There are some important conventional and cultural aspects in punctuation. Quotation marks, for example, are different in French, English and German: « », “ ”, and„ ” respectively. Owing to these differences, languages may be identified
from the punctuation marks being used. Works on the writing of the Moore language such as the Institut National d’alphabétisation(2003), Dictionnaire de poche bilingue; Jules Kinda (2003), Lexique Français-Mooré; the Souscommission nationale du Moore (1997), Dictionnaire orthographique du Mooré; Rev. Fr. Alexandre (1953), La langue Möre, and Rev. John F. Hall (1932-48), Dictionary and Practical Notes Mossi-English Languages, to cite but a few, are preoccupied with the spelling of words with no heed at all to punctuation. Considering the importance of punctuation in the full understanding of written language and the culture-dependent nature of punctuation in written language, this paper aims at making culturally-based propositions as regards punctuation in written Moore language by examining the literature (a corpus of around 40 books) produced in that language.
Punctuation, Moore, Culture, tradition, literature