Difference between revisions of "Typological Features Template for Dangme"

 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’

 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'
    

 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.     

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

 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

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

noun phrases and with adjectives they co-occur with. The determiners also agree in number with 
nouns.

modifiers such as possessive pronouns, demonstratives, cardinal and distributive numerals and 
epithet.  

Adjectives such as colour adjectives, derived adjectves, distributional adjectives,adjective of 
height, size and many others are used to modify nominals.

 such as :ko = singular, komε = plural (indefinate markers) and the definate maikers include: a = 'the' singulr, ɔ= 'the' singular and amε and ɔmε =plural markers.
demonstratives include: jamε a = 'that', and kikεmε a = 'this' 

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.

 I,    e,        a ,     o,    mi,  mo,     mε,   wa,  ye, wɔ

 Subject Pronouns
   I, e,            a,      o. 
   I   he/she/it   their   your

 Object Pronoun
    mi,  mo,     mε,   wa,  ye, wɔ