Burkina Faso is a multilingual country. The Burkinabè government officially recognizes 70 indegenous languages spoken in the country, with only three (Mooré, Dioula, and Fulfulde) recognized as national languages. The country's name was taken from words in Mooré and Dioula, with ‘Burkina’ meaning ‘man of integrity’ in Mooré and ‘Faso’ meaning ‘homeland’ in Dioula. Burkina Faso thus means “The land of upright men.” The demonym Burkinabè for a person from Burkina Faso borrows the suffix “bè”, meaning person, from the Fulfulde language. 

The Mooré language is the language of the Mossi people and the most widely spoken indegenous language in Burkina Faso. It is spoken by over  53% of the population, mainly in the central region around the capital, Ouagadougou. Mooré is also spoken in neighboring Cote D’ivoire, Mali, Niger, Togo, Ghana, and Benin. 

In the west, Mandé languages are widely spoken, the most predominant being Dioula (mutually intelligible with Mali’s Bambara) and others including Bobo, Samo, and Marka. Dioula is an important West African trade language and one of the most widely spoken languages of Western Africa. 

The Fulani language, fulfulde, is widespread throughout all of Western Africa and is the lingua franca in many parts of Burkina Faso. It is widely spoken in the north and east of the country as a first language. 

The Gourmanché language is spoken in the east, while the Bissa language is spoken in the south. Burkina Sign Language is used for deaf education. Other important minority languages include Bwamu, Dagara, and Gurunsi languages. 

Wenitte Apiou

CEO

Mandla Inc.