Siwu language

Siwu

language, modern language

Subclass of	Lelemi-Akpafu
Country	Ghana
Indigenous to	Volta Region
Coordinate location	7°14′24″N 0°26′24″E
Linguistic typology	subject–verb–object
Ethnologue language status	5 Developing

Siwu be a language wey be spoken insyd de mountainous central part of de Volta Region of Ghana. E dey belong to de geographic group of Ghana Togo Mountain languages (dem traditionally call de Togorestsprachen anaa Togo Remnant languages) of de Kwa branch of Niger–Congo. De speakers of Siwu dey call demaselves de Mawu den dema land Kawu. Sam of de speakers of Siwu dey live around Lolobi communities.

Geography den demography

A total of eight villages dem scatter about insyd de mountains north of Hohoe dey speak Siwu. Estimates of de total number of speakers dey range between 10,000 den 23,000. Kawu be divided into Akpafu (West) den Lolobi (East), wey dey correspond to a dialectal division. De five Akpafu towns be Tɔdzi, Ɔdɔmi, Mempeasem, Sɔkpoo, den Adɔkɔ. Dem all be within sam 8 kilometres from each oda as de bird dey fly, plus de former three dey cluster on de Western side of de Akpafu range, den de latter two on de opposite side of dat range. De three Lolobi towns Kumasi, Ashiambi, den Huyeasem be much closer to each oda; dem dey locate insyd de less mountainous area northeast of Hohoe.

De speakers of Siwu be peasant farmers, plus chaw of them get chaw small plots of land at walking distance (30 minutes - 2 hours) wer dem dey grow rice, cocoa, corn, cassava, yam, plantain, den sam oda crops. Corn den cassava be relatively recent introductions, whereas dem grow rice from time immemorial. De indigenous species of upland rice (Oryza glabberima) be very close to Mawu identity. De men sam times get day-jobs insyd neighbouring towns, while de women dey sell farm produce insyd de markets.

De Mawu dey take pride insyd an indigenous iron industry wich thrive for centuries buh wich eventually collapsed toward de end of de nineteenth century due at least insyd part to de influx of cheaply produced European steel. Dem fi still see remains of iron digging den forging activities insyd Akpafu-Tɔdzi, de oldest Mawu town den de only one wey be still atop de mountain.

Classification

Siwu traditionally be grouped plus sam twelve oda geographically isolated languages insyd de area under de heading Ghana–Togo Mountain languages.

(formerly Togorestsprachen anaa 'Togo Remnant languages'), although na e be noted dat dis grouping be based on a few broad typological den demographic considerations more dan on thorough comparative research (Blench 2001). Na e never be disputed however dat de language be part of de Kwa branch of Niger–Congo, Africa ein largest language family. Within de Ghana–Togo Mountain Languages, de closest relatives of Siwu be Lεlεmi (Buem), Sεlε (Santrokofi), den Sεkpεlε (Likpe); plus Siwu, dese languages dey form a group wey be called de Buem group (Heine 1969). Ikpana (Logba) be sam wat further removed both geographically den linguistically.

Language

De first published traces of Siwu (Akpafu) dey date back to de 1890s, wen German missionaries den colonial officials start dey explore de Hinterland of dema protectorate Togoland. Insyd an early ethnographic study of de wider area (Plehn 1898) we dey find wat be probably de first Siwu to appear insyd print: two songs den a bit of vocabulary wey relate to houses den buildings. Since then, na dem publish fragments hie den der, buh by den large Siwu remain undescribed.

Early German sources besides Plehn be Seidel (1899), Funke (1920), den Westermann (1922). Na dem do important linguistic work insyd de 1970s by Kevin Ford in collaboration plus Robert Iddah, a speaker of Lolobi, buh chaw of dis remain unpublished (Ford & Iddah 1973, 1987). Insyd recent years, na dem prepare a sketch of phonology den morphosyntax at GILLBT by Andy Ring and Associates. Sam linguistic material furthermore fi be found insyd chaw publications by Kofi Agawu on Northern Ewe den Akpafu ethnomusicology.

Siwu get seven oral den five nasal vowels. Chaw languages of de region get 8- anaa 9-vowel systems plus sam form of vowel harmony. Insyd Siwu, noun class prefixes no dey harmonize, buh root-internally der be sam constraints on vowel co-occurrences, wey dey attest to de earlier presence of a system of cross-height vowel harmony (Ford 1973). Siwu be a tonal language plus three level tones on de surface: High, Mid, Low. Functional load of tone be high insyd de lexicon (minimal pairs) as well as insyd de grammar (tenses dem mark by tone).

Basic constituent order insyd Siwu be subject–verb–object. De language get an elaborate system of noun classification, plus about 9 singular/plural pairings of prefixes den a class for mass nouns. Concord plus dese noun classes usually dey show up on de verb den on de numerals 1–7, relatives, den demonstratives.

Writing system

Alphabet

a

b

d

dz

ɖ

e

ɛ

f

g

gb

ɣ

h

i

k

kp

l

m

n

ny

o

ɔ

p

r

s

t

ts

u

v

w

y

References

Notes

• Dingemanse, Mark (2011). The Meaning and Use of Ideophones in Siwu (PDF).
• Blench, Roger. 2001/2006. Comparative Central Togo: what have we learnt since Heine? Unpublished Ms., Cambridge.
• Ford, Kevin C. 1973. ‘On the loss of cross-height vowel harmony’, Research Review (IAS, University of Ghana), 4:50-80.
• Ford, Kevin C. and Robert K. Iddah. 1973. A Grammar of Siwu. Unpublished Ms., Legon, Ghana.
• Ford, Kevin C. and Robert K. Iddah. 1987. 'Conjunction in Siwu' Ed. Kofi K. Saah and Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu. Papers in Ghanaian Linguistics, 18–36.
• Heine, Bernd. 1968. Die Verbreitung und Gliederung der Togorestsprachen. Berlin: Reimer.
• Heine, Bernd. 1969. Die Konsonanten des Proto-Buem. Linguistics 52:27-44.
• Iddah, R.K. 1980[1975]. ‘Siwu’, in Kropp Dakubu (ed.) West African Language Data Sheets, vol 2.
• Kropp Dakubu, M.E., and Kevin Ford. 1988. ‘The Central Togo Languages’, in Kropp Dakubu (ed.) The Languages of Ghana, London: Kegan Paul International, 119–154.
• Plehn, Rudolph. 1898. ‘Beiträge zur Völkerkunde des Togo-Gebietes’, Mittheilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen, 2, part III, 87–124.
• Seidel, A., (1899) ‘Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Sprachen in Togo. Aufgrund der von Dr. Rudolf Plehn und anderen gesammelten Materialien bearbeitet’, Zeitschrift für Afrikanische und Oceanische Sprachen, 4, 201–286.
• Westermann, Diedrich H. 1922. ‘Vier Sprachen aus Mitteltogo: Likpe, Bowili, Akpafu und Adele, nebst einigen Resten der Borosprache’. Mitteilungen des Seminars für orientalische Sprachen, 25:1-59.

External links

• The Meaning and Use of Ideophones in Siwu