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.
16-690: 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. 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
32-474: A blɔ fa mi. A bɔ mɛ kɛ nɔ́ se kɔmi kɛ he nule juɛmi, nɛ e hia kaa nɔ fɛɛ nɔ nɛ e na nyɛmi suɔmi kɛ ha nɔ tsuaa nɔ. Kwa languages 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 Kwa family belongs to the Niger-Congo phylum. The name
48-705: 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
64-553: Is a resource for irrigation and fish farming . The depth of the river is about 45 feet (14 m) below Lake Volta. The Volta River is crossed by the Adome Bridge just below the Akosombo Dam. The Akwamu people who once built a kingdom in both east and west banks of the river spanning present day Ghana , Togo and Benin call it Firaw . They have a deity dedicated to the river named Mfodwo. The Volta River
80-552: Is sometimes called "New Kwa". Sample basic vocabulary of Kwa and related languages from Dumestre (1971) and other sources: Comparison of numerals in individual languages: Volta River The Volta River ( Akan : Asuo Firaw , Ewe : Amuga ) is the main river system in the West African country of Ghana . It flows south into Ghana from the Bobo-Dioulasso highlands of Burkina Faso . The main parts of
96-659: 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. Dangme has 7 oral vowels and 5 nasal vowels. Dangme has three tones: high, mid and low. Like many West African languages, it has tone terracing . The possible syllable structures are V, CV, or CCV where
112-581: The Yoruboid and Igboid languages belonged in Benue–Congo rather than in Kwa. Stewart (1989) removed Kru, Ijaw, and Volta–Niger (East Kwa), but kept the Ghana–Togo Mountain and Lagoon languages, as well as adding a few obscure, newly described languages. Stewart's classification is the basis of more recent conceptions. To disambiguate this from Greenberg's influential classification, the reduced family
128-621: The Ka/Na-Togo and Gbe languages are called Left bank because they are spoken to the east of the Volta River . The word 'Kwa' was used by Gottlob Krause in 1885 for the Akan (or perhaps Tano ), Gã, and Gbe languages, which have kwa or kua as their word for 'human being'. Since then the proposal has been dramatically expanded, only to revert to something approaching its initial conception. In 1952 Westermann and Bryan expanded Kwa to
144-481: The Na-Togo and Ka-Togo languages have been placed into separate branches of Kwa. See the infobox at right for the resulting branches. Ethnologue divides the Kwa languages into two broad geographical groupings: Nyo and Left bank , but this is not a genealogical classification. The Nyo group collapses Stewart's Potou–Tano and Ga–Dangme branches and also includes the ungrouped languages of southern Ivory Coast, while
160-473: The east. The Volta River has been dammed at Akosombo for generating hydroelectricity . The reservoir named Lake Volta stretches from Akosombo Dam in the south to the northern part of the country, and is the largest man-made reservoir by area in the world. The country of Burkina Faso was formerly called Upper Volta , after the river. Lake Volta is a reservoir impounded by the Akosombo Dam on
176-472: The following major branches, which historical-comparative analysis supports as valid groups: The Lagoon languages of southern Ivory Coast are not particularly close to any of these, nor to each other, so they are left ungrouped: An Esuma language , extinct ca. 1800, remains unclassified. Since Stewart, Ega has been tentatively removed, the Gbe languages reassigned to Volta–Niger , and Apro added. Some of
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#1732773330017192-563: The lower Volta River in southern Ghana. It is one of the largest reservoirs in the world. It extends from the Akosombo Dam in southeastern Ghana to the town of Yapei in the Central Gonja District , Northern Region of Ghana , some 400 kilometres (250 mi) to the north. The dam's power plant generates electricity for the Volta River Authority , and the reservoir also provides water transport routes. It
208-937: The river are the Black Volta , the White Volta , and the Red Volta . In the northwest, the Black Volta forms the international borders between the Ivory Coast , Ghana, and Burkina Faso. The Volta flows southward along the Akwapim-Togoland highlands, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean at the Gulf of Guinea at Ada Foah . One of its smaller tributaries, the Oti River, enters Ghana from Togo in
224-523: The second consonant is /l/ . 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: The following text is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . Adesahi tsuo ɔ, a bɔ mɛ nɛ nɔ fɛɛ nɔ e ye e he, nɛ nɔ tsuaa nɔsɔ ngɛ odehe si himi kɛ he blɔhi
240-677: The various Lagoon languages of southern Ivory Coast and to what are now called the Volta–Niger languages of southern Nigeria. Greenberg (1963) added the Kru languages of Liberia, the Ghana–Togo Mountain languages which Westermann and Bryan had specifically excluded, and Ijaw of the Niger delta; West Kwa included the languages from Liberia to Dahomey (Republic of Benin), and East Kwa the languages of Nigeria. Bennett & Sterk (1977) proposed that
256-576: Was introduced in 1895 by Gottlob Krause and derives from the word for 'people' ( Kwa ) in many of these languages, as illustrated by Akan names . This branch consists of around 50 different languages spoken by about 25 million people. Some of the largest Kwa languages are Ewe , Akan and Baule . See the box at right for a current classification. The various clusters of languages included in Kwa are at best distantly related, and it has not been demonstrated that they are closer to each other than to neighboring Niger–Congo languages. Stewart distinguished
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