Typological Features Template for Dangme

BY REGINA OFORIWAH CAESAR

Feature	Description
Phonological Features	In the following fields I describe the phonological inventory of the Dangme.
Vowel inventory	Dangme has seven vowels. These are /i, e,ε, a,כ,o,u/. All the seven vowels of Dangme can be lenghtened as they appear in the following words: Short Long te ‘to fly’ Agbee ‘a diety’ yá 'net’ ejakaa ‘because’ to ‘goat’ loo ‘weaves’ lε ‘firewood’ bεε ‘sweeps’ pu ‘burry’ sukuu ‘school’ nini ‘shadow’ mii ‘sunk’ kɔ ‘fist’ tsɔɔ ‘to teach’
Vowel harmony	Vowel harmony occurs mildly in Dangme. The kind of vowel harmony is not the classic type. It is mostly realized in the formation of some negatives in Dangme. Vowel harmony occurs in Verb stems that take the suffix [-i]in their negative formation.For instance, verb stems that end in /u/ select the high front rounded vowel as their negative marker. By so doing, the front and back vowel /i,u/ agree in height. Verb Stem Negative Suffix [-i] tu 'jump' tui 'did not jump' pu ' burry' pui 'did not burry' ku 'break' kui 'did not break' Also, verbs stems which end in the vowel /o/, raises the /o/ from mid-high to high position in their negative formations before the negative marker /i/ is attached. For example: Verb Stem Rise in vowel height Negative Suffix [-i] ko 'pound' ko = ku kui 'did not pound' lo 'weave' lo = lu lui 'did not weave' po 'cut' po = pu pui 'did not cut'
Consonant inventory	In this field I describe the consonants of Dangme. Dangme has a total of twenty three consonants. These are: d, d, f, g, gb, h, j, k, kp, l, m, n, ng, ny, ngm, p, s, t, v, w, y, z. Each of these consonants can occur at word initial, and at word medial positions. But 'm' can also occur at word final position. Words formed with consonant 'm' at the final position function as adverbs.See below: pampam, tamtam, kamkam, tomtom.
Tone	In this field I describe the tone pattern in Dangme. Dangme is a tone language.It has three tone levels: high tone (́), mid tone (̀), and low tone (ˉ). These tones function lexically and grammatically to distinguish meaning among words and phrases in the Dangme language. For example: Lexical Tone Meaning/Gloss bá come! = Imperative bā came = Past bà leaf = noun má dough = noun mā herrings = noun mà town = noun Grammatical Tone Meaning Á kpè piɔ. They should meet now! À kpè hiε. They have met yesterday. À kpé lo ɔ. They chewed the meat
Syllable Structure	In this field I indicate the basic syllable structures of Dangme. The syllable types in Dangme are the V, CV, CVC, CVCV, CVVCVV,CCVCV,CVCCV, CVCCVCV etc. These pronouns fall under the V structural type. The raised (t) represents tone: i : Vt a : Vt e : Vt o : Vt CVt Type examples: gbe, to, pa, we, bo, sa, ngma, kpe, gbe CVtC type examples: pam, kam, tom, kom, vam CVtCVt Type examples: kake, Dede, Tsatsu, kutsa, baba, doti
Morpho-syntactic Features	In the following fields I describe some of the basic morpho-syntactic parameters of Dangme.
morphological classification (1)	Dangme is mildly inflectional. There are some few nominal prefixes and verbal inflection indicating tense, aspect and negation. example: VERB NOUN a- + kpasa = Akpasa PREFIX lean against... a kind of chair o- + hia = ohia PREFIX in need poverty
morphological classification (2)	In Dangme, the subject and verb do not agree. But there is some agreement with the nominal head in noun phrases and with adjectives they co-occur with. The determiners also agree in number with nouns.
Nominal Phrases	In the following fields follows a description of some of the basic morpho-syntactic properties of nominal constituents
syntactic structure	In this field I describe the linear order of elements in the noun phrase involves pre-head modifiers such as possessive pronouns, demonstratives, cardinal and distributive numerals and epithet.
nominal modification	In this field I indicate the basic types of nominal modification (adjectives and relative clauses. Adjectives such as colour adjectives, derived adjectves, distributional adjectives,adjective of height, size and many others are used to modify nominals.
nominal specification	In this field i indicate the basic types of specification in Dangme. Dangme have determiners such as :ko = singular, komε = plural (indefinate markers) and the definate markers include: a = 'the' singular, ɔ= 'the' singular and amε and ɔmε =plural markers. demonstratives include: jamε a = 'that', and kikεmε a = 'this'
Possession	In this field I describe how possession is expressed in Dangme.(for example, by the use of nouns and pronouns.) Example: O we ɔ kle. your house the big 2PL N DET ADJ Your house is big. Kofi gbe ɔ gbo. KofiPOSS dog DET diePAST KOfi's dog is dead. To ɔ nane ku. goat DET leg breakPERF The goat has broken its leg.
pronominal system	In this field I indicate that Dangme has free pronoun forms. The pronouns are marked for their grammatical function (object versus subject pronouns. Dangme does not have bound pronouns. (Pronouns are used to express reflexives.) Free Pronouns I, e, a , o, mi, mo, mε, wa, ye, wɔ I he/she/it their your me you.PL them our my us Subject Pronouns I, e, a, o. I he/she/it their your Object Pronoun mi, mo, mε, wa, ye, wɔ me you.PL them our my us
Verbal phrases	In the following fields serves for the description of some of the basic morpho-syntactic properties of verbal constituents.
word order	The basic word order of your Dangme is SVO.
TAM	Dangme make use of Periphrastic tense and aspect constructions. Example:
verbal constructions	In this field I indicate that Dangme has ditransitive constructions, serial verb constructions or complex verb forms composed of several verbs.
Adpositions	In this field you indicate if [your language[ makes use of prepositions or postpositions. Does your language have spatial nouns? Does your language use adpositions or particles to indicate grammatical relations between the verb and a nominal argument?
Complementation	In this field I describe complementation strategies. Dangme makes use of complementizers.
Special Properties of Dangme.