<P> Ivory Coast (French: Côte d'Ivoire) is a multilingual country with an estimated 78 languages currently spoken . </P> <P> The official language, French, was introduced during the colonial period . This language is taught in schools and serves as a lingua franca in the country . </P> <P> The seventy or so indigenous languages fall into five main branches of the Niger--Congo family . In the southeastern quadrant are Kwa languages, some such as Baoulé and Anyin (2--3 million and 1 million speakers) part of a dialect continuum with Ashante in Ghana, others such as Attié (half a million) more divergent . Baoulé is spoken east of Lake Kossou and at the capital Yamoussoukro, and Anyi along the Ghanaian border . In the southwestern quadrant are Kru languages, such as Bete and We (Gure / Wobe), half a million apiece, and Dida (a quarter million), related to the languages of Liberia . In the northwest, along the Guinean border and across to Lake Kossou in the center of the country, are Mande languages, such as Dan (1 million speakers) and Guro (half a million, on the lake). The lake and the Bandama River divide the Kwa east of the country from the Kru and Mande west . Across the center north are various Senufo languages, such as Senari (1 million speakers). In the northeast corner, surrounding Comoé National Park, are a quarter million speakers each of Kulango, the Gur language Lobi, and the Mande language Jula (French: Dioula), which is a lingua franca of neighboring Burkina Faso . </P> <P> There are also three million or so speakers of immigrant languages, mostly from neighboring countries and above all from Burkina Faso . Ethnic tensions in the north between immigrant and native Ivoirians, as well as between the Mande / Senoufo north and the Kru / Kwa south, were a large factor in the Ivorian civil wars . </P>

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