Adangme language

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]

Consonant phonemes

	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

• (1977). West African Language Data Sheets Vol 1. West African Linguistic Society.
• (1988). The Languages of Ghana. London: Kegan Paul International for the International African Institute. ISBN 0-7103-0210-X.

External links

• Ethnologue entry
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Dangme