Ga (language)
| Ga | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Ghana | |
| speaker | 600,000 | |
| Linguistic classification |
||
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | one of the national languages of Ghana | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
gaa |
|
| ISO 639-3 |
gaa |
|
Ga or Gain is a West African language from the group of Kwa languages spoken by the people of the same name, Ga .
It is spoken by around 8% of the Ghanaian population in the southeast of the country. With the languages Dangme and Krobo they form the subgroup Ga-Adangme of the Kwa languages . It belongs to the southern Volta-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo languages . In linguistics, Ga-Dangme is considered to be a single language.
The Ga alphabet
The modified Latin alphabet used for the Ga language consists of seven vowels and 19 consonants:
| Ga | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | b | d | e | ɛ | f | G | H | i | j | k | l | m | n | ŋ | O | ɔ | p | r | s | t | u | v | w | y | z |
| IPA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [ a ] | [ b ] | [ d ] | [ e ] | [ ɛ ] | [ f ] | [ g ] | [ h ] | [ i ] | [ ʤ ] | [ k ] | [ l ] | [ m ] | [ n ] | [ ŋ ] | [ o ] | [ ɔ ] | [ p ] | [ r ] | [ s ] | [ t ] | [ u ] | [ v ] | [ w ] | [ j ] | [ z ] |
The vowels (vaoli)
The vowels are immutable. There are, however, three different lengths per vowel. These lengths are represented by repeating the vowels, e.g. B.: a, aa or aaa.
The consonants (Kɔnsonanti)
The Ga consonants are pronounced roughly as in German or English. Note that ŋa is pronounced like 'nga'.
Digraphs and Trigraphs (Haaji Agbɛɛmɔ)
There are eleven digraphs and two trigraphs in the Ga language. It is important to pronounce these as one sound:
| Ga | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gb | gw | hw | jw | kp | kw | ny | ŋm | ŋw | sh | ts | shw | tsw | |||||||||||||
| IPA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| gb | ɡʷ | H | d͡ʒʷ | kp | kʷ | ɲ | ŋm | ŋʷ | ʃ | t͡ʃ | ʃʷ | t͡ʃʷ | |||||||||||||
See also
Web links
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Ga language (English)
- [1] (English)