Overview
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Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

600

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Recent Resources

No resources

Community Members

    No members

Revitalization Programs

No programs

Discussion Forum

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Language Information By Source

Field Report on Jalkunan (Personal Communication)
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Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

600

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

20

Semi-speakers

100

Child speakers

100

Young adult speakers

100

Older adult speakers

300

Elder Speakers

100

Ethnic Population

1000-1200

Non-monolingual speakers

Nearly all speakers speak Jula. Significant numbers speak Fulfulde, Samo, or Senoufo. Very few speakers of French.

More about speakers

All L2 speakers are non-Jalkunan women who have intermarried into the tribe. There are about 200 ethnic Jalkunan in Côte d’Ivoire, but it is uncertain how many of them are speakers. (Personal fieldwork, 2012)

Year of info

2012

Location and Context

Countries

Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire

Coordinates

10.577291, -5.355762

Location description

"Berthelette & Berthelette (2001): Province of Leraba and in the department of Loumana, an area approximately 50 km west of Banfora. Most speakers live in Blédougou and Sobara, though the Blé of Sobara shifted to using Senoufo as their language. Unconfirmed reports of speakers living in villages between Blédougou and the border of Côte d’Ivoire. Personal fieldwork (2012): Fewer than 10 elderly speakers in Sobara. Unconfirmed reports of upwards of 200 ethnic Jalkunan in Côte d’Ivoire. It is unknown how many of them are speakers."

Government support

None

Institutional support

None

Speakers’s attitudes

Mixed/positive

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

None

Other writing systems

"Berthelette & Berthelette (2001): Province of Leraba and in the department of Loumana, an area approximately 50 km west of Banfora. Most speakers live in Blédougou and Sobara, though the Blé of Sobara shifted to using Senoufo as their language. Unconfirmed reports of speakers living in villages between Blédougou and the border of Côte d’Ivoire. Personal fieldwork (2012): Fewer than 10 elderly speakers in Sobara. Unconfirmed reports of upwards of 200 ethnic Jalkunan in Côte d’Ivoire. It is unknown how many of them are speakers."

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

Jula, Fulfulde, Samo, Senoufo, French

Domains of other languages

French and Jula are used in education.

More on context

"Personal fieldwork (2012): In the ten interviews I conducted, speakers reported highly positive attitudes towards the language. Yet this does not seem to be the full picture. One such interviewee eventually became my main informant. He said that he was very proud of his ethnicity and language and prouder still to be sharing his knowledge with a linguist. On one of our trips into the city, I found this same man lying about his ethnicity by telling others that he is Senoufo. When confronted, he admitted that he prefers not to mention his Jalkunan identity outside the village. At present, the prevalence of this behavior is unknown, but certainly it has made me think twice about any reports of positive feelings."

Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

200-500

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

1992

Location and Context

Countries

Burkina Faso

Coordinates

No data

Location description

"Village of Blé-dougou, west of Banfora, near the town of Sindou."

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

"Village of Blé-dougou, west of Banfora, near the town of Sindou."

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

500

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

800-1,000

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

Data for the number of native speakers and for the ethnic population comes from SIL (1995).

Year of info

2009

Location and Context

Countries

Burkina Faso;

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Threatened

Native Speakers Worldwide

~500

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

Everyone under 40

More about speakers

"According to the Blé, there are approximately 500 speakers of Blé, and 300 Blé who speak Jula and Senoufo. "

Year of info

2001

Location and Context

Countries

Burkina Faso

Coordinates

10.574560, -5.352453

Location description

"The Blé are located in the province of Leraba and in the department of Loumana, an area approximately 50 km west of Banfora (see figure 1.2.1). Most of the Blé live in Blédougou and Sobara, though the Blé of Sobara shifted to using Senoufo as their language. According to their traditions, their land area is quite large, extending southwest to the Côte d'Ivoire border. They report Blé living in the villages between Blédougou and the border, although we have not confirmed this."

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

Positive

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

"The Blé are located in the province of Leraba and in the department of Loumana, an area approximately 50 km west of Banfora (see figure 1.2.1). Most of the Blé live in Blédougou and Sobara, though the Blé of Sobara shifted to using Senoufo as their language. According to their traditions, their land area is quite large, extending southwest to the Côte d'Ivoire border. They report Blé living in the villages between Blédougou and the border, although we have not confirmed this."

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

Jula, French, Natioro, Noumou, Tyurama, Senoufo, Cerma

Domains of other languages

School, market, government, with neighboring ethnic groups

More on context

"Many of the Blé young people enroll in the school, and as a result, a number of teenage and older Blé are literate in Jula. Those enrolled in the CFJA [local school] are also taught very basic French... Jula is the language used at the market and with many neighbors... The Blé assert that some people of other ethnic groups learn Blé, and that the Blé learn other neighboring languages, in particular Natioro and Noumou. They also mentioned that some Blé speak Tyurama, Senoufo, and Cerma. However, they state that they prefer to communicate with their neighbors in Jula... Blé youth in particular (ages 12–25) show a level in Jula comparable to that of mother tongue speakers... The attitude of the Blé towards their language seems to be two-sided. On the one hand, Blé adults are proud of their language and do not want to see it die out... On the other hand... they seem proud of the fact that everyone under age 40 is literate in Jula."

Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

500

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Media Resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

Filter By

No programs

  1. Endangered Languages Catalogue Project. Compiled by research teams at University of Hawai'i Mānoa and Institute for Language Information and Technology (LINGUIST List) at Eastern Michigan University
    2012. "Endangered Languages Catalogue Project. Compiled By Research Teams At University of Hawai'i Mānoa and Institute For Language Information and Technology (LINGUIST List) At Eastern Michigan University."
  2. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition (2009)
    Lewis, M. Paul (ed.). 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16 edn. http://www.ethnologue.com/home.asp. (15 February, 2011.)
    http://www.ethnologue.com/
  3. World Oral Literature Project
    "World Oral Literature Project." Online: http://www.oralliterature.org.
    http://www.oralliterature.org
  4. Sociolinguistic survey report for the Blé language
    Carol Berthelette and John Berthelette. 2001. "Sociolinguistic Survey Report For the Blé Language." 23. SIL International. Online: http://www.sil.org/silesr/2001/001/Ble.pdf.
    http://www.sil.org/silesr/2001/001/Ble.pdf
  5. A survey on language death in Africa
    Gabriele Sommer. 1992. "A Survey On Language Death in Africa." In Language death: factual and theoretical explorations with special reference to East Africa, edited by Matthias Brenzinger. 402. Mouton de Gruyter.
  6. Field Report on Jalkunan (Personal Communication)
    Vu Truong. 2012. "Field Report On Jalkunan (Personal Communication)."