Dangme language

The Dangme language, also Adangme, Dangbe or Adaŋgbi, is a Kwa language spoken in south-eastern Ghana by the Dangme people (Dangmeli). They are part of the larger Ga-Dangme 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

Adangme is a Kwa language, part of the Niger–Congo family. It is closely related to Ga, and together they form the Ga–Dangme branch within Kwa.

Geographic distribution

Adangme is spoken in Ghana by over 800,000 people as of 2004.

It is the aboriginal language spoken in Ghana, Togo, and Benin by the people of Ada, Osudoku, Manya Krobo, Yilo Krobo, Shai, Ningo, Prampram and Kpone. Adangme is partly mutually intelligible with Ga, and, to a lesser extent, Ewe. Nevertheless, many Adangme people also speak or understand at least one of these languages, painting the relationship as asymmetric. Adangme as a school subject is taught in the Adangme 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 Adangmeland on the east and the Ga to the west of it. Bawaleshi, which is about 4.8 kilometers southwest of Dodowa, is the last Adangme 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

Consonant phonemesTemplate:Sfnp

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial-velar
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Fricative	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Approximant			Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link

• are bilabial, whereas are labiodental.
• are singly articulated plosives, are affricates (stops with a strong fricative release), whereas are doubly articulated plosives.
• varies between a lateral approximant Template:IPAblink and a central trill Template:IPAblink.
• has a fricative allophone Template:IPAblink.

Vowels

File:Dangme vowel chart.svg

Monophthongs of Dangme, from Template:Harvcoltxt

Dangme has 7 oral vowels and 5 nasal vowels.Template:Sfnp

	Front		Back
	oral	nasal	oral	nasal
Close	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Close-mid	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Open-mid	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Open	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link

• The front vowels are unrounded, whereas the back vowels are rounded.Template:Sfnp
• are slightly more open than .Template:Sfnp
• are close-mid . They do not have nasal counterparts.Template:Sfnp
• are open-mid , whereas are somewhat lower (near-open) .Template:Sfnp
• The nasal is open front Template:IPAblink, whereas the oral is slightly retracted (near-front) Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp

Tones

Dangme 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

Dangme is written in the Latin script, with the addition of the letters ɛ, ɔ, and ŋ. Tones are not normally written.

Orthographic and phonemic correspondences include the following:

• j -
• ŋ -
• ŋm -
• ny -
• ts -
• y -
• ɛ -
• ɔ -

Sample text

The following text is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

External links

• My First GaDangme Dictionary kasahorow
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Dangme
• Lessons in Wikiversity
• Listen to a sample of Dangme from Global Recordings Network
• Listen to a sample of Dangme from Global Recordings Network