Anufo language

Anufo

natural language, modern language

Subclass of	Kwa
Country	Ghana, Togo, Benin
Indigenous to	Atakora Department, Northern Region, Savanes Region
Ethnologue language status	5 Developing

Anufo (Anufɔ), dem sanso know as Chakosi, be a Central Tano language dem dey speak insyd northeast Ghana, northern Togo, northwest Benin den Ivory Coast by approximately 180,000 people. As a language, Anufɔ be tonal. E dey follow de subject-verb object canonical structure. E sanso be dialectical. Across nine (9) clan groups, dem dey speak Anufɔ plus dialectical distinction although mutually intelligible.

Population den land boundaries

According to de 2021 Population and Housing Census insyd Ghana, de Anufɔ insyd northeast Ghana, especially those insyd de Chereponi District number 87,176 plus more females of (44,342) wey dey represent 50.9 percent dan males be (42,834) wey dey constitute 49.1 percent. De District dey cover a land size of 1,374.7 km2 plus a population density of 63 persons per square kilometre. De District dey share boundaries plus Gushegu District to de West, Bunkpurugu-Nakpanduri District to de North, Saboba Districts to de South den The Republic of Togo to de East wey be bordered by de River Oti.

Phonology

Anufo get allophonic palatalization before front vowels.

Consonant allophones 

		Labial			Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Labial-velar		Glottal
		plain	round	palatal	plain	palatal	plain	palatal	plain	round	plain	palatal
Nasal		m		mʲ	n		ɲ		ŋ		ŋm	ŋmʲ
Stop	voiceless	p	pʷ	pʲ	t	tʲ	c	cʲ	k	kʷ	kp	kpʲ
	voiced	b	bʷ	bʲ	d	dʲ	ɟ	ɟʲ	ɡ	ɡʷ	gb	gbʲ
Fricative	voiceless	f	fʷ	fʲ	s	ʃ		ɕᶣ					h
	voiced				z			ʑᶣ
Rhotic					r	rʲ
Approximant	voiceless			ɥ̥
	voiced			ɥ	l	lᶣ	j				w

Vowels

	Oral		Nasal
	Front	Back	Front	Back
Close	i	u	ĩ	ũ
Close-mid	e	o
Open-Mid	ɛ	ɔ	ɛ̃	ɔ̃
Open	a		ã

Syntax of Anufᴐ

Basically, Anufᴐ dey follow de canonical subject-verb-object (SVO) structure insyd ein sentential construction like oda cross-linguistic realisations. For instance, insyd de structure: Kojo akun baka ni (Lit. Kojo kill de tree), de subject, Kojo (Noun) dey precede de verb phrase (kill), den de direct object (tree). Insyd naturally occurring speech, such sentential constructions insyd Anufᴐ fi undergo pronoun replacement such as insyd de construction: Kojo akun i (Kojo kill am). Wer de Anufɔ generic pronoun "i", sanso undefined by number, animacy den gender, be used in place of (de tree).

Writing

Dem dey wrep Anufɔ insyd de Latin alphabet, plus de addition of de letters Ɛ ɛ, Ɱ ɱ, Ŋ ŋ den Ɔ ɔ.