Ga language
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{{Infobox Language |name=Ga |familycolor=Niger-Congo |nativename=Ga |pronunciation=/gã/ |region=South-eastern Ghana, around Accra |speakers=600,000 (SIL 2004) |fam2=Atlantic-Congo |fam3=Volta-Congo |fam4=Kwa |fam5=Nyo |fam6=Ga-Dangme |nation=Ghana |script=Latin alphabet (Ga variant) |iso2=gaa |iso3=gaa}}
The Ga language is a Kwa language spoken in Ghana, in and around the capital Accra. It has a phonemic distinction between 3 vowel lengths.
Contents |
Classification
Ga is a Kwa language, part of the Niger-Congo family. It is very closely related to Adangme, and together they form the Ga-Dangme branch within Kwa.
Geographic distribution
Ga is spoken in south-eastern Ghana, in and around the capital Accra. It has relatively little dialectal variation. Although English is the official language of Ghana, Ga is one of 16 languages which the Bureau of Ghana Languages publishes material in.
Phonology
Consonants
Ga has 31 consonant phonemes.
- Template:IPA is an allophone of Template:IPA which occurs before nasals and is represented with its own digraph in writing.
- Template:IPA may be realised as Template:IPA when between a consonant and vowel
- Template:IPA has an allophone Template:IPA before nasal vowels
Vowels
Ga has 7 oral vowels and 5 nasal vowels. All of the vowels have 3 different vowel lengths: short, long or extra long (used in the simple future and the simple past negative forms).
| Monophthongs | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | |
| Close-mid | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | |
| Open-mid | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | |
| Open | Template:IPA |
| Monophthongs | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | |
| Close-mid | |||
| Open-mid | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | |
| Open | Template:IPA |
Tones
Ga has 2 tones, high and low. Like many West African languages, it has tone terracing.
Phonotactics
The possible syllable structures are V, CV, CCV where the second consonant is Template:IPA, or a syllabic nasal.
Writing system
Ga was first written by Christian Jacobsen Protten, who was the son of a Danish soldier and an African woman, in about 1764. The orthography has been revised a number of times since 1968, with the most recent review in 1990.
The writing system is a Latin-based alphabet and has 26 letters. It has three additional letter symbols which correspond to the IPA symbols. There are also eleven digraphs and two trigraphs. Vowel length is represented by doubling or tripling the vowel symbol, eg 'a', 'aa' and 'aaa'. Tones are not represented. Nasalisation is represented after oral consonants where it distinguishes between minimal pairs.
The Ga alphabet is: Aa, Bb, Dd, Ee, Ɛɛ, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Ŋŋ, Oo, Ɔɔ, Pp, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Yy, Zz
The following letters represent sounds which do not correspond with the same letter as the IPA symbol (eg B represents Template:IPA):
- J j - Template:IPA
- Y y - Template:IPA
Digraphs and trigraphs:
- Gb gb - Template:IPA
- Gw gw - Template:IPA
- Hw hw - Template:IPA
- Jw jw - Template:IPA
- Kp kp - Template:IPA
- Kw kw - Template:IPA
- Ny ny - Template:IPA
- Ŋm ŋm - Template:IPA
- Ŋw ŋw - Template:IPA
- Sh sh - Template:IPA
- Ts ts - Template:IPA
- Shw shw - Template:IPA
- Tsw tsw - Template:IPA
See also
References
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book | publisher=Accra:Bureau of Ghana Languages | year=1995 | id=ISBN 9964-2-0276-8}}
- Template:Cite book