Dioula / English / French Dictionary
Dioula / anglais / français dictionnaire
julakan / angilɛkan / faransɛkan daɲɛgafe
This Dioula / English / French Dictionary contains 6,000 word pairs in each language along with the part of speech. It is derived from our Words R Us system, a derivative of WordNet. WordNet can be viewed as both a combination of dictionary and thesaurus.
As the Bible translation was only recently completed in Dioula (1997 NT and 2013 OT), this dictionary represents an early effort to provide literacy materials for the Dioula people.
Dioula is spoken by approximately 12 million people, 3 million of them live in Burkina Faso, the rest in the neighboring countries. For most speakers in southwest Burkina Faso, the Dioula language is not their mother tongue, but is spoken readily in their daily life with people of other ethnic groups. It is very important as a trade language.
Some people describe Dioula as a simpler language or trade language of Bambara while others say that Dioula is related to Bambara as American English is related to British English. Some consider Dioula, Bambara and Malinke as the same language, implying that Dioula describes the same language in Côte d’Ivoire and in Burkina Faso and that Bambara and Malinke are names for the same language used in Mali. But, linguists consider each one as a distinct language, clearly identified as three languages of the Mandé family.
Proceeds from the sale of this dictionary will go to support literacy programs in Burkina Faso. Please consider purchasing several copies and designate that they go to the pastors in the villages there. We will see that they get delivered.
This dictionary is extracted from our Words R Us system which is available on line at www.wordsrus.info.
