Dangme language
| Adangme | |
|---|---|
| Region | South-eastern Ghana, east of Accra |
Native speakers | 800,000 (SIL 2004) |
| Latin alphabet (Adangme variant) | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Ghana |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | ada |
| ISO 639-3 | ada |
Adangme (also called Dangme), is a Kwa language spoken in south-eastern Ghana by 800,000 people.
Some sources list Adangbe as another name for the same language whereas Ethnologue lists it as a different language in the Left bank branch of the Kwa family, and it has a separate ISO 639-3 code of 'adq'.
Classification
Adangme is a Kwa language, part of the Niger-Congo family. It is very closely related to Ga, and together they form the Ga-Dangme branch within Kwa.
Geographic distribution
Adangme is spoken in Ghana by 800,000 people.
There are six main dialects which coincide with political divisions. The coastal dialects are Ada, Ningo and Prampram (Gbugbla). The inland dialects are Shai (Sɛ), Krobo (Klo) and Osudoku.
Phonology
Consonants
- /l/ has allophones [l] and [r]
- /j/ has an allophone [ʒ]
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Alveolar | Postalveolar / palatal |
Velar | Labial-velar | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives & affricates |
p | b | t | d | tʃ | dʒ | k | ɡ | kp | ɡb | |||
| Nasals | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ŋm | ||||||||
| Fricatives | f | v | s | z | |||||||||
| Approximants | l | j | w | ||||||||||
Vowels
Adangme has 7 oral vowels and 5 nasal vowels.
| Monophthongs | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
| Monophthongs | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | ĩ | ũ | |
| Close-mid | |||
| Open-mid | ɛ̃ | ɔ̃ | |
| Open | ã |
Tones
Adangme has three tones: high, mid and low. Like many West African languages, it has tone terracing.
Phonotactics
The possible syllable structures are V, CV, or CCV where the second consonant is /l/.
Writing system
Adangme is written with a form of the Latin alphabet. Tones and nasalisation are not normally written.
Orthographic and phonemic correspondences include the following:
- j - /dʒ/
- ng - /ŋ/
- ngm - /ŋm/
- ny - /ɲ/
- ts - /tʃ/
- y - /j/
- ɛ - /ɛ/
- ɔ - /ɔ/
References
- M. E. Kropp Dakubu, ed. (1977). West African Language Data Sheets Vol 1. West African Linguistic Society.
- M. E. Kropp Dakubu, ed. (1988). The Languages of Ghana. London: Kegan Paul International for the International African Institute. ISBN 0-7103-0210-X.
External links
Lessons in Wikiversity == http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Dangme ==