Dompo is an endangered language of
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 ...
. Speakers are shifting to
Nafaanra. It is spoken adjacent to the main town of the Nafaanra people, namely
Banda,
Brong-Ahafo Region, Ghana. Blench (2015) reports that it is spoken by 10 households.
Classification
Dompo has numerous parallels with the
Gonja language
The Gonja language, properly called Ngbanya or Ngbanyito, is a North Guang language spoken by an estimated 230,000 people, almost all of whom are of the Gonja ethnic group of northern Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the ...
, but according to Blench (1999) does not appear to be directly related to it. Blench suggests three possibilities:
#it is a Gonja dialect that has come under heavy external influence;
#it is a related
Guang language
The Guan languages are languages of the Kwa language family spoken by the Guan people in Ghana and Togo:
*South Guan: Efutu, Cherepon, Gua, Larteh
Larteh is a language of southeastern Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), official ...
that has been relexified, largely from Gonja;
#it is of some other source, and relexified, largely from Gonja.
None of the Dompo names for wild plants or animals resemble Gonja, suggesting that the last is the most likely. Some Dompo animal names show resemblances with
Mpra.
[Blench, Roger (2007) ]
Recovering data on Mpra [=Mpre] a possible language isolate in North-Central Ghana
'
However, Gueldemann (2018) finds the Guang/Gonja connection to be overwhelming:
References
*Blench, Roger. 1999.
Recent Field Work in Ghana: Report on Dompo and a note on Mpre'.
*Blench, Roger. 2015.
The Dompo language of Central Ghana and its affinities'.
Guang languages
Languages of Ghana
Unclassified languages of Africa
Endangered unclassified languages
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