Dangme language

Not to be confused with Adangbe language.

Dangme
Dangme
Region	South-eastern Ghana, east of Accra
Ethnicity	Dangme
Native speakers	800,000 (2004)
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Kwa Ga–Dangme Dangme
Writing system	Latin (Dangme alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Ghana
Language codes
ISO 639-2	ada
ISO 639-3	ada
Glottolog	adan1247

The Dangme language, Dangme, is a Kwa language spoken in south-eastern Ghana by 800,000 people.

Classification

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

Geographic distribution

Dangme is spoken in Ghana by over 800,000 people in 2004.

It is the aboriginal language spoken in Ghana, Togo, Benin by the people of Ada, Osudoku, Manya Krobo, Yilo Krobo, Shai, Ningo, Prampram and Kpone. The Dangme and Ga people can readily understand each other without intentional study or special effort because both languages are mutually intelligible. 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 Easter 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 unit. The coastal dialects are Ada, Ningo and Prampram (Gbugbla). The inland dialects are Shai (Sɛ), Krobo (Klo) and Osudoku.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial-velar
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ	ŋ͡m
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	t͡ʃ	k	k͡p
	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ	ɡ	ɡ͡b
Fricative	voiceless	f	s
	voiced	v	z
Approximant			l	j		w

• /m, p, b/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental.
• /p, b, t, d, k, g/ are singly articulated plosives, /t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ/ are affricates (stops with a strong fricative release), whereas /k͡p, ɡ͡b/ are doubly articulated plosives.
• /l/ varies between a lateral approximant [l] and a central trill [r].
• /j/ has a fricative allophone [ʒ].

Vowels

Monophthongs of Dangme, from Kropp Dakubu (1987:15)

Adangme has 7 oral vowels and 5 nasal vowels.

	Front		Back
	oral	nasal	oral	nasal
Close	i	ĩ	u	ũ
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɛ̃	ɔ	ɔ̃
Open	a	ã

• The front vowels are unrounded, whereas the back vowels are rounded.
• /i, u/ are slightly more open than /ĩ, ũ/.
• /e, o/ are close-mid [e, o]. They do not have nasal counterparts.
• /ɛ̃, ɔ̃/ are open-mid [ɛ̃, ɔ̃], whereas /ɛ, ɔ/ are somewhat lower (near-open) [æ, ɔ̞].
• The nasal /ã/ is open front [ã], whereas the oral /a/ is slightly retracted (near-front) [a̠].

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 /l/.

Writing system

Adangme is written in the Latin script. Tones and nasalisation are not normally written.

Orthographic and phonemic correspondences include the following:

• j - /dʒ/
• ng - /ŋ/
• ngm - /ŋm/
• ny - /ɲ/
• ts - /tʃ/
• y - /j/
• ɛ - /ɛ/
• ɔ - /ɔ/

External links

• My First GaDangme Dictionary kasahorow
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Dangme
• Lessons in Wikiversity