EWE LANGUAGE

'Ewe' (native name: '') is a Kwa language spoken in Ghana and Togo by approximately three million people. Ewe is part of a cluster of related languages commonly called Gbe, stretching from eastern Ghana to Western Nigeria. Other Gbe languages include Fon and Aja. Like other Gbe languages, Ewe is a tonal language.
The German Africanist Diedrich Hermann Westermann published many dictionaries and grammars of Ewe and several other Gbe languages. Other linguists that have worked on Ewe include Gilbert Ansre (tone, syntax), Hounkpati B. Capo (phonology, phonetics), Herbert Stahlke (morphology, tone), Roberto Pazzi (anthropology, lexicography), Felix K. Ameka (semantics, cognitive linguistics) and Alan Stewart Duthie (semantics, phonetics).

Contents

Sounds

Consonants

Vowels

Writing system

Status

References

External links

Sounds

Consonants

Plosive

	Bilabial		Labiodental		Alveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Labial-velar		Glottal
														Affricate
Nasal
Fricative
Approximant

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	,	,
Close-mid
Open-mid	,	,
Open	,

Writing system

Ewe is written in the African reference alphabet, the Latin alphabet, with some extra letters, some of which are derived from the International Phonetic Alphabet, added to represent certain sounds.

A a	B b	D d		Dz dz	E e		F f		G g	Gb gb
H h	I i	K k	Kp kp	L l	M m	N n	Ny ny	Ŋ ŋ	O o		P p
R r	S s	T t	Ts ts	U u	V v		W w	X x	Y y	Z z

A tilde ( ˜ ) is placed over vowels to mark nasalization. Tone is generally unmarked, except in some common cases which require disambiguation, e.g. the first person plural pronoun ''mí'' 'we' is marked high to distinguish it from the second person plural ''mi'' 'you', and the second person singular pronoun ''wò'' 'you' is marked low to distinguish it from the third person plural pronoun ''wo'' 'they/them'

★ — 'he saw you'

★ — 'he saw them'

Status

Ewe is a national language in Togo and Ghana.

References

★ 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'', 207-213. New York/Dublin: The H.W. Wilson Company.

★ 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

★ Ethnologue report for Ewe

★ Short Ewe resources list at UCLA

★ Ewe alphabet and pronunciation page at Omniglot

★ Free virtual keyboard for Ewe language at GhanaKeyboards.Com

★ [1] Recordings of Ewe being spoken.

★ kasahorow Gbe(Ewe) Dictionary Online Gbe(Ewe)-English Glossary

★ PanAfriL10n page

★ Ewe IPA