Ewe (language)
| Ewe | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Ghana , Togo | |
| speaker | about 3 million | |
| Linguistic classification |
||
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | one of the national languages of Togo and Ghana | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
ee |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
ewe |
|
| ISO 639-3 | ||
Ewe (own name Eʋegbe , French Éwé ) is one of the Kwa languages and is used in the south of Ghana (in the regions of Greater Accra and in the south of the Volta region ) and in southern Togo by about three million people of the Ewe people (1991 census) spoken. There are numerous spelling variations and alternative names , the language is also called Eibe, Ebwe, Eve, Efe, Eue, Vhe, Gbe, Krebi, Krebe or Pope .
The language of the Ewe belongs to the dialect continuum of the Gbe languages within the language family of the Niger-Congo languages , which are spoken from eastern Ghana to western Nigeria . Related languages of the continuum are Fon and Aja .
The Ewe became the written language at the end of the 19th century / beginning of the 20th century during the period of German colonial rule in Togo through the work of missionaries from the North German Mission . The first German grammar of the Ewe language was published as early as 1857, followed by several Ewe dictionaries in 1905/06 and a new, comprehensive treatise on grammar in 1907. In 1911, after eight years of translation work, a Bible was published in the Ewe language. In the process, many terms for which there was no Ewe word previously had to be recreated.
Writing system
The written language was introduced by German colonial rulers at the beginning of the 20th century. Ewe uses the following variant of the Latin alphabet with some extra letters and is part of the Africa alphabet .
| A a | B b | D d | Ɖ ɖ | Dz dz | E e | Ɛ ɛ | F f | Ƒ ƒ | G g | Gb gb | Ɣ ɣ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| / a / | / b / | / d / | / ɖ / | / d͡z / | / e / | / ɛ / | / f / | / ɸ / | / ɡ / | / ɡ͡b / | / ɣ / |
| H h | I i | K k | Kp kp | L l | M m | N n | Ny ny | Ŋ ŋ | O o | Ɔ ɔ | P p |
| / h / | / i / | / k / | / k͡p / | / l / | / m / | / n / | / ɲ / | / ŋ / | / o / | / ɔ / | / p / |
| R r | S s | T t | Ts ts | U u | V v | Ʋ ʋ | W w | X x | Y y | Z z | |
| / l / | / s / | / t / | / t͡s / | / u / | / v / | / β / | / w / | / x / | / j / | / z / |
A tilde (˜) is placed over vowels to indicate nasality . The pitch is generally not marked, except in some cases where the pitch is meaningful, i.e. necessary to distinguish between words. For example, in the 1st person plural of the pronoun mí (we), which is marked as a tweeter to distinguish it from the 2nd person plural mi , ie "you".
- ekpɔ wò [ɛ́kp͡ɔ̀ wɔ̀] - 'he saw you'
- ekpɔ wo [ɛ́kp͡ɔ̀ wɔ́] - 'he saw her (plural)
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Labial velar | Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | ɖ | k | ɡ | k͡p | ɡ͡b | ||||||
| Affricates | t͡s | d͡z | |||||||||||||
| nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||||||||||
| Fricative | ɸ | β | f | v | s | z | x | ɣ | H | ||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||||||||||
Vowels
| front | back | |
|---|---|---|
| closed | i , ĩ | u , ũ |
| closed-central | e | O |
| open-central | ɛ , ɛ̃ | ɔ , ɔ̃ |
| open | a , ã | |
See also
literature
- Gilbert Ansre: The Tonal Structure of Ewe . MA Thesis, Kennedy School of Missions, Hartford Seminary, Hartford 1961.
- Felix Kofi Ameka: Ewe . In: Jane Garry, Carl Rubino (Ed.): Facts about the world's languages. An encyclopedia of the world's major languages, past and present . HW Wilson, New York and Dublin 2001, ISBN 0-8242-0970-2 , pp. 207-213.
- Hounkpati BC Capo: A Comparative Phonology of Gbe . In: Publications in African Languages and Linguistics , Vol. 14. Foris Publications & Garome, Berlin and New York / Labo Gbe, Bénin 1991.
- Simon Wellington Dzablu-Kumah: Basic Ewe for Foreign Students . Institute for African Studies, Cologne 2006 ( online ) (PDF file; 3.60 MB).
- Kwasi Fiaga: Grammaire Eve . Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Lomè (Togo) / Inter Nationes , Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1976 (language: French-eve).
- Horst Figge: Contributions to the cultural history of Brazil. With special consideration of the Umbanda religion and the West African Ewe language . Reimer, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-496-00139-9 .
- Helma Pasch: short grammar of the Ewe . Köppe, Cologne 1995, ISBN 3-927620-19-X .
- Diedrich Hermann Westermann : A Study of the Ewe Language. Oxford University Press, London 1930.
Web links
- Introduction to the basics of the language (in English) (PDF; 986 kB) from the University of Cologne
- Ethnological report about Ewe (in English)
- Short list of references (in English) at UCLA
- Ewe Alphabet and Pronunciation (in English) page from Omniglot
Individual evidence
- ↑ JB Schlegel: Key to the Ewe language: presented in the basic grammatical features of the Aṅlo dialect of the same, with a collection of words along with a collection of proverbs and some fables of the natives . Verlag W. Valett, Bremen 1857 ( digitized version ).
- ^ Diedrich Westermann : Dictionary of the Ewe - language . Dietrich Reimer Verlag , Berlin 1906 ( Online - Part I: Ewe-German dictionary, Part II: German-Ewe dictionary.).
- ^ Diedrich Westermann: Grammar of the Ewe language . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1907, urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-2017040518496 .
- ↑ "GOD ALSO SPEAKS EWE". Website of the North German Mission, accessed on October 24, 2019 .