Ewe language

Ewe (endonym: *Eʋe* bii *Eʋegbe* [ɛβɛɡ͡bɛ]) bii Togolese de la tɔgum ti nɛreba N paɛ 5 million tɔgera bo West Africa tiŋa puan, ba tɔgerɛ tɔgum wa la Gaana la Togo tiŋa puan. Ewe de la tɔgum n lagum pa'asɛ tɔgesebo ti ba yi'ira ti Gbe tɔgum duma la buuri la puan. The other major Gbe tɔgesebo n lagum pa'asɛ dɛna tɔgekãtɛ de la Fon, se'em ti ba tɔgera bo Benin tiŋa puan. Magese wuu African tɔgum duma zo'e zo'e, Ewe de la "tonal" gee mɛ kelum dɛna kãlɛ pa'asɛ Niger-Congo yizuo la puan.

German Africanist Diedrich Hermann Westermann yuum dike ba dictionaries la grammars naɛ la Ewe la Gbe tɔgum duma basɛba zo'e zo'e. linguists duma basɛba sɛba N yuum lagum tum la Ewe la tɔgum duma basɛba N du bii naɛ la tɔgum N de wuu Gilbert Ansre (tone, syntax), Herbert Stahlke (morphology, tone), Nick Clements (tone, syntax), Roberto Pazzi (anthropology, lexicography), Felix K. Ameka (semantics, cognitive linguistics), Alan Stewart Duthie (semantics, phonetics), Hounkpati B. Capo (phonology, phonetics), Enoch Aboh (syntax), la Chris Collins (syntax).

## Dialects
Ewe yu'ura basɛba ti ba kɔ'ɔm mina ('Vhe') bii tɔgum duma ti ba mina de la "dialects" *Aŋlɔ, Tɔŋu (Tɔŋgu), Avenor, Agave people, Evedome, Awlan, Gbín, Pekí, Kpándo, Vhlin, Hó, Avɛ́no, Vo, Kpelen, Vɛ́, Danyi, Agu, Fodome, Wancé, Wací, Adángbe* (Capo).

*Ethnologue* 16 de la Waci la Kpesi (Kpessi) bɔna bayima la tɔgum duma basɛba zo'e zo'e. Ba naam la "dialect continuum" ta pa'asɛ Ewe la Gen (Mina), sɛba n tari "mutual intelligibility level" ti la paɛ 85%; dɛna Ewe varieties Gbin, Ho, Kpelen, Kpesi, la Vhlin ta'am dɛna bii ze'ele bo "third cluster of Western Gbe dialects bɔna Ewe la Gen tiŋasuka, gee Kpesi de la se'em n du bii n kɔ'ɔm ba'am du la Waci la Vo dialects, se'em n yee bɔna Ewe scenario puan. Waci intervenes geographically bɔna Ewe proper la Gen tiŋa puan; Kpesi naam la Gbe island bɔna Kabye area.

Ewe tɔgum mɛŋa de la "dialect cluster" bɔna Gbe tɔgum duma puan, sɛba n naɛ la bii n pa'asɛ Gen, Aja, Kotafon, Mina la Xwla ti ba tɔgera bo southern, Ghana ta paɛ Togo, Benin la Western Nigeria. Gee Gbe tɔgum duma tari bii tɔti la "intelligibility" naɛ la taaba. Gee coastal la southern dialects of Ewe de la Aŋlɔ, Tongu (Tɔŋu), Avenor, Dzodze, la Watsyi. Gee inland dialects indigenously characterized as Ewedomegbe include: Ho, Kpedze, Hohoe, Peki, Kpando, Aveme, Liati, Fódome, Danyi, la Kpele. Gee tu tari la classifications duma zo'e zo'e, distinct variations bɔna tinsi n zaɛ la taaba.

## Phonology

## Phonology

### Kɔdaasi (Consonants)

*H* wa de la "voiced fricative", gee ti a pa'alegɔ kuyima dɛna uvular, [ʁ], pharyngeal, [ʕ], or glottal [ɦ].

/n/ wa de la alveolar dɛna [n̺], gee mɛ wan ta'am dɛna dental [n̪].

Gee nyɔa puan kɔnya'asi sina wa "nasal consonants" [m, n, ɲ, ŋ] ka boi bayima se'ere n sɔi la ba ni niɛ la zi'a ti nyɔa puan kɔdaasi ma'a bɔna "nasal vowels"; ŋwana wa zuo, Ewe tɔgum puan saŋa-kayima ni ta bɔna mɛ ti ba ka tara nyɔa puan kɔnya'asi. Gee, tɔgum puan nɛreba tɔgeya ti nyɔa puan kɔsina wa /m, n, ɲ, ŋ/ naam mɛ dɛna "denasalized" gee ti wan ta'am paɛ nuure puan kɔɔsi "oral vowels".

Kɔ kana wa ni wa'ana mɛ [ɣ] gee bo kɔa n ka kilise (non-back) kɔdaasi la [w] ni wa'ana mɛ gee nyaa paɛ pooren kɔdaasi (back) vowels.

Palatalization of alveolar consonants /t͡s, d͡z, s, z/ gee paɛ high-front vowel /i/ n boi Southern dialect, la gee dɛna heard as [t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, ʃ, ʒ].

Ewe de la tɔgum duma la zo'e zo'e la ayima ti ba mina ti a tara contrast [f] vs. [ɸ] la [v] vs. [β]. Gee *f* la *v* tari la paŋa tɔgum duma basɛba puansin, [f͈] la [v͈], tari la upper lip noticeably raised, gee bɔna ba tɔka yese kɔsina wa n ka tari paŋa wa puan [ɸ] la [β].

/l/ ta'am niɛ a mɛŋa "consonant clusters". Ka nyaa ni wa'ana dɛna la [ɾ] (bii[ɾ̃]) coronals wa pooren

### Kɔdaasi (Vowels)

Gee tilde (˜) wa de la nyɔa puan kɔdaasi dãalum "nasal vowels", gee Peki dialect ka tari /õ/. Ewe tɔgum duma buuri buuri ka tara (front mid vowels), gee Gaana wa tɔgum duma zo'e zo'e puan tari la kɔdasɛna wa pa'asɛ/ə/ la /ə̃/.

Ewe ka tari nasal–oral contrast kɔnya'asi puan. A ta'am ni tara, gee, a ni tara syllabic nasal, sɛba n ta'am bɔna ba tɔka [m n ŋ], yesera kɔnya'asi sesi n gai tilum wa, a ni carries tone. Gɔnguleseba "authors treat" ni dike ti la dɛna kɔdaa, gee tara odd ti ŋwana ta'asa ti Ewe duma tara nyɔa puan kɔɔsi gana oral vowels, ti kɔsina wa yima ka tari zi'a ti a wan ga'ari "set place of articulation." La san kɔ'ɔm dɛna kɔnya'asi, ŋwana ni ta'asɛ mɛ ti kɔnya'aŋa ka yima bɔna nyaa ni ta tee dɛna kɔnya'aŋa. Gee nyɔa puan kɔnya'asi de la [b ɖ ɡ], ŋwana, ka tari odd restriction, la ni ta'asɛ ti kɔnya'asi bɔna tɔka tɔka la de la "nasal stops" la mɛ ta'am dɛna syllabic, (a common pattern cross-linguistically).

### Tones
Ewe de la tonal language. Tonal language puan, pitch tɔka tɔka ti ba tara bugesa ba yesera yelebire paara yelebire. Magese wuu, Ewe tɔgum puan yelebɛa atã wa n gãi tilum wa boi tɔka tɔka yesera la ba tone puan:

* to ‘ear’ (High tone)
* to ‘report/gossip’(High tone)
* to ‘pound’ (High tone)
* tó 'mountain' (High tone)
* tǒ 'mortar' (Rising tone)
* tò 'buffalo' (Low tone)

Phonetically, tu tari la three tone registers, High, Mid, la Low, la three rising la falling contour tones. Ŋwana wa la, Ewe dialects tari la only two distinctive registers, High la Mid. Ba wa za'a sige yesera la yu'ura puan: High tee wa'ana dɛna Mid (bii Rising), ti Mid wa'ana dɛna Low. Mid de la se'em ni tee dɛna Low ba'asegɔ puan, phrase bii utterance, magese wuu 'buffalo' above.

Gulesegɔ puan, ba ni dãale tones doose acute accent, grave accent, caron, la circumflex. Ba ni ta'am dike ba tum doose nyɔa puan kɔdaasi (nasal vowels).

### Pragmatics
Ewe tari phrases n de overt politeness, magese wuu *meɖekuku* (ti vuure la dɛna gaafara "gaafara") la *akpe* (ti vuure la dɛna"n pu'usiya").

## Orthography
Afrika Reference Alphabet de la se'em ti ba tara tuma sansɛka ti Ewe duma ni tari orthographically yɛla wa'ana ze'ele, gulesegɔ yɛla ŋwana n gãi tilum wa naɛ la Latin alphabet ta pa'asɛ la International Phonetic Alphabet.

Ba ni dike la "n" wa ze'ele gee ti kɔdaa doose poore ti ba dãalɛ nasalization. Ba ni ka dãalɛ Tone la mɛ, sadagina yɛla-asi'a puan, ni tara disambiguation: gee (first person plural pronoun) *mí* 'we' dãalɛ mɛ bɔna la tɔka yese (second person plural) *mi* 'you', gee ti (second person singular pronoun) *wò* 'you' de la se'em dãalɛ dɛna (low to distinguish) a ze'ele yese la (third person plural pronoun) *wó* 'they/them'

* ekpɔ wò [ɛ́k͡pɔ wò] — 'he saw you' "A nyɛ fo"
* ekpɔ wo [ɛ́k͡pɔ wó] — 'he saw them' "A nyɛ ba"

## Naming system
Ewe tari la tɔgum yizuo ti ba do la bɔ'ɔra bia yu'urɛ yesera dabese'ere daare bii bakwaɛi sɛka ti ba dɔŋɛ bia la. Ŋwana wa ze'ele la ba sakire ti bia yumɛŋerɛ ze'ele bia la aŋa bia ka bom yɛla puan. Gee nananewa, ŋwana wa zuo bia n de nɛra gee dagina doo la zuo, see ti bia la tara interim yu'urɛ, ŋwana wa zuo ti ba nara ti ba bo bia yu'urɛ ka dɔgum daare. Ba ni bo bia la ka yu'urɛ za'a bia la yu'urɛ soka daare, ba ni dɔŋɛ bia dabesa ayopɔi daare ze'ele bia dɔgum daare.

Yese ba matter of pride ze'ele ba heritage la puan, yeleyele wuu 1970s yuuma la puan, Ewe gɔn-zamesereba zo'e zo'e, se'em ti ba yuum digesɛ Western yu'ura bo ba la, ba yuum basɛ yu'ura bana mɛ (formally/legally bii informally gee nyaa yuum degesi ba dɔgum daare yu'ura bo ba ti la dɛna ba official yu'ura.

Ewe dɔgum daare yu'ura n de se'em n ŋwana gãɛ tilum wa:

Saŋa-wuu, ba yi'iri ba, ba dɔgum daare yu'ura la ti ba sige ba la; yu'ura sɛba ti ba sige ba la ti ba tara tuna formal documents tuuma. Yele-ana wa puan, kɔnsɛba n tari ba dɔgum daare yu'ura tari la (delineated by suffixes): *-gã*, vuure la "big", gee ti *-vi*, vuure "little". Magese wuu, ba san ta dɔŋɛ ayima pooren ba ni sige eŋa la Kofi, ba ni sige bia yiadaana la Kofi ti eŋa n nyaa ni ta wa'ana dɛna Kofigã, gee ti bipaalega yu'urɛ dɛna Kofi. Ŋwana ti Kofi, nyaa wa wa'ana dɛna Kofivi, bii Kofitse, ŋwana ti Wedome ti Tɔngu Ewes. Saŋa-basɛba puansin, ba ni le maan sige lɛɛba ni iŋɛ la buyi, Kofi yi'i ta'am dɛna Kofivi, gee kiima kelum dɛna Kofi, dabeem ni ka bɔna ba ti ba le maan sige bayi la za'a ta'am le sige Kofi butã puan yese ba dɔgum daare la nuu puan.

## Grammar

Ewe de la (subject–verb–object language). The possessive precedes the head noun. Adjectives, numerals, demonstratives and relative clauses follow the head noun. Ewe also has postpositions rather than prepositions.

Ewe de la tɔgum N tari logophoric pronouns. pronouns bana wa are used to refer to the source of a reported statement or thought in indirect discourse, and can disambiguate sentences that are ambiguous in most other languages. The following examples illustrate:

* Kofi be e-dzo 'Kofi said he left' (he ≠ Kofi)
* Kofi be yè-dzo 'Kofi said he left' (he = Kofi)

In the second sentence, yè is the logophoric pronoun.

Ewe also has a rich system of serial verb constructions.

There are also said to be tenses by Warburton (et al. 1968), though most linguists stated that Ewe is an "aspect-prominent language".

Negation in Ewe, according to Agbedor (1994), uses a pattern that attaches a “me-“ prefix to the verb while simultaneously adding a stand-alone “o” at the end of the sentence, akin to French negation.

* Kofi de suku.

(K. go school)

“Kofi went to school.”

* Kofi mede suku o.

(K. NEG-go school NEG)

“Kofi did not go to school.”

## Status
Ewe de la national language, Togo tiŋa puan. Gee mɛ kelum dɛna government-backed regional language, Ghana so'olum wa puan.

## Zaaleŋa (literature)
A mi gɔnɔ duma (Scholars) ta'am baŋɛ ti, *Tragedy of Agbezuge* (*Amegbetɔa alo Agbezuge ƒe Ŋutinya*)  doose Sam J. Obianim puan eŋa yuum de novel gulesa, Ewe tɔgum puan.

Eŋa yuum de bunuu daana ti a zom wa'a zi'a la, doose Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo, de'eŋo ni pa'alɛ Ewe nɛreba tuusum yɛla gee mɛ yuum kelum dɛna notable literary work la well.

## Viisegɔ Lɔgerɔ


## General sources

* Ansre, Gilbert (1961) *The Tonal Structure of Ewe*. MA thesis, Kennedy School of Missions of Hartford Seminary Foundation.
* Ameka, Felix Kofi (2001). "Ewe". In Garry and Rubino (eds.), *Fact About the World's Languages: An Encyclopedia of the World's Major Languages, Past and Present*. New York/Dublin: The H. W. Wilson Company. pp. 207–213.
* Clements, George N. (1975). "The logophoric pronoun in Ewe: Its role in discourse". *Journal of West African Languages*. 10(2): 141–177.
* Collins, Chris. (1993) *Topics in Ewe Syntax*. Doctoral Dissertation, MIT.
* Capo, Hounkpati B. C. (1991). *A Comparative Phonology of Gbe*, Publications in African Languages and Linguistics, 14. Berlin/New York: Foris Publications & Garome, Bénin: Labo Gbe (Int).
* Pasch, Helma (1995). *Kurzgrammatik des Ewe*. Köln: Köppe.
* Westermann, Diedrich Hermann (1930). *A Study of the Ewe Language*. London: Oxford University Press.

## External links
***Ewe edition*** of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to ***Ewe language***.

Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for ***Ewe***.

* [1] Institut für Afrikanistik der Universität zu Köln
*  Ewe being taught at University of Cologne (Institute for African Studies Cologne)
* Ewe Basic Course Archived 2017-10-11 at the Wayback Machine by Irene Warburton, Prosper Kpotufe, Roland Glover, and Catherine Felten (textbook in Portable Digital Format and audio files in MP3 format) at Indiana University Bloomington's Center for Language Technology and Instructional Enrichment (CELTIE).
* Articles on Ewe (Journal of West African Languages)
* The Ewe language at Verba Africana
* Ewe alphabet and pronunciation page at Omniglot
* Free virtual keyboard for Ewe language at GhanaKeyboards.Com
* [2] Recordings of Ewe being spoken.
* My First Gbe Dictionary Online Gbe(Ewe)-English Glossary
* PanAfriL10n page
* Ewe IPA
* Ewe online grammar; in French. Apparently the text of *Grammaire ev̳e: aide-mémoire des règles d'orthographe de l'ev̳e* by Kofi J. Adzomada, 1980.
* Biblia Le Internet Dzi; online bible in Ewe language by Jehovah's Witnesses
* Ewe Bible (Èʋegbe Biblia) Nublabla Xoxo and Yeye