Ewe language

Ewe (native name Ɛ̀ʋɛ̀gbè, ) is a Niger-Congo language spoken in Ghana, Togo and Benin by approximately five million people. Ewe is part of a cluster of related languages commonly called Gbe, stretching from eastern Ghana to western Nigeria. Other Gbe languages include Fon and Aja. Like other Gbe languages, Ewe is a tone language.

The German Africanist Diedrich Hermann Westermann published many dictionaries and grammars of Ewe and several other Gbe languages. Other linguists who have worked on Ewe and closely related languages include Gilbert Ansre (tone, syntax), Herbert Stahlke (morphology, tone), Nick Clements (tone, syntax), Roberto Pazzi (anthropology, lexicography), Felix K. Ameka (semantics, cognitive linguistics), Alan Stewart Duthie (semantics, phonetics), Hounkpati B. Capo (phonology, phonetics), Enoch Aboh (syntax), and Chris Collins (syntax).

Sounds

Consonants

Glottal

k͡p

mi 'you', and the second person singular pronoun wò 'you' is marked low to distinguish it from the third person plural pronoun wo 'they/them'

ekpɔ wò — 'he saw you'
ekpɔ wo — 'he saw them'

Grammar

Ewe is a Subject Verb Object language. The possessor precedes the head noun. Adjectives, numerals, demonstratives and relative clauses follow the head noun.

Ewe has a rich system of serial verb constructions (see Ansre 1961).

Status

Ewe is a national language in Togo and Ghana.

References

Ansre, Gilbert (1961) The Tonal Structure of Ewe. MA Thesis, Kennedy School of Missions of Hartford Seminary Foundation.
Ameka, Felix Kofi (2001) 'Ewe'. In Garry and Rubino (eds.), Fact About the World's Languages: An Encyclopedia of the World's Major Languages, Past and Present, 207-213. New York/Dublin: The H.W. Wilson Company.
Collins, Chris. 1993. Topics in Ewe Syntax. Doctoral Dissertation, MIT.
Capo, Hounkpati B.C. (1991) A Comparative Phonology of Gbe, Publications in African Languages and Linguistics, 14. Berlin/New York: Foris Publications & Garome, Bénin: Labo Gbe (Int).
Pasch, Helma (1995) Kurzgrammatik des Ewe Köln: Köppe.
Westermann, Diedrich Hermann (1930) A Study of the Ewe Language London: Oxford University Press.