Dagaare language

Last updated

Dagaare
Native to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Cameroon
Ethnicity Dagaaba people
Native speakers
(1.3 million cited 1999–2021) [1]
Niger–Congo?
Dialects
  • Lober
  • Nura
  • Wule
Latin (Dagaare alphabet)
Dagaare Braille
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Variously:
dga   Southern Dagaare
dgd   Dagaari Dioula
dgi   Northern Dagara
Glottolog sout2789   Central Dagaare
daga1272   Dagaari Dioula
nort2780   Northern Dagara
Languages of Burkina Faso.png
Majority areas of Northern Dagara speakers, in red, on a map of Burkina Faso.

Dagaare is the language of the Dagaaba people of Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast. It has been described as a dialect continuum that also includes Waale and Birifor. Dagaare language varies in dialect stemming from other family languages including: Dagbane, Waale, Mabia, Gurene, Mampruli, Kusaal, Buli, Niger-Congo, and many other sub languages resulting in around 1.3 million Dagaare speakers. [1] Throughout the regions of native Dagaare speakers the dialect comes from Northern, Central, Western, and Southern areas referring to the language differently. Burkina Faso refers to Dagaare as Dagara and Birifor to natives in the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire. The native tongue is still universally known as Dagaare. Amongst the different dialects, the standard for Dagaare is derived from the Central region's dialect. Southern Dagaare (or Waale) also stems from the Dagaare language and is known to be commonly spoken in Wa and Kaleo.

Contents

Ethnologue divides Dagaare into three languages:

Orthography

Dagara alphabet (Burkina Faso) [2]
Uppercase
A B Ɓ C D E Ɛ F G Gb H ʼH I Ɩ J K Kp L ʼL M N Ny Ŋ Ŋm O Ɔ P R S T U Ʋ V W ʼW Y Ƴ Z
Lowercase
abɓcdeɛfggbhʼhiɩjkkplʼlmnnyŋŋmoɔprstuʋvwʼwyƴz

Tones are indicated using diacritics:

Nasalization is indicated using the tilde. A nasalized vowel in high or low tone is surmounted by the tilde under the accent.

Dagaare alphabet (Ghana) [3] [4]
Uppercase
A B D E Ɛ F G H I J K L M N O Ɔ P R S T U V W Y Z
Lowercase
abdeɛfghijklmnoɔprstuvwyz

Phonology

The consonant and vowel sounds in the Dagaare languages:

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i u
Near-close ɪ ʊ
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labio-
velar
Glottal
Plosive/
Affricate
voiceless p t t͡ɕ k k͡p ʔ
voiced b d d͡ʑ ɡ ɡ͡b
Fricative voiceless f s h
voiced v z
glottalized ˀh
Nasal plain m n ɲ ŋ ŋ͡m
glottalized ˀm
Lateral plain l
glottalized ˀl
Approximant j w

Allophones of /d,ɡ/ include [r,ɣ~ɡ̆]. [3] [5] [6]

Ghanaian Dagaare has twenty-five consonants and two glides (semi-vowels). Glottalized /ˀh/, /ˀl/, and /ˀm/ occur in the northern dialect of Burkina Faso. [3]

Grammar

Tone

Dagaare is a tonal language with a two-level tone system with a downstep high tone. The Dagaare tone has two basic functions, namely a lexical and a grammatical function. Its lexical function concerns differences in lexical semantics, such that differing in tone but not in morphosyntactic form triggers different semantics. Its grammatical function is responsible for cases in which different tone markings on a segment result in different semantics of that expression. [7]

Lexical function

„to go very fast“ [7]

„to fix the ground“ [7]

Grammatical function

Ò

3.SG

kùŋ

NEG.FUT

gáá.

come.PERF

Ò kùŋ gáá.

3.SG NEG.FUT come.PERF

„S/he will not go.“ (negative declarative sentence) [7]

Ò

3.SG

kúŋ

NEG.HORT

gáá.

come.PERF

Ò kúŋ gáá.

3.SG NEG.HORT come.PERF

„S/he should not go.“ (negative hortative sentence) [7]

Noun class system

Noun Class [5] Singular FormNoun StemPlural Form
Class I[-Vocal][-bɔ']
(+human cl.)pɔ'ɤɔ' ('woman')pɔ'g-pɔ'ɤíbɔ' ('women')
Class II[-Vocal][-rí]
IIa[-é][-rí]
bìé ('child')bì-bíírí ('children')
IIb[-ó][-rí]
dùó ('pig')dò-dòrí ('pigs')
IIc[-í][-rí]
síɤí ('hut')síg-síɤrí ('huts')
Class III[-í][-Vocal]
IIIa[-í][-é]
gyìlí ('xylophone')gyìl-gyìlé ('xylophones')
IIIb[-í][-ɔ']
pɔ'lí ('path')pɔ'-pɔ'lɔ' ('paths')
IIIc[-í][-á]
váálí ('rubbish')váál-váálá ('rubbish')
Class IV[-rʊʊ][-rì]
pírʊʊ ('sheep')pí-píírì ('sheep')
Class V[-∅][-rí]
túú ('forest')tùù-túúrí ('forest')
Class VI[-rì][-Vocal]
VIa[-rì][-è]
bírì ('seed')bí-bíè ('seeds')
VIb[-rí][-ó]
tóórí ('ear')tóó-tòbó ('ears')
VIc[-rí][-á]
yàgrí ('cheek')yàg-yàɤá ('cheeks')
Class VIINasal+VocalNasal+Vocal
VIIa[-ní][-mà]
gání ('book')gán-gámà ('books')
VIIb[-mʊ][-má]
táamʊ ('bow')tàn-támá ('bows')
VIIc[-ŋé][-ní]
bìŋé ('pen')bìŋ-bìnní ('pens')
VIId[-ŋó][-ní]
bòŋó ('donkey')bòŋ-bònní ('donkeys')
VIIe[-][-nɛɛ]
-count pluralsdɑ̃ɑ̃' ('pito')dɑ̃ɑ̃'-dɑ̃ɑ̃'nɛɛ ('pito')
Class VIII[-áá][-í]
gbíŋgbíláá ('drying spot')gbígbíl-gbíŋgbíllí ('drying spots')
Class IX[-ù](no plural)
(derived n.)Dúóù ('climbing')dó-
Class X(no singular)[-úŋ]
bùùl-búúlúŋ ('porridge')

Pronouns

Source: [5]

Personal pronouns

In Dagaare, personal pronouns do not exhibit gender differences. For subject pronouns, there is a distinction between strong and weak personal pronouns. Moreover, there is a distinction between human and non-human forms for third person plural pronouns.

Subject (Nom)Object (Acc)
Weak FormStrong Form
(human)
1st SGnmaama
2nd SGfofoofo
3rd SGoonɔo
1st PLteteneete
2nd PLyɛnee
3rd PLbabanaba
(non-human)
3rd PLaanaa

Reflexive pronouns

Reflexivity is expressed by the words mengɛ or mengɛ tɔr in singular and menne or menne tɔr in plural after any personal pronouns.

Weak reflexive pronounsStrong reflexive pronouns
n mengɛ (tɔr) ('myself')maa mengɛ ('me, myself')
fo mengɛ (tɔr) ('yourself')foo mengɛ ('you, yourself')
o mengɛ (tɔr) ('him-/herself')onɔ mengɛ ('s/he, him-/herself')
te menne (tɔr) ('ourselves')tenee menne ('we, ourselves')
yɛ menne (tɔr) ('yourselves')yɛnee menne ('you, yourselves')
ba menne (tɔr) ('themselves')bana menne ('they, themselves')
a menne (tɔr) ('themselves', non-human)ana menne ('they, themselves', non-human)

Reciprocal pronouns

Reciprocal pronouns in Dagaare consist of the forms tɔ, tɔ soba, taa and taaba. The most common form is taa.

Te

we

nɔnɔ

love

FOC

taa.

RECP

Te nɔnɔ lá taa.

we love FOC RECP

„We love each other / one another.“ [5]

Relative pronouns

There is no distinction between human and non-human relative pronouns in Dagaare. For both the relative pronoun is nang.

A

DEF

dɔɔ

man

na

COMP

nang

who

wa.

come.PERF

A dɔɔ na nang wa.

DEF man COMP who come.PERF

„The man who came.“ [5]

A

DEF

gane

book

na

COMP

nang

which

le.

fall.PERF

A gane na nang le.

DEF book COMP which fall.PERF

„The book that fell down.“ [5]

Interrogative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are formed by a root like [bo-] ('what, which') which combines with a suffix. Interrogative pronoun roots in Dagaare include also [yeŋ-] ('where'), [ʔaŋ-] ('who') and [wʊla-] ('how many'). [8]

DagaareEnglish
bong, boluuwhat
boowhich one, which of them
baboo, babobowhich of them (human)
aboo, abobowhich of them (non-human)
angwho (human, singular)
ang minewho (human, plural)

Possessive pronouns

Possession is expressed by the words toɔr and den in singular and deme in plural, meaning "own", combined with any personal pronoun.

DagaareEnglish
n toɔr, den, dememine, my own
fo toɔr, den, demeyours, your own
o toɔr, den, demehis/hers, his/her own
te toɔr, den, demeours, our own
yɛ toɔr, den, demeyours, your own
ba toɔr, den, demetheirs, their own (human)
a toɔr, den, demetheirs, their own (non-human)

Demonstrative pronouns

Similarly to the personal pronouns, there is a distinction between human and non-human forms for the third person plural pronouns.

DagaareEnglish
nyɛthis (one)
onɔngthat (one)
banangthose (ones) (human)
anangthose (ones) (non-human)
like that (one)
nyɛɛlike this (one)

Indefinite pronouns

Dagaare does not seem to have indefinite pronouns and rather combines a noun like "person" or "body" with the element kang in order to express indefinites like "somebody" or "someone".

Neɛ

person

kang

INDEF

wa-ɛ

come-PERF

lá.

FOC

Neɛ kang wa-ɛ lá.

person INDEF come-PERF FOC

„Someone has come.“ [5]

Syntax

Word order

The canonical word order of Dagaare is SVO (subject-verb-object). This can be seen in the following examples showing an intransitive clause, a transitive clause including an adverb and a ditransitive clause.

Báyúó

Bayuo

PST

tòng

work

FOC

tómɔ

work

(zààméng).

yesterday

Báyúó dà tòng lá tómɔ (zààméng).

Bayuo PST work FOC work yesterday

„Bayuo worked (yesterday).“ [8]

Dɛr

Dɛr

nyuuri

drink.IPFV

FOC

a

DEF

kʊɔ

water

wɪɛʊ.

quickly

Dɛr nyuuri lá a kʊɔ wɪɛʊ.

Dɛr drink.IPFV FOC DEF water quickly

„Dɛr is drinking the water quickly.“ [8]

Zeɛmɛ

Ziema

PST

give.PFV

/

/

PST

korɔ

give.IPFV

FOC

Naapɔge

Napog

doge.

pot

Zeɛmɛ dà kɔ / dà korɔ lá Naapɔge doge.

Ziema PST give.PFV / PST give.IPFV FOC Napog pot

„Ziema gave / is giving Napog a pot.“ [8]

Verb phrase

The VP in Dagaare consists of a preverbal particle encoding tense, the predicate, and a postverbal particle with a function yet to be fully investigated.

Preverbal particles

Daagare marks past and future tenses by the use of preverbal particles. Present tense is not marked or lexicalized in this language. These preverbal particles function like auxiliary verbs in Indo-European languages lexicalizing tense and aspectual features.

Badɛr

spider

PST

kpi-e

die-IPFV

lá.

FOC

Badɛr dà kpi-e lá.

spider PST die-IPFV FOC

„The spider died.“ [5]

O

3.SG

na

FUT

ngmɛ

beat

ma

1.SG

lá.

FOC

O na ngmɛ ma lá.

3.SG FUT beat 1.SG FOC

„S/he will beat me.“ [5]

Contrary to Indo-European languages like English, French and Norwegian, Dagaare exhibits the lexicalization of a habitual marker. While in the Indo-European languages this habitual marker is basically an adverb, in Dagaare it is realized as the preverbal particle mang. This preverbal particle can only occur after the subject, thus it is not an adverb, since adverbs are more flexible in the positions they can potentially occur in within the clause.

O

3.SG

mang

HAB

ngmeɛ-rɛ

beat-IPFV

ma

1.SG

FOC

yaga.

plenty

O mang ngmeɛ-rɛ ma lá yaga.

3.SG HAB beat-IPFV 1.SG FOC plenty

„S/he is always beating me a lot.“ [5]

Major particles

Tense, Aspect, Modal Particles [5] Dagaare
today (also: once upon a time)da
one day awayzaa
two or more days awaydaar
habitualmang
still, not yetnang
actuallysorong
once again, as usualyaa
suddenly, justdeɛ
nonfuture negativeba
future affixna
future negativekong
imperative subjunctive negativeta
again

These preverbal particles are difficult to classify as temporal, aspectual, modal and polar, since the relationship between polarity and tense in the Mabia languages is very tight. This means that a particular preverbal particle can express a positive or negative action in the past (da) or a positive or negative action in the future (na). The na particle for instance does not only mark tense, but also positivity of an action. Its counterpart kong is not simply the negation of an action, but also indicating the tense of this action.

Main verb

The main verb in Dagaare consists of a verb stem and a suffix. This suffix encodes perfective or imperfective aspect. In this system, the speaker considers an action as either completed or not yet completed, irrespective of whether the action happens in the present or past tense. There is the verbal suffix form -ng in Dagaare, whose function is to affirm or emphasize the verbal action. This affix is in complementary distribution with the postverbal particle la, also shown in the subsection on this postverbal particle.

Ò

3.SG

PST

kul-ee

go.home-PERF.INTR

lá.

FOC

Ò dà kul-ee lá.

3.SG PST go.home-PERF.INTR FOC

„S/he went home.“ [5]

Ò

3.SG

PST

kul-o

go.home-IPFV

lá.

FOC

Ò dà kul-o lá.

3.SG PST go.home-IPFV FOC

„S/he was going home.“ [5]

Ò

3.SG

kul-o

go.home-IPFV

lá.

FOC

Ò kul-o lá.

3.SG go.home-IPFV FOC

„S/he is going home.“ [5]

Most verb roots in Dagaare are monosyllabic and combine with inflectional affixes. As already mentioned, the main inflectional affixes in Dagaare express aspect. There are then three distinct inflectional affix forms, one imperfective or progressive affix (-ro) and two perfective or completive affixes (-∅, -e). Imperative forms are homophonous with the perfective transitive forms. [5] An interesting aspect of the Mabia verbal system is that verbs can be classified into pairs of oppositions depending on causativity, transitivity, reversivity and other derivational processes.

Postverbal particle

The postverbal particle la mainly marks factivity, polarity, affirmation or even emphasis. [5] * It usually occurs in postverbal position, but under particular pragmatic constraints it can also occur preverbally. The la particle is in complementary distribution with negative polarity particles.

*Note that the postverbal particle is glossed as FOC here. Since its glossing in the literature is not consistent and therefore its syntactic nature is not so clear, I thus propose that the postverbal particle may function as a focus marker, while previous research assumed it to be a factive marker.

Ò

3.SG

na

FUT.POS

kul

go.home

lá.

FOC

Ò na kul lá.

3.SG FUT.POS go.home FOC

„S/he will not go home.“ [5]

Ò

3.SG

kong

FUT.NEG

kul

go.home

(*lá).

(FOC)

Ò kong kul (*lá).

3.SG FUT.NEG go.home (FOC)

„S/he will not go home.“ [5]

Besides being in complementary distribution with negative polarity particles, there are four main constraints on the la particle in Dagaare. Firstly, it never occurs after adjuncts postverbally.

Bayuo

Bayuo

PST

gbir-ee

sleep-PERF.INTR

FOC

velaa.

good

Bayuo dà gbir-ee lá velaa.

Bayuo PST sleep-PERF.INTR FOC good

„Bayuo slept well.“ [5]

*Bayuo

Bayuo

PST

gbir-ee

sleep-PERF.INTR

velaa

good

lá.

FOC

*Bayuo dà gbir-ee velaa lá.

Bayuo PST sleep-PERF.INTR good FOC

„*Bayuo slept well.“ [5]

Secondly, it occurs before all full NP complements, but it never intervenes between any two full NPs nor follows them.

Ò

3.SG

PST

ko

give

FOC

Dɛre

Dere

a

DEF

gane.

book

Ò dà ko lá Dɛre a gane.

3.SG PST give FOC Dere DEF book

„S/he gave Dere the book.“ [5]

3.SG

PST

ko

give

Dɛre

Dere

FOC

a

DEF

gane.

book

*Ò dà ko Dɛre lá a gane.

3.SG PST give Dere FOC DEF book

„*S/he gave Dere the book.“ [5]

Thirdly, a pronominal complement must intervene between the verb and the postverbal particle. In this case the affixal form of the particle -ng is attached to the indirect object pronoun ma.

Ò

3.SG

PST

ko

give

ma

1.SG

FOC

a

DEF

gane.

book

Ò dà ko ma lá a gane.

3.SG PST give 1.SG FOC DEF book

„S/he gave me the book.“ [5]

Ò

3.SG

PST

ko

give

mang

1.SG.FOC

a

DEF

gane.

book

Ò dà ko mang a gane.

3.SG PST give 1.SG.FOC DEF book

„S/he gave me the book.“ [5]

3.SG

PST

ko

give

FOC

ma

1.SG

a

DEF

gane.

book

*Ò dà ko lá ma a gane.

3.SG PST give FOC 1.SG DEF book

„*S/he gave me the book.“ [5]

Lastly, under pragmatic circumstances the particle can occur in certain positions within the clause in order to emphasize the role of particular elements. In the example below, the particle either occurs after the subject NP and before the verb in order to focus the subject and not the action of the sentence or the particle occurs postverbally in order to focus the action and not the subject of the clause.

Badɛre

spider

FOC

kpi.

die.PERF

Badɛre lá kpi.

spider FOC die.PERF

„The spider died.“ [5]

Badɛre

spider

kpi-e

die-PERF.INTR

FOC

Badɛre kpi-e lá

spider die-PERF.INTR FOC

„The spider died.“ [5]

Questions

There are two types of questions in Dagaare. Usually, questions are formed by a question word in the sentence-initial position, but in a few cases there is either a question marker that has to occur in sentence-final position or the question word can appear in situ. [5]

Ex situ

The Dagaare bong questions correspond to wh-questions in English, but since most of the question words in Dagaare start with the letter b, it makes no sense to refer to them as wh-questions as well and therefore one can refer to them as bong questions. [5] These questions exhibit the question word ex situ and vary according to its Q-element. [9]

Bòng

what

FOC

PST

è?

COP

Bòng lá dà è?

what FOC PST COP

„What happened?“ [9]

àng

who

FOC

PST

yíélì

sing.PFV

/

/

yíélè?

sing.IPFV

àng lá dà yíélì / yíélè?

who FOC PST sing.PFV / sing.IPFV

„Who sang / is singing?“ [9]

In some cases, the Q-element is followed not only by the particle , but additionally by the complementizer . This might indicate that the Q-element occupies the specifier position and the complementizer appears in the head position of the CP. The particle occurs in between both elements and might mark focus, in this case verbal focus.

Bòng

what

FOC

SUBR

fo

2.SG

mɛ?

build.PFV

Bòng lá kà fo mɛ?

what FOC SUBR 2.SG build.PFV

„What did you build?“ [9]

Lastly, multiple questions are highly marked in Dagaare. In these cases, one Q-element occurs ex situ and the other one(s) in situ.

??Àng

who

FOC

buy.PFV

bòng?

what

??Àng lá dá bòng?

who FOC buy.PFV what

„Who bought what?“ [9]

??Àng

who

FOC

gaa

travel

yeng?

where

??Àng lá gaa yeng?

who FOC travel where

„Who traveled where?“ [9]

In situ

Examples for a question that do not exhibit the question word ex situ are the so-called bee questions, which are known as yes-/no- questions in languages like English. These questions only require a yes- or no-answer instead of a more complex and informative answer. Bee is here the particular question marker, which has to appear obligatorily as the final element of the clause. These questions can express contrastive focus.

Dabuo

Dabuo

gbire

sleep.IPFV

FOC

bee

Q

Dabuo gbire lá bee

Dabuo sleep.IPFV FOC Q

„Is Dabuo sleeping?“ [9]

Ai,

no

Ayuo

Ayuo

FOC

gbire.

sleep.IPFV

Ai, Ayuo lá gbire.

no Ayuo FOC sleep.IPFV

„No, Ayuo is sleeping.“ [9]

Besides this type of question, there are cases, in which the question word can also appear in situ. These questions might correspond to echo questions.

Dɔɔsaa

Doosaa

di

eat

FOC

bòng?

what

Dɔɔsaa di lá bòng?

Doosaa eat FOC what

„What did Doosaa eat?“ [9]

Ò

3.SG

ba

NEG

di

eat

bonzaa.

nothing

Ò ba di bonzaa.

3.SG NEG eat nothing

„She ate nothing.“ [9]

Long distance extraction

In Dagaare the question word can cross a clause-boundary, which gives rise to long distance extraction. The following examples illustrates the potential positions within the clause, in which the question word can occur. Note that only in the second example below a focus marker occurs, which varies from la to na. Moreover, the two complementizers indicate the clause boundary across which the question word has been moved. [9]

Bòng

what

SUBR

Ayuo

Ayuo

sogri

ask

SUBR

John

John

PST

kɔ?

slaughter

Bòng kà Ayuo sogri kà John dà kɔ?

what SUBR Ayuo ask SUBR John PST slaughter

„What did Ayuo ask that John slaughtered?“ [9]

Ayuo

Ayuo

sogri

ask

na

FOC

John

John

bòng

what

na

FOC

ɔ

3.SG

nangkɔ.

REL.slaughter

Ayuo sogri na John bòng na ɔ nangkɔ.

Ayuo ask FOC John what FOC 3.SG REL.slaughter

„Ayuo asks what John slaughtered.“ [9]

Ayuo

Ayuo

sogri

ask

SUBR

bòng

what

SUBR

John

John

kɔ.

slaughter

Ayuo sogri kà bòng kà John kɔ.

Ayuo ask SUBR what SUBR John slaughter

„Ayuo asks what it is that John slaughters.“ [9]

Related Research Articles

In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns.

Dagbani, also known as Dagbanli or Dagbanle, is a Gur language spoken in Ghana and Northern Togo. Its native speakers are estimated around 1,170,000. Dagbani is the most widely spoken language in northern Ghana, specifically among the tribes that fall under the authority of the King of Dagbon, known as the Yaa-Naa. Dagbon is a traditional kingdom situated in northern Ghana, and the Yaa-Naa is the paramount chief or king who governs over the various tribes and communities within the Dagbon kingdom.

Rapa Nui or Rapanui, also known as Pascuan or Pascuense, is an Eastern Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family. It is spoken on Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui.

Rapa is the language of Rapa Iti, in the Austral Islands of French Polynesia, and of Mangaia in the Cook Islands. It is an Eastern Polynesian language. There are three varieties of the Rapa language currently being spoken in French Polynesia: Old Rapa, Reo Rapa and New Rapa. Old Rapa has been mostly replaced by Reo Rapa, a mix of the more commonly spoken Tahitian and Old Rapa. New Rapa – revitalized Old Rapa – is commonly spoken by middle-aged and younger speakers. Rapa is a critically endangered language, and there are only around 300 speakers of Reo Rapa, with only 15% of them able to speak Old Rapa. It may be more vibrant on Mangaia, but there the population has been declining for half a century due to emigration.

Vaeakau-Taumako is a Polynesian language spoken in some of the Reef Islands as well as in the Taumako Islands in the Temotu province of Solomon Islands.

Máku, also spelled Mako, and in the language itself Jukude, is an unclassified language and likely language isolate once spoken on the Brazil–Venezuela border in Roraima along the upper Uraricoera and lower Auari rivers, west of Boa Vista, by the Jukudeitse. 300 years ago, the Jukude territory was between the Padamo and Cunucunuma rivers to the southwest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Najdi Arabic</span> Variety of Arabic spoken in the Najd region of Saudi Arabia

Najdi Arabic is the group of Arabic varieties originating from the Najd region of Saudi Arabia. Outside of Saudi Arabia, it is also the main Arabic variety spoken in the Syrian Desert of Iraq, Jordan, and Syria as well as the westernmost part of Kuwait.

Apma is the language of central Pentecost island in Vanuatu. Apma is an Oceanic language. Within Vanuatu it sits between North Vanuatu and Central Vanuatu languages, and combines features of both groups.

Ughele is an Oceanic language spoken by about 1200 people on Rendova Island, located in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bangime language</span> Language isolate of southeastern Mali

Bangime is a language isolate spoken by 3,500 ethnic Dogon in seven villages in southern Mali, who call themselves the bàŋɡá–ndɛ̀. Bangande is the name of the ethnicity of this community and their population grows at a rate of 2.5% per year. The Bangande consider themselves to be Dogon, but other Dogon people insist they are not. Bangime is an endangered language classified as 6a - Vigorous by Ethnologue. Long known to be highly divergent from the (other) Dogon languages, it was first proposed as a possible isolate by Blench (2005). Heath and Hantgan have hypothesized that the cliffs surrounding the Bangande valley provided isolation of the language as well as safety for Bangande people. Even though Bangime is not closely related to Dogon languages, the Bangande still consider their language to be Dogon. Hantgan and List report that Bangime speakers seem unaware that it is not mutually intelligible with any Dogon language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pichinglis</span> English-based creole of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea

Pichinglis, commonly referred to by its speakers as Pichi and formally known as Fernando Po Creole English (Fernandino), is an Atlantic English-lexicon creole language spoken on the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea. It is an offshoot of the Krio language of Sierra Leone, and was brought to Bioko by Krios who immigrated to the island during the colonial era in the 19th century.

Baiso or Bayso is a Lowland East Cushitic language belonging to the Omo–Tana subgroup, and is spoken in Ethiopia, in the region around Lake Abaya.

In linguistics, affect is an attitude or emotion that a speaker brings to an utterance. Affects such as sarcasm, contempt, dismissal, distaste, disgust, disbelief, exasperation, boredom, anger, joy, respect or disrespect, sympathy, pity, gratitude, wonder, admiration, humility, and awe are frequently conveyed through paralinguistic mechanisms such as intonation, facial expression, and gesture, and thus require recourse to punctuation or emoticons when reduced to writing, but there are grammatical and lexical expressions of affect as well, such as pejorative and approbative or laudative expressions or inflections, adversative forms, honorific and deferential language, interrogatives and tag questions, and some types of evidentiality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yolmo language</span> Sino-Tibetan language of Nepal

Yolmo (Hyolmo) or Helambu Sherpa, is a Tibeto-Burman language of the Hyolmo people of Nepal. Yolmo is spoken predominantly in the Helambu and Melamchi valleys in northern Nuwakot District and northwestern Sindhupalchowk District. Dialects are also spoken by smaller populations in Lamjung District and Ilam District and also in Ramecchap District. It is very similar to Kyirong Tibetan and less similar to Standard Tibetan and Sherpa. There are approximately 10,000 Yolmo speakers, although some dialects have larger populations than others.

Farefare or Frafra, also known by the regional name of Gurenne (Gurene), is a Niger–Congo language spoken by the Frafra people of northern Ghana, particularly the Upper East Region, and southern Burkina Faso. It is a national language of Ghana, and is closely related to Dagbani and other languages of Northern Ghana, and also related to Mossi, also known as Mooré, the national language of Burkina Faso.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iatmul language</span> Ndu language spoken in Papua New Guinea

Iatmul is the language of the Iatmul people, spoken around the Sepik River in the East Sepik Province, northern Papua New Guinea. The Iatmul, however, do not refer to their language by the term Iatmul, but call it gepmakudi.

Konkomba is a Gurma language spoken in Ghana, Togo and Burkina Faso.

Bandial (Banjaal), or Eegima (Eegimaa), is a Jola language of the Casamance region of Senegal. The three dialects, Affiniam, Bandial proper, and Elun are divergent, on the border between dialects and distinct languages.

Buli, or Kanjaga, is a Gur language of Ghana primarily spoken in the Builsa District, located in the Upper East Region of the country. It is an SVO language and has 200 000 speakers.

Tamashek or Tamasheq is a variety of Tuareg, a Berber macro-language widely spoken by nomadic tribes across North Africa in Algeria, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Tamasheq is one of the three main varieties of Tuareg, the others being Tamajaq and Tamahaq.

References

  1. 1 2 Southern Dagaare at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
    Dagaari Dioula at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
    Northern Dagara at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. Somé, Joachim (2004). "Dagara Orthography". Journal of Dagaare Studies. 4: 21.
  3. 1 2 3 Ali, Mark; Grimm, Scott; Bodomo, Adams (2021). A dictionary and grammatical sketch of Dagaare (pdf). Berlin: Language Science Press. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.5154710 . ISBN   978-3-98554-002-0.
  4. Bureau of Ghana Languages, 1991.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Bodomo, Adams (1997). The Structure of Dagaare. Stanford University. ISBN   978-1-57586-077-0.
  6. Akinbo, Samuel; Angsongna, Alexander; Ozburn, Avery; Schellenberg, Murray; Pulleyblank, Douglas (2018). "Velar Tap in Dàgáárè"". Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 49). University of Michigan.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Bodomo, Adams; Abubakari, Hasiyatu; Issah, Samuel Alhassan (2020). Handbook of the Mabia Languages of West Africa. Glienicke: Galda Verlag. ISBN   978-3-9620311-7-6.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Kropp-Dakubu, Mary Esther (2005). Collected language notes on Dagaare grammar. Legon: Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "Dagaare". The VP-periphery in Mabia languages. Goethe University Frankfurt. Retrieved 22 September 2022.