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Ewe language

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Ewe (native name: Eʋegbe) is a Kwa language spoken in Ghana and Togo by approximately three 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 tonal language.

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

Sounds

Consonants

Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Labial-velar Glottal
Plosive p b t d ɖ k ɡ 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.

External links



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