winneba, Ghana and Vienna, Austria.
8. Naden, Tony. 2021. ''Comparative Dictionary of Central Mabia Languages (Formerly Western Oti-Volta) / Dictionnaire Comparatif Des Langues Mabia-Central (anciennement Western Oti-Volta)''. m.s.
9. Bodomo, Adams. 2020. "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342715507_MABIA_Its_Genesis_Geographical_Spread_and_some_Salient_Genetic_Features Mabia: Its Etymological Genesis, Geographical Spread, and some Salient Genetic Features]." In: Bodomo A., Abubakari H. & Issah, S. 2020. ''Handbook of the Mabia Languages of West Africa''. Galda Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 400 pages, {{ISBN. 978-3-96203-117-6 (Print); {{ISBN. 978-3-96203-118-3 (E-Book)

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