Goulsse is a way to write the Gur languages of West Africa developed by Wenitte Apiou and Babaguioue Micareme Akouabou in 2022. Born in Burkina Faso to a Kassena father and a Mossi mother, Apiou was a student of Computer Science at Stanford University when he contacted Babaguioue, also a Burkinabè Kassena, and a doctoral candidate in Linguistics with a research focus on the Kassena language at the University of Ouagadougou.
Goulsse draws inspiration from ancient writing systems used in the Volta region where Gur languages are spoken, and represents the community's idea of how these writing systems may have further evolved if Gur peoples had never been colonized.
The Gur languages belong to the Atlantic-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. They are spoken in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Togo and Nigeria.
In 2023, the Goulsse alphabet was adopted as the official alphabet for Futurlang, a constructed language designed by Wenitte Apiou for a future where humans are seamlessly integrated with machines [source]. More details of Futurlang.
Download an alphabet chart for Goulsse (Excel)
Download a font for Goulsse
Ba loge nɔɔna maama se ba taa ye bedwe mo ba ŋwea de ba chega seini, ye fefeo teira kɔtaa. Wɛ pɛ ba swa de boboŋa mo se ba taa ye nubiu daane ye ba jege da ŋwaŋa.
ninsaalbã fãa sã n doge, ned fãa so a menga, ned pa rogd n yaa yamb ye, nebã fãa zema taab b yel-segdɩ la b burkĩndlem wɛɛngẽ. nebã fãa tara yam la tagsgo, ned fãa togame n vɩɩnd ne a to saam-biir pʊgẽ.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Information about the Gur languages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gur_languages
Constructed scripts for: Ainu | Arabic | Chinese languages | Dutch | English | Hawaiian | Hungarian | Japanese | Korean | Lingala | Malay & Indonesian | Persian | Tagalog / Filipino | Russian | Sanskrit | Spanish | Taino | Turkish | Vietnamese | Welsh | Other natural languages | Colour-based scripts | Tactile scripts | Phonetic/universal scripts | Constructed scripts for constructed languages | Adaptations of existing alphabets | Fictional alphabets | Magical alphabets | A-Z index | How to submit a constructed script
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