Difference between revisions of "Typological Features Template for Dangme"
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|morphological classification (1) | |morphological classification (1) | ||
| − | |Dangme is mildly inflectional. There are some few nominal prefixes and verbal inflection indicating tense, aspect and negation. | + | |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) | |morphological classification (2) | ||
Revision as of 14:53, 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.
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 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 |