Kwa languages
The Kwa languages are a subgroup of the South Volta-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo languages .
Together with the Benue Congo languages , they form the southern branch of the Volta Congo. The approximately 75 Kwa languages are spoken by 21 million people in the Ivory Coast , Ghana , Togo , Benin and southwest Nigeria . Neighbors in the north are the Gur languages , in the east the central Nigerian languages , in the west the Mande and Kru languages . All neighboring language groups also belong to the Niger-Congo .
Major Kwa languages
The most important Kwa languages are:
- Akan (also Twi-Fante): one of the most important languages (or language groups) in Ghana with 10 million speakers
- Ewe : 4 million speakers in southeast Ghana and Togo
- Baule : 2 million speakers in Ivory Coast
- Fon : 1.7 million speakers, mainly in Benin
- Ga-Dangme : 1.4 million speakers in the Accra district
- Anyin : 1 million speakers in Ivory Coast and Ghana
classification
The name "Kwa" was introduced in 1885 by Gottlob Krause . The Kwa languages were initially summarized according to typological criteria (presence of labiovelars , tonal languages , absence of almost all morphological elements such as class affixes and derivative morphemes). For Diedrich Westermann (1927) the Kwa formed a subgroup of Western Sudanese , for Joseph Greenberg (1963) a primary branch of the Niger-Congo . He divided the Kwa languages into eight sub-units and integrated the central Togo languages (“Remaining Togo languages”, today Na-Togo and Ka-Togo ) into the Kwa group. Bennett and Sterk (1977) reduced Greenberg's kwa by adding
- added the little uniform eastern Kwa subgroups as "West Benue Congo" to the Benue Congo ,
- established the Ijoid languages as the independent primary branch of the Niger-Congo and
- the Kru understood as an independent unit of the North Volta Congo .
The remaining “new” Kwa coincides with Greenberg's “West Kwa”. Its location in Niger-Congo is shown in the following diagram:
Position of the Kwa within the Niger-Congo
-
Niger-Congo
-
Volta Congo
-
South Volta Congo
- Kwa
- Benue Congo
-
South Volta Congo
-
Volta Congo
This approach is now generally accepted with minor modifications. The following internal classification of the (new) Kwa follows Williamson-Blench (in Heine-Nurse 2000), all Kwa languages are listed with their number of speakers (based on the web links given below).
Internal classification of the Kwa languages
-
Kwa
- Ega : Ega (3 thousand)
- Avikam-Alaidian : Avikam ( 20k ), Aladian ( 25k )
- Agneby : Abe (170 thousand), Adyukuru (100 thousand), Abidji (50 thousand)
- Attie : Attie (400k)
-
Potou-Tano
- Potou: Ebrie (Tyama) (80k), Mbato ( 25k )
- Tano (Volta-Komoe)
- Krobu: Krobu (10 th.)
- Abure-Beti: Abure (55 thousand), Beti (3 thousand)
- Akan-Bia
-
Guang
- North: Gonya (250 thousand), Krache (60 thousand), Chumburung (40 thousand), Nkonya (20 thousand), Dwang (10 thousand), Foodo (15 thousand), Giklyode (10 thousand) , Kplang (10 thousand), Nawuri (15 thousand), Anyanga (10 thousand), Nchumbulu , Dompo
- South: Awutu-Efutu ( 100k ), Gua ( Larteh - Cherepon- Anum-Boso) (150k)
- Ga-Dangme : Ga - Dangme (Dangme, Accra) (1.4 million)
- Na-Togo
- Ka Togo
-
Gbe
- Ewe: Ewe (3–4 million)
- Gen: Mina (Gen) (300 thousand, with second speakers 1 million)
- Aja: Aja (500 thousand), Gun (500 thousand), Ayizo (230 thousand), Tofin (65 thousand), Weme (60 thousand), Xwala (30 thousand), Toli, Seto
- Fon: Fon (1.7 million), Maxi (100 thousand)
- Waci: Waci ( 500k )
- Others : Xwela (65 thousand), Xweda (55 thousand), Ko (20 thousand), Aguna, Kpessi , Saxwe, Wudu , Ci
- Esuma : Esuma †
- Cenka : Cenka
Linguistic characteristics
The Kwa languages have different nominal class systems ; while that of the Ega is fully established, other Kwa languages have reduced or rudimentary systems. Usually prefixes are used in morphology , there are some plural suffixes . The initial consonant can alternate, but this has no semantic , but only phonetic reasons. Causative , reflexive ("love oneself") and reciprocal ("love one another") are derived from verbs using suffixes . There are independent personal pronouns and dependent subject, object and possessive pronouns . The 3rd person of the pronouns differentiates the categories animate and inanimate . The sentence order is SVO, postpositions and no prepositions are usually used. The noun phrase does not have a uniform structure, often genitive + noun , possessive + noun , but noun + adjective , noun + numerals and noun + demonstrative .
Examples of noun phrases from the Akan (without tone marking):
- Ghana maŋ "the country of Ghana"
- abofara no nhoma lit. "The child's book", "the child's book" (here with the possessive no )
- mmara foforo "a new law" ( mmara "law", foforo "new")
- mmara ha "this law"
Several Kwa languages have a serial verb construction . If a whole series of verbs appear one after the other in the same tense - mode - aspect function, which have the same subject and object, the pronominal subject and object are only marked on the first verb.
Almost all Kwa languages are tonal languages , mostly there are two, sometimes three pitches (e.g. in Akan and Ewe), in some Kwa languages there are even four basic tones. The tone structure is further complicated by so-called key lowering , which can consist of a tone gradation ( downstep ) or a tone sliding ( downglide ). In some Kwa languages there is vowel harmony ; so the vocal harmony determined Akan ( tensioned and untensioned vowel series / i, e, a, o, u / and / ɨ, ɛ, ɑ, o, ʋ /) the vowel structure of possessive and Subjektspronomina a function of the vowel coloring of the strain.
literature
- Joseph Greenberg: The Languages of Africa. Mouton, The Hague and Indiana University Center, Bloomington 1963.
- Bernd Heine and others (ed.): The languages of Africa. Buske, Hamburg 1981.
- Bernd Heine and Derek Nurse (eds.): African Languages. An Introduction. Cambridge University Press 2000.
- John Bendor-Samuel (Ed.): The Niger-Congo Languages: A Classification and Description of Africa's Largest Language Family. University Press of America, Lanham, New York, London 1989. Therein: John M. Stewart: Kwa.
- Sigismund Koelle: Polyglotta Africana. London 1854.
- Diedrich Westermann: The western Sudan languages and their relationship to Bantu. Announcements from the seminar for oriental languages. Berlin 1927.
- Joseph Greenberg: Studies in African Linguistic Classification. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 1949-50.
- Patrick Bennett and Jan Sterk: South Central Niger-Congo: A Reclassification. Studies in African Linguistics. 1977.
- Ursula Hintze: Bibliography of the Kwa languages and the languages of the remaining Togo peoples. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1959.