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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.