Remaining Togo languages

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Togo residual languages is an outdated term for a subgroup of the Kwa languages , which form a sub-unit of the Volta-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo languages . According to today's terminology, the so-called remaining Togo languages ​​form two genetic sub-units within the Kwa languages : the Ka-Togo and the Na-Togo . The 14 languages ​​of these two units are spoken by around 300,000 people in eastern Ghana , central Togo and northwestern Benin .

Development of the term

The so-called remaining Togo languages ​​were recognized by Bernhard Struck in 1912 as genealogically related. He called her Semibantu from Middle Togo . Diedrich Westermann replaced this designation in 1922 first with remaining languages ​​in Central Togo , then in 1927 with remaining Togo languages . This term has been replaced in English by Central Togo Languages . Joseph Greenberg (1950, 1963) adopted these languages ​​in his Kwa group; today we speak of Na-Togo and Ka-Togo languages within the Kwa.

Speech characteristics

Like most Niger-Congo languages , the so-called remaining Togo languages ​​also have a nominal class system that has been researched far better than that of neighboring language groups. The remaining Togo languages ​​are - like most other Kwa languages ​​- tone languages and have a distinctive vowel system with vowel harmony . Many were heavily influenced by the dominant languages Ewe and Twi .

classification

Na-Togo and Ka-Togo languages ​​within the Kwa languages

  • Kwa
    • Ega
    • Potou-Tano
    • Ga-Dangme
    • Na-Togo
      • Lelemi: Lelemi-Lefana (40 thousand), Siwu (20 thousand); Sekpele (15 thousand), Sele (Santrokofi) (10 thousand)
      • Logba: Logba (5 thousand)
      • Anii-Adele: Anii (10 thousand), Adele (20 thousand)
    • Ka Togo
    • Gbe
    • Esuma
    • Cenka

Only the so-called remaining Togo languages ​​are listed here as individual languages.

See also

literature

Remaining Togo languages

  • Ursula Hintze: Bibliography of the Kwa languages ​​and the languages ​​of the remaining Togo peoples. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1959.
  • Bernd Heine: The distribution and structure of the Togorest languages. Cologne Contributions to African Studies, Vol. 1. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Cologne 1968.

Kwa languages

  • Joseph Greenberg: The Languages ​​of Africa. Mouton, The Hague and Indiana University Center, Bloomington 1963.
  • Joseph Greenberg: Studies in African Linguistic Classification. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 1949-50.
  • 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.
  • Diedrich Westermann: The western Sudan languages ​​and their relationship to Bantu. Announcements from the seminar for oriental languages. Berlin 1927.
  • Patrick Bennett and Jan Sterk: South Central Niger-Congo: A Reclassification. Studies in African Linguistics. 1977.

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