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 Kr ...

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

, 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

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 nort ...

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 Tli ...

, whereas are

labiodental In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants 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 chart shades out ''labio ...

. * are singly articulated plosives, are affricates (stops with a strong fricative release), whereas are doubly articulated plosives. * varies between a lateral approximant and a central trill . * has a fricative allophone .

Vowels

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 I ...

. 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 Dictionary
kasahorow
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Dangme
* Lessons in Wikiversity
Listen to a sample of Adangbe from Global Recordings Network

Listen to a sample of Adangme from Global Recordings Network
{{Authority control Languages of Ghana Ga–Dangme languages