The Dangbe language, also ''Dangbe'' or ''Adaŋgbi'', is a
Kwa language
The Kwa languages, often specified as New Kwa, are a proposed but as-yet-undemonstrated family of languages spoken in the south-eastern part of Ivory Coast, across southern Ghana, and in central Togo. The name was introduced 1895 by Gottlob Kra ...
spoken in south-eastern
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
by the Dangbe People ''(Dangbeli)''. The Dangbeli are part of the larger
Ga-Dangbe ethnic group. Klogbi is a variant, spoken by the
Kloli (Klo or Krobo People).
Kropp Dakubu (1987) is the most thorough grammar of the language.
Classification
Dangme is a
Kwa language
The Kwa languages, often specified as New Kwa, are a proposed but as-yet-undemonstrated family of languages spoken in the south-eastern part of Ivory Coast, across southern Ghana, and in central Togo. The name was introduced 1895 by Gottlob Kra ...
, part of the
Niger–Congo family. It is closely related to
Ga, and together they form the
Ga–Dangme branch within Kwa.
Geographic distribution
Dangme is spoken in
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
by over 800,000 people as of 2004.
It is the aboriginal language spoken in Ghana,
Togo
Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...
,
Benin
Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north ...
by the people of Ada, Osudoku, Manya Krobo, Yilo Krobo, Shai, Ningo, Prampram and Kpone. Dangme is partly mutually intelligible with Ga, and, to a lesser extent, Ewe. Nevertheless, many Dangme people also speak or understand at least one of these languages, painting the relationship as asymmetric. Dangme as a school subject is taught in the Dangme areas.
The land of these related tribes stretched from the Greater Accra Region to the Eastern Region of Ghana, northward to the
Akwapim hills and has all the Dangmeland on the east and the
Ga to the west of it. Bawaleshi, which is about 4.8 kilometers southwest of Dodowa, is the last Dangme town which is close to the
Akwapim and the Ga boundaries.
There are six main dialects which coincide with political units. The coastal dialects are Ada, Ningo and Prampram (Gbugbla). The inland dialects are Shai (Sɛ), Krobo (Klo) and Osudoku.
Phonology
Consonants
* are
bilabial
In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a labial consonant articulated with both lips.
Frequency
Bilabial consonants are very common across languages. Only around 0.7% of the world's languages lack bilabial consonants altogether, including Tlingi ...
, whereas are
labiodental
In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants Place of articulation, articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
Labiodental consonants in the IPA
The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
The IPA c ...
.
* are singly articulated plosives, are affricates (stops with a strong fricative release), whereas are
doubly articulated
Doubly articulated consonants are consonants with two simultaneous primary places of articulation of the same manner (both plosive, or both nasal, etc.). They are a subset of co-articulated consonants. They are to be distinguished from co-articul ...
plosives.
* varies between a lateral approximant and a central trill .
* has a fricative allophone .
Vowels
![Dangme vowel chart](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Dangme_vowel_chart.svg)
Adangme has 7 oral vowels and 5 nasal vowels.
* The front vowels are unrounded, whereas the back vowels are rounded.
* are slightly more open than .
* are close-mid . They do not have nasal counterparts.
* are open-mid , whereas are somewhat lower (near-open) .
* The nasal is open front , whereas the oral is slightly retracted (near-front) .
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 .
Writing system
Adangme is written in the
Latin script
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
. Tones and nasalisation are not normally written.
Orthographic and phonemic correspondences include the following:
* j -
* ng -
* ngm -
* ny -
* ts -
* y -
* ɛ -
* ɔ -
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
External links
My First GaDangme Dictionarykasahorow
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Dangme*
Lessons in Wikiversity
Listen to a sample of Adangbe from Global Recordings NetworkListen to a sample of Adangme from Global Recordings Network
{{Authority control
Languages of Ghana
Ga–Dangme languages