Difference between revisions of "Typological Features Template for Dangme"

Revision as of 11:33, 19 November 2009

BY REGINA OFORIWAH CAESAR

Feature	Description
Phonological Features	In the following fields I describe the phonological inventory of the Dangme.
Vowel inventory	In this field I describe the vowels of Dangme. See below: 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: te ‘to fly’ yá ‘net’ Agbee ‘a diety’ ejakaa ‘because’ to ‘goat’ lε ‘firewood’ loo ‘weaves’ bεε ‘sweeps’ pu ‘burry’ nini ‘shadow’ sukuu ‘school’ mii ‘sunk’ kɔ ‘fist’ tsɔɔ ‘to teach’
Vowel harmony	In this field I describe rule based assimilations involving vowels in Dangme. Vowel harmony occurs mildly in Dangme. It is mostly realised 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. See below: 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] /o/ = /u/ 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.
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.
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 you describe the linear order of elements in the noun phrase
nominal modification	In this field you indicate the basic types of nominal modification (adjectives, relative clauses, adpositions...)
nominal specification	In this field you indicate the basic types of specification. Does [your language] have determiners, demonstratives (deixis), numerals, quantifiers. Are there affixes expressing reference, deixis. Are there nouns or other elements expression a portion of a noun that the co-occur with?
possession	In this field you describe how possession is expressed (for example, syntactically or by use of prepositions, through juxtaposition or morphologically) Does [your language] feature possessive pronouns?
pronominal system	In this field you indicate if [your language] has free pronoun forms? Are pronouns marked for their grammatical function (object versus subject pronouns)? Does your language have bound pronouns (affixes) or pronoun doubling? Are reflexives expressed by pronouns?
Verbal Phrases	In the following fields serve for the description of some of the basic morpho-syntactic properties of verbal constituents
word order	In this field you indicate the basic word order of your language (SOV, SOV ...)
TAM	In this field you indicate which tense and/or aspects are morphologically or tonally marked; does [your language] make use of periphrastic tense or aspect constructions?
infinitival forms	In this field you indicate if [your language] makes use of an infinitive marker? How many infinitival forms does your language have?
verbal constructions	In this field you indicate if [your language] has ditransitive constructions, serial verb constructions or complex verb forms composed of several verbs. Does your language have so called light verbs, perhaps only used to indicate a certain tense or aspect?
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 you describe complementation strategies. Does [your language] make use of complementizers?
Special Properties of [your language]	In this field you should mention properties of [your language] which did not fit into any of the other categories mentioned in this template

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 |Vowel inventory
 | In this field I describe the vowels of Dangme. See below:
-   Dangme has seven vowels. These are /i, e,ε, a,כ,o,u/.
+   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:
+    te   ‘to fly’                             yá         ‘net’
+    Agbee ‘a diety’                           ejakaa     ‘because’
+    to  ‘goat’                                lε   ‘firewood’
+    loo  ‘weaves’                             bεε   ‘sweeps’
+    pu  ‘burry’                               nini   ‘shadow’
+    sukuu ‘school’                            mii     ‘sunk’
+    kɔ  ‘fist’
+    tsɔɔ ‘to teach’
 |-
 |Vowel harmony
@@ Line 49: / Line 63: @@
      	bá                            come! = Imperative
      	bā                            came = Past
-         bà                             leaf = noun
+         bà                            leaf = noun
-         má                       dough = noun
+         má                        dough = noun
          mā                        herrings = noun
          mà                        town  = noun