Viemo language

Viemo, also known as Vige, Vigué, Vigye, is a language of Burkina Faso. Vigué is the term for the ethniciity while Viemo is the name of the language. It may be related at a higher level to the Gur language family, but its exact affiliation within Niger–Congo languages is not yet established .^[2] It is spoken in Karangasso-Vigué Department and in neighbouring provinces.^[3]

Viemo
Native to	Burkina Faso
Native speakers	(8,000 cited 1995)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo? Savannas? Gur? Viemo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	vig
Glottolog	viem1243

The central village, said to be the origin of other villages, is Karangasso-Vigué, which is distinct from Karangasso-Sembla, an important village of Sembla people (speakers of Seenku language) west of Bobo Dioulasso. Other important ethnic Vigué villages are Klesso, Dérégouan, and Dan. Speakers are called Vigué by Dyula speakers.^[4]

Phonology

Consonants^[5]

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labiovelar
Plosive	p b	t d	c ɟ	k	kp gb
Fricative	f v	s		x
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋʷ
Approximant	w	l	j

Vowels^[5]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː ĩ ĩː		u uː ũ ũː
Mid-high	e eː		o oː
Mid-low	ɛ ɛː ɛ̃ ɛ̃ː		ɔ ɔː ɔ̃ ɔ̃ː
Low		a aː ã ãː

Viemo also has three tones;^[5] high, mid, and low.

References

1. Viemo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Güldemann, Tom (2018). "Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa". In Güldemann, Tom (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of Africa. The World of Linguistics series. Vol. 11. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 58–444. doi:10.1515/9783110421668-002. ISBN 978-3-11-042606-9.
3. "Burkina Faso". Ethnologue, 22nd edition. Retrieved 2019-09-25.
4. Berthelette, John. 2002. Sociolinguistic survey report for the Vigué (Viemo) language. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-009. PDF,
5. Prost, André (1979). "Le Viemo: langue des Vievɔ dits Viguié". Documents Linguistiques (23). Publications de Département de Linguistique Générale et Linguistique Africaine de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaine de l'Université de Dakar.