Vagla language
| Subclass of | Gurunsi  |
|---|---|
| Country | Ghana |
| Indigenous to | Northern Region |
| Ethnologue language status | 5 Developing |
Vagla be one Gurunsi (Gur) language for Ghana, wey about 14,000 people dey speak. Dem dey speak am for sam communities for de western side of Northern Region, Ghana. Sam of de communities be Bole, Sawla, Tuna, Soma, Gentilpe, plus Nakwabi. De people wey dey speak dis language dem dey call dem Vaglas. Dem be one of de local tribes for dat side of Northern Region. British Colonial masters take put dem under Gonja local rule wey dem call 'Gonjaland' thru dema Centralised System of Governance.
Phonology
[edit | edit source]Consonants
[edit | edit source]| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial-
velar |
Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | c | k | kp | |
| voiced | b | d | ɟ | g | gb | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ŋm | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | h | |||
| voiced | v | z | |||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||
Vowels
[edit | edit source]| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | ɪ | ʊ | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | (ʌ) | ɔ |
| Open | a |
- Blench dey use /ʌ/, wich dem describe as a -ATR counterpart of /a/.[2]
- All vowels fi be long anaa short. Dem no dey treat two similar vowels as a long vowel secof tone patterns.[3]
Tones
[edit | edit source]Vagla get four tones: rising, falling, den two level tones. E sanso get downstep. Nasals den laterals sanso fi carry tones.[3]
Orthography
[edit | edit source]Vagla dey use ⟨i⟩ make e represent both /i/ den /ɪ/, wey e dey use ⟨u⟩ make e represent /u/ den /ʊ/.[3]
Nasalization be represented by a following ⟨h⟩, e.g., sɛɛ 'to agree' den sɛɛh 'to carve'.[3]
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Blench 2003, p. 18.
- ↑ Blench 2003, p. 18, citing Crouch & Naden 1998.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Blench 2003, p. 19.
External links
[edit | edit source]- Blench, Roger (2003). "Plural verb morphology in Vagla" (PDF). Cahiers Voltaïques. 6: 17–31. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-04-20. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
- Crouch, Marjory; Naden, Anthony (1998). "A semantically-based grammar of Vagla". Gur Papers (Special issue I). Bayreuth: University of Bayreuth. OCLC 174505065.
Read further
[edit | edit source]- Crouch, Marjory (1985). "A note on syllable and tone in Vagla verbs". Journal of West African Languages. 15 (2): 29–40.
- Crouch, Marjory; Herbert, Patricia (1982). Vagla English/English Vagla Dictionary. Tamale: GILBTT. OCLC 10071447.
- Crouch, Marjory; Smiles, Nancy (1966). Phonology of Vagla. Collected Language Notes. Vol. 4. Legon: Institute of African Studies.
