Kabiye language

**Kabiye** ([kàbɪ̀jɛ̀]; gee mɛ kelum dɛna *Kabiyé*, *Kabiyè*, *Kabye*, *Kabyé*, *Kabyè*, *Cabrai* bii *Cabrais*) de la Eastern Gurunsi Gur tɔgum duma ti ba tɔgera northern Togo tiŋa puan. 20th century yuuma la puan za'a, nɛreba zo'e zo'e n iŋɛ ta ki'ira centre la south of Togo ta pa'asɛ Gaana so'olom la Benin so'olum duma za'a. Nɛresɛba n tɔgerɛ Kabiye tɔgum 23% n de Togolese nɛreba la 1999 yuuma la puan.

## Status
Kabiye de la national languages duma bayi la puan ayima n boi Togo (naaɛ la Ewe tɔgum). Togolese duma tɔgum puan, *national language* *n de nananewa yetɔgum ti ba tara tɔgera* national media puan, la ba formal education sector puan, ti la dɛna ba optional exam subject bɔna grades 9 la 10 puan.

## Linguistic research
Gee missionary-linguist Jacques Delord yuum dike la ba grammar pa'alegɔ yɛla dɛɛlɛ pɛɛlumɛ Kabiye yetɔgum puan 1976 puan. Yelesi'a n yuum doose poore de la Kezié Lébikaza's grammar pa'alegɔ yɛla 1999 yuuni la puan, sɛba kelum ze'ele dɛna dãalum bɔ'ɔra Kabiye linguistics tuuma yɛla. Sɛla n kelum bɔna pa'asɛ Kabiye-French yelebɛa naaŋɔ bii yelebɛa pa'alegɔ gɔŋɔ "dictionary'. Yelezuto sɛba n kelum bɔna pa'asɛ ti tu bisera de la: Comparative linguistics, Discourse analysis, Language contact, Lexicology,  Morphology, Phonology,  Sociolinguistics, Syntax, Tone orthography, Tonology, la verb system.

## Publications
Pɔsega puan gɔnseto ti ba yuum dige nɛŋa dike dɛɛlɛ pɛɛlumɛ ti ba mina de la Kabiye 1930s yuuma la puan. Gee gɔnseto n pugum kɔ'ɔm bɔna yuum de la bii yuum paɛ 200 ti ba dike dɛɛlɛ pɛɛlumɛ Kabiye tɔgum puan, gee dagi ba za'a waabe n kelum bɔna gɔnɔ puansin zina beere wa bii bɔna ŋwana maana ti ba dã'ara bii bɔna ti fu wan nyɛ da. Gee nɛresɛba n yuum tari ŋwana wa wa'ana la yuum iŋɛ ŋwana wa la Pouwili, 1999 yuuni la puan. Gɔnseto ti ba yuum dike pa'asɛ bini dɛɛlɛ pɛɛlumɛ la de la tɔgebigemu bayi gɔnɔ "two books of proverbs", folktales, poetry, medical booklets, agricultural booklets, translations of the Bible, political tracts, religious tracts, a short novel, primers, la other pedagogical materials.

### Kabiye Wikipedia
Ba yuum tari Kabiye Wikipedia yuum wa'ana la June ŋmareŋa la puan 2014 puan doose Gnasse Atinèdi, la secretary ni de Académie Kabiye. Gee a nananewa de la (July 2017 yuuni la puan) a tari 1185 articles bɔna wide range of international subjects.

## Phonology

### Kɔnya'asi (Consonants)

Kɔnya'asi voole-duma banuu wa de la /b v dʒ ɡ ɡ͡b/ ba ta'am niira word-medially puan bii allophones puan.

Gee retroflex sound /ʈ/ ta'am niɛ voiced allophones puan n de  [ɖ], [ɽ], or [r] medial position puan.

### Kɔdaasi (Vowels)

#### Kɔdageresi (Short vowels)

#### Kɔdawɔgero (Long vowels)

The long back unrounded vowels only occur at morpheme boundaries.

### Tones
Kabiye is a tonal language, meaning that pitch differences are used to distinguish one word from another. These contrasts may be lexical (e.g. *ɖálʊ́* "elder brother" ~ *ɖálʊ̀* "intestinal worm") or grammatical (e.g. *ɛɛkɔŋ́* "he isn't coming" ~ *ɛɛ́kɔŋ* "(when) he comes" ~ *ɛ́ɛkɔ́ŋ* "if he doesn't come).

There are two tones, high (H) and low (L). Six tone contours are possible on mono- and disyllabic nouns (H, L, HL, LH, HLH, LHL) and three on the imperative form of the verb (H, L, HL).

Kabiye also has automatic downstep, where a H following a L is always pronounced on a lower pitch than the preceding H within the same phonological phrase. Numerous tonal processes occur once words are placed in context.

The contour HLH always surfaces as HꜜHH ~ HHꜜH (depending on the consonant–vowel structure that it associates to). This is a postlexical process that occurs wherever the context permits, within words and across word boundaries.

There is lexical L tone spreading in the verb phrase and the associative noun phrase.

### Vowel harmony
Kabiye has vowel harmony, meaning that the quality of the vowel in an affix is determined by that of the root vowel. There are two kinds:

# ATR vowel harmony, in which words contain either the −ATR vowels /ɪ ɛ ʊ ɔ/ (e.g. *ɛ-ñɩmɩ́-yɛ* "his key") or the +ATR vowels /i e u o/ (*e-kalími-yé* "his chicken"). The vowel /a/ is unspecified for ATR and can occur in either set.

# Lip rounding vowel harmony, in which some affixes contains either unrounded vowels /i ɪ e ɛ/ or rounded vowels /u ʊ o ɔ/. This process is much more limited, occurring in some TAM suffixes (e.g. *è-kpéz-íɣ́* "he coughs" / *è-ɖóz-ùù* "he dreams") and some adjectival prefixes (e.g. *kɩ́-kpɛ̀d-ʊ̀ʊ́* "black", *kʊ́-hʊ̀lʊ̀m-ʊ́ʊ̀* "white"). Again, the vowel /a/ is unspecified for ATR and can occur in either set.

A limited number of prefixes undergo both vowel harmony processes, e.g. the first person plural subject pronoun: *pà-kpàzá-à* "they coughed", *pɛ̀-wɛ̀ɛ́tà-à* "they whispered", *pè-wèlìsàá* "they listened", *pɔ̀-cɔ́nà-à* "they looked", *pò-ɖòzà-á* "they dreamt".

## Orthography
Ba yuum pɔsɛ gulesɛ Kabiye yia gulesegɔ la 1930s yuuma la puan, gee la nyaa yuum wa'ana bɔna la 1980s yuuma pɔsega la puan n boi *Comité de Langue Nationale Kabiyè* (gee nananewa wa nyaa dɛna *Académie Kabiyè*), la de la organ bɔ'ɔra Togolese Ministry of Education, standardized the orthography. Ba gulesɛ Kabiye iŋɛ la modified Roman script based doose la character inventory puan na n boi "African reference alphabet puan". Yelebɛa gulesegɔ ayima mɛ de la "An alternative orthography", yuum gulesɛ mɛ gee tole nɛŋa doose R.P. Adjola Raphaël, ti Catholics duma zo'e zo'e tara tuna; a de la kɔa ayima gee ti vuure la bɔna yima yima. Daka duma n gai tilum wa wan pa'alɛ grapheme-phoneme correspondences, Standard orthography puan.

### Kɔnya'asi (Consonants)

Gulesegɔ sɔa (Orthography) wa tari la ninmu'urɛ yɛla yesera yelebɛa wa puansin, sɛla n sɔi la voole-duma banuu 5 la tari la (obstruent graphemes) *b*, *g*, *gb*, *v*, *j* de la (superfluous) ze'ele from phonemic bisega puan.

Grapheme ⟨r⟩ wa de la sɛla ze'ele tuna bɔ'ɔra "loanwords".

### Kɔdaasi (Vowels)

#### Kɔdageresi (Short vowels)

#### Kɔdawogero (Long vowels)

### Sample text
*Man-kabɩyɛ kʊnʊŋ, ŋɖewa pɩfɛyɩ naʊ. Yee pɔyɔɔdʊʊ-ŋ nɛ ɛyʊ welesi yɔ, pɩwɛ-ɩ ɛzɩ wondu peteɣ. Ɛlɛ, yee ɛyʊ ɛwɛɛ nɛ ɛɛmaɣzɩɣ ñɔ-yɔɔ camɩyɛ yɔ, ɛɛnaɣ ñe-ɖeu. Nɔɔyʊ ewelesiɣ pɩŋŋ nɛ ɛnɩɩ pɔyɔɔdʊʊ-ŋ yɔ, pɩlakɩ-ɩ ɛzɩ ɛtazɩ nɛ ɛna ñɛ-wɛtʊ yɔ, pɩɩsaŋɩ-ɩ se eyele. Ŋwɛ yuŋ weyi nɛ ɛyʊ ɛɛtɛŋ ñɔ-tɔm yɔ, pɩtɩna nɛ ɛyʊ ɛɖɔkɩ-ŋ pɩfɛyɩ yebu; Ñɛ-wɛtʊ lɩnɩ le nɛ paasɩŋ ñɔ-tɔm ? Tɔm kɔpɔzaɣ ŋga ɖicosuu-kɛ tobi. Ñɛ-wɛtʊ nɛ tɩ-tɩ solo, mbʊ pʊyɔɔ yɔ ɖooo ŋŋwɛɛ, natʊyʊ taasoki ña-taa se tɩpɩsɩ-ŋ nɔɔyʊjaʊ. Kabɩyɛ kʊnʊŋ, ña-pɩɣa canɩɣna-ŋ nɛ kewiliɣ-ŋ, nɛ kasaŋ-ŋ ño-yuŋ, ñe-ɖeu nɛ ñe-leleŋ yɔɔ.*mankabɪjɛ kʊnʊŋ, ŋɖewa pɪfɛjɪ naʊ. jeː pɔjɔːdʊːŋ nɛ ɛjʊ welesi jɔ, pɪwɛɪ ɛzɪ wondu petɤː. ɛlɛ, jeː ɛjʊ ɛwɛː nɛ ɛmɑːzɯ̙ː ɲɔjɔ tʃamɪjɛ jɔ, ɛːnɑː ɲeɖeu. nɔːjʊ ewelesɯ̘ː pɪŋː nɛ ɛnɪː pɔjɔːdʊːŋ jɔ, pɪlakɪː ɛzɪ ɛtazɪ nɛ ɛna ɲɛwɛtʊ jɔ, pɪːsaŋɪː se ejele. ŋwɛ juŋ weji nɛ ɛjʊ ɛːtɛŋ ɲɔtɔm jɔ, pɪtɪna nɛ ɛjʊ ɛɖɔkɪŋ pɪfɛjɪ jebu; ɲɛwɛtʊ lɪnɪ le nɛ paːsɪŋ ɲɔtɔm? tɔm kɔpɔzɑː ŋga ɖitʃosuːkɛ tobi. ɲɛwɛtʊ nɛ tɪtɪ solo, mbʊ pʊjɔː jɔ ɖo.oː ŋːwɛː, natʊjʊ taːsoki ɲataː se tɪpɪsɪŋ nɔːjʊdʒaʊ. kabɪjɛ kʊnʊŋ, ɲapɯ̙ːa tʃanɯ̙ːnaŋ nɛ kɛwilɯ̘ːŋ, nɛ kasaŋː ɲojuŋ, ɲeɖeu nɛ ɲeleleŋ jɔː.

## Viisegɔ Lɔgerɔ