Kabiyé (also Kabiye , Kabyé , Kabye ) is a Grusi language spoken mainly in northern Togo , and also by fewer people in Benin and Ghana . It is one of the two national languages of Togo.
The Kabiyé are also known as Lokpa (Lukpa) in Benin. Lamba and Yaka are dialects.
Status
Kabiye is one of the two national languages of Togo (the other is Ewe ). As a national language it is promoted in the national media and – in the formal education sector -, since 1986 it has been an optional subject in school years 10 and 11. [ 1 ]
Studies
Missionary linguist Jacques Delord published Kabiye’s first descriptive grammar in 1976. [ 2 ] followed by Keziye Lébikaza’s descriptive grammar in 1999, [ 3 ] which remains the main reference work in Kabiye linguistics. There is also a Kabiye-French dictionary. [ 4 ] The language has been widely studied, counting on numerous works in several specific areas: comparative linguistics, [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Discourse analysis, [ 9 ] [ 10] Contact languages, [ 11 ] Lexicology, [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ] [ 17 ] [ 18 ] [ 19 ] [ 20 ] [ 21 ] [ 22 ] [ 23 ] [ 24 ] [ 25 ] Morphology [ 26 ] [ 27 ] [28 ] [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ] [ 32 ] [ 33 ] [ 34 ] [ 35 ] Phonology , [ 36 ] [ 37 ] [ 38 ] [ 39 ] [ 40 ] Sociolinguistics, [ 41 ] [ 42 ] [ 43 ] [ 44 ] [ 45 ] [ 46] Syntax, [ 47 ] ,spelling, [ 48 ] [ 49 ] [ 50 ] [ 51 ] [ 52 ] Tonology, [ 53 ] [ 54 ] [ 55 ] [ 56 ] [ 57 ] [ 58 ] [ 59 ] and verbal system . [ 60 ] [ 61 ] [ 62 ] [ 63] [ 64 ] [ 65 ] [ 66 ]
Publications
The first publications in Kabiye appeared in the 1930s. [ 67 ] [ 68 ] [ 69 ] In all, there are about 200 works in Kabiye, although not all are available or easy to find for sale. For an inventory until the turn of the century, see Pouwili, 1999. [ 70 ] Publications include two proverb books, [ 71 ] [ 72 ] folk tales, [ 73 ] [ 74 ] [ 75 ] [ 76 ] poetry [ 77 ]medical manuals, [ 78 ] [ 79 ] [ 80 ] [ 81 ] [ 82 ] [ 83 ] [ 84 ] agriculture manuals, [ 85 ] [ 86 ] Bible translations , [ 87 ] [ 88 ] political tracts, [ 89 ] [ 90 ] [ 91 ] religious treatment, [ 92 ] [93 ] a small novel <rref> Azoti, SB (2008). Paamaala: suye maɖʋ sɔsɔ. Kara: AFASA (Association des Femmes pour Alphabétisation, la Santé et les Activités génératrices de revenus). </ref> school books, [ 94 ] [ 95 ] and other teaching materials. [ 96 ] [ 97 ]
Phonology [ edit | edit source code ]
Consonants [ edit | edit source code ]
| Lip | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Labio-Velar | Glottal | ||
| Occlusive | Lenis | P | t | ʈ | k | k͡p | ||
| Fortis | d | |||||||
| Fricative | Lenis | f | s | H | ||||
| Fortis | z | |||||||
| Africada | tʃ | |||||||
| Approx. | l | j | w | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
Vowels [ edit | edit source code ]
Short vowels [ edit | edit source code ]
| Previous | Later | |||
| Not rounded | Rounded | |||
| Root with advanced tongue | −ATR | Root with advanced tongue | + ATR | Root with advanced tongue | −ATR | Root with advanced tongue | + ATR | |
| Closed | ɪ | i | ʊ | u |
| Medial | ɛ | and | ɔ | The |
| Open | The | |||
Long vowels [ edit | edit source code ]
| Previous | Later | |||||
| Not rounded | Rounded | Not rounded | ||||
| Root with advanced tongue | −ATR | Root with advanced tongue | + ATR | Root with advanced tongue | −ATR | Root with advanced tongue | + ATR | Root with advanced tongue | −ATR | Root with advanced tongue | + ATR | |
| Closed | ɪː | iː | ʊː | uː | ɯ̙ː | ɯ̘ː |
| Medial | ɛː | and | ɔː | The | ʌː | ɤː |
| Open | The | ɑː | ||||
The non-rounded posterior vowel occurs only at the boundaries of morphemes.
Spelling [ edit | edit source code ]
Kabiye was first written in the 1930s, [ 98 ] [ 99 ] [ 100 ] but it was in the early 1980s that the Committee of Langue Nationale Kabiyè (now Académie Kabiyè ), an organ of Togo’s Ministry of Education, standardized spelling . Kabiye is written in modified Latin script based on the character inventory of the African reference alphabet. An alternative spelling, designed and promoted by RP Adjola Raphaël, is widely used among Catholics. [ 101 ] The following tables show grapheme-phoneme matches in standard spelling.
Consonants [ edit | edit source code ]
| Lip | Alveolar | Retroflex Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Lip-velar | Glottal | ||
| Stop Stop | Lenis | P p | T t | K k | KP kp | |||
| Fortis | B b | D d | Ɖ ɖ | G g | GB GB | |||
| Fricative | Lenis | F f | S s | H h | ||||
| Fortis | V v | Z z | ||||||
| Africada | Lenis | C c | ||||||
| Fortis | J j | |||||||
| Approx. | L l | Y y | W w | |||||
| Vibrant | R r | |||||||
| Nasal | M m | N n | Ñ ñ | Ŋ ŋ | ||||
The spelling contains a significant amount of sub-specification, since the 5 obstructing graphemes b , g , gb , v , j are superfluous from a strictly phonemic point of view.
The grapheme ⟨r⟩ is reserved for words of foreign origin.
Vowels [ edit | edit source code ]
Short vowels [ edit | edit source code ]
| Previous | Postererior | |||
| Not rounded | Rounded | |||
| Root with advanced tongue | −ATR | Root with advanced tongue | + ATR | Root with advanced tongue | −ATR | Root with advanced tongue | + ATR | |
| Closed | latin iota | Ɩ ɩ | I i | Ʋ | Ʋ ʋ | U u |
| Medial | Latin epsilon | Ɛ ɛ | And is | the open | Ɔ ɔ | O o |
| Open | A a | |||
Long vowels [ edit | edit source code ]
| Previous | Later | |||||
| Not rounded | Rounded | Not rounded | ||||
| Root with advanced tongue | -ATR | Root with advanced tongue | + ATR | Root with advanced tongue | -ATR | Root with advanced tongue | + ATR | Root with advanced tongue | -ATR | Root with advanced tongue | + ATR | |
| Closed | ƖƖ ɩɩ | II ii | ƲƲ ʋʋ | Uu uu | Latin gamma | ƖƔ ɩɣ | Latin gamma | IƔ iɣ |
| Medial | ƐƐ ɛɛ | EE ee | ƆƆ ɔɔ | OO oo | Latin range | ƐƔ ɛɣ | Latin range | EƔ eɣ |
| Open | AA aa | Latin range | AƔ aɣ | ||||