LWM 165: Dàgáárè (e-book)

 

A. B. Bodomo
University of Hong Kong

Dàgáárè is a Mabia language of the Gur branch of the Niger-Congo language family of Africa. It is spoken mainly in northwestern Ghana by about 1.5 million people. This grammatical sketch, based on the Central Dialect spoken around Jirapa, is divided into three chapters of phonology, morphology and syntax. Chapter one provides the basic phonological features of the language, including vowel harmony and tone. Chapter two deals with the basic morphology of nouns and verbs. Chapter three sketches some syntactic structures of the nominal and verbal phrases. These chapters are preceded by a summary of pertinent sociolinguistic facts about the language. A text with interlinear translations and a short Dagaare - English vocabulary list conclude this grammatical sketch. Basic bibliography: Bodomo, A. B. 1997. The Structure of Dàgáárè. Stanford Monographs in African Languages, CSLI publications. Kennedy, Jack. 1966. The Phonology of Dagaari. Institute of African Studies, Legon, Accra.

Languages of the World/Materials 165. 60pp. 2000.