Samo language (Burkina)
The San is now spoken by about 150,000 to 200,000 speakers in the north-western Burkina Faso to the border with Mali. The distribution area largely corresponds to the provinces Sourou and Nayala. In addition to the language name Samo can be found in the literature and San Sane, which denote the two major dialects North and South Samo. Despite its similar name samogo the Samo is not related to the Saomogo - Dzun in which it is a Western Mandesprache. The largest settlements in Samo - area are the provincial capitals Toma and Tougan. In the immediate vicinity of the Samo are belonging to the West -Mande Marka Dafing and the Gur Dogon, Lyele, Nuni, Mòoré, Co and Bwamu.
When Samo is an east- Mande language. The closest relatives are the Bissa, which is spoken in southeastern Burkina Faso, and the Boko / Busa, whose distribution area lies on the border between Nigeria and Benin.
Dialectal outline
The current state of research, the dialectal division of Samo is poorly understood. Some authors of two other of three main dialects from. There are also different names for the individual sub- dialects. The North Samo ( in the region around Tougan ) is referred to in the literature as the San and South Samo ( in the region around Toma ) as Sane. Platiel (1974 ) distinguishes three main dialects and refers to them as: Maka, Maya and Matya, where Maka the Southern Samo and Maya and Matya together correspond to the Northern Samo. The overall conclusion is that the Southern Samo linguistically much more homogeneous than the North Samo. The linguistic differences between the two main varieties may be a mutual understanding to a limited extent.
Sociolinguistic situation
The influence of Djula and Moore are limited for the Northern Samo on the larger centers Tougan, Toeni and Kassoum and the outer limits of the language area. The Moore is gaining in influence, especially in the eastern regions of North Samo. In the area of South Samo, the influence of neighboring languages should be considered as rather low. The Samo itself is meted out by the speakers a great prestige, it is very vital. However, the multilingualism increases because it is increasingly viewed as a socio- economic necessity.
Documentation of the language
Language descriptions of Samo so far been few. For the Northern Samo is up today neither a grammatical description nor a dictionary. The Southern Samo was represented by Platiel in a grammatical description. Further reading information on Samo has box wood ( 1988) summarized in his Mandebibliographie.