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'Adangme' (also called 'Dangme'), is a Kwa language spoken in south-eastern Ghana by 800,000 people.
Some sources list 'Adangbe' as another name for the same language whereas Ethnologue lists it as a different language in the Left bank branch of the Kwa family, and it has a separate ISO 639-3 code of 'adq'.

Contents

Classification

Geographic distribution

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Tones

Phonotactics

Writing system

References

External links

Classification

Adangme 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.

Geographic distribution

Adangme is spoken in Ghana by 800,000 people.
There are six main dialects which co-incide with political divisions. The coastal dialects are Ada, Ningo and Prampram (Gbugbla). The inland dialects are Shai (S), Krobo (Klo) and Osudoku.

Phonology

Consonants

★ has allophones and

★ has an allophone

'Consonant phonemes'

	Bilabial		Labio- dental		Alveolar		Postalveolar / palatal		Velar		Labial-velar		Glottal
Plosives & affricates
Nasals
Fricatives
Approximants

Vowels

Adangme has 7 oral vowels and 5 nasal vowels.

Monophthongs	Front	Central	Back
'Close'
'Close-mid'
'Open-mid'
'Open'

Monophthongs	Front	Central	Back
'Close'
'Close-mid'
'Open-mid'
'Open'

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 with a form of the Latin alphabet. Tones and nasalisation are not normally written.
Orthographic and phonemic correspondences include the following:

★ j -

★ ng -

★ ngm -

★ ny -

★ ts -

★ y -

★ -

★ -

References

★ West African Language Data Sheets Vol 1, , , , West African Linguistic Society, 1977,

★ The Languages of Ghana, , , , Kegan Paul International for the International African Institute, 1988, ISBN 0-7103-0210-X

External links

★ Ethnologue entry

★ Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Dangme