Côte d’Ivoire

Barala is a language or dialect spoken in the area surrounding Booko in Northwest Côte d'Ivoire on the border with Guinea. In 2022 there are 65 villages in Côte d'Ivoire that speak Barala and 28 in Guinea, where the language and the people are called Gbekan. The principle Barala village in Côte d'Ivoire is Booko and in Guinea the largest Barala (Gbekan) village is Gbekssoba. By road, Booko and Gbekssoba are about 32 kilometers distance from one another. Sometimes Barala is considered to be a dialect of Mahou, but the Barala speakers that I have spoken with consider it to be more similar to Wojenaka. The Barala villages are between Mahou villages to the south and Wojenaka villages to the north.