Introduction

The Konabéré language is spoken by 60,000 people in Burkina Faso and Mali in West Africa. About 35,000 speakers live in Burkina Faso and the rest, about 25,000 speakers, live in Mali. The majority of speakers are farmers. The language is also known as Northern Bobo Madaré. It is part of the Niger-Congo language family, and in the subgroup of Mande languages. It is coded as [bbo]. Speakers of the Northern Bobo Madaré language refer to themselves as Kʋnasuŋ (plural Kʋnakʋma). In Mali, the Kʋnakʋma call their language kʋnabɩrɩ (bɩrɩ = language), while in Burkina Faso the language is called bɔbɔbɩrɩ.

There is at times some variation between the how the language is spoken in Burkina Faso and how it is spoken in Mali. To serve both communities, this dictionary gives both versions of a word or phrase if there is a difference. As sociolinguistic research has shown that it is the Burkina Faso variant that is best understood by most speakers, it is this variant that is mentioned first in an entry, followed by the Mali variant. Also, the language of Burkina Faso is used in literacy and Bible translation. The New Testament in Konabéré was published in January 2020.

The purpose of this lexicon is first and foremost to help the Kʋnakʋma people write their mother tongue. It will serve as a reference work for speakers on spelling. In addition, it will serve the standardization of this language. Together with descripton of the phonology (see....) and the spelling guide (published in 2017), it contributes to the recognition of this language as a national language in both countries.

This dictionary contains approximately 7500 words and expressions (Konabéré - French) and 4950 reverse entries (French - Konabéré). However, it represents only a part of all the words and expressions used in Konabéré. Please feel free to send us your comments, questions and additions via the Contact Us page.