Welcome to the homepage of the DagaareLinguists. The DagaareLinguists
is an informal grouping of professional academic linguists who have worked
on the Dagaare language. In general, these are linguists who are united in
their common interest to promote scholarship in Dagaare linguistics.
The DagaareLinguists is purely an academic grouping of linguists who
discuss and exchange information regarding their professional linguistic
analysis of this and related languages.
The purpose of this who is who list is to outline the interests
of members and to provide readily available addresses to consult regarding
our questions and discussions about the structure of Dagaare. Please help
make this home page and, especially, the mailing list lively by bringing
up issues for discussion and sending various bits of information about your
research to update the entries. Please, together, let us help promote the
linguistic scholarship of this medium-sized West African language.
Ali, Mark.
Department of Ghanaian Languages,
University College of Winneba,
P. O. Box 25 Winneba, Ghana.
Areas of interest: grammar.
Anttila, Arto.
Department of Linguistics,
New York University, USA
719 Broadway,
#419
New York, NY 10003
E-mail: arto.anttila@nyu.edu Phone: 212-998-7950 Fax: 212-995-4707
Homepage: http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/lingu/people/faculty/anttila/
Areas of interest: Phonology.
Work in progress : Stress and tone
in Dagaare.
Bodomo, Adams B.
Department of Linguistics,
The University of Hong Kong,
Pokfulam Road, HONG KONG.
E-mail: abbodomo at hku
dot hk
Areas of interest: syntax and grammatical
theory, lexical semantics and lexicography, language and literacy education,
Human Language Technology. Work in progress: a Dagaare - Cantonese - English
lexicographical resource; various draft papers in syntax, literacy studies,
and morphophonology.
Bresnan, Joan.
Dept of Linguistics,
Stanford University,
Stanford, CA 94305-2150, USA.
E-mail: <bresnan@stanford.edu>.
Areas of interest: Syntax, LFG.
Work in progress: Dagaare action
nominalizations as mixed categories.
Dakubu-Kropp, Mary Esther.
Institute of African Studies,
University of Ghana, Legon,
Accra, Ghana. Email:
<medakubu@ug.edu.gh>.
Areas of interest:phonology, syntax.
Work in progress: Dagaare and other
North-West Oti-Volta tone, VP systems, Topic and Focus constructions.
Dapila, Fabian.
Translation Consultant
United Bible Societies (UBS)
African Inter-regional Translation Services
Ndemi Road, Off Ngong Road
P. O. Box 42726
Nairobi, Kenya
Email: dapila@ubs-afrsc.org
Work in progress: Bible translation projects in Uganda and Eritrea.
Delplangue, Alain.
Département de Linguistique
et de Didactique du F.L.E.,
Faculté de Lettres,
3 rue des Tanneurs, 37000 Tours,
France.
Tel et fax professionnel: 02-47-67-36-66-34.
Adresse e-mail personnelle: <adelplanque@francemultimedia.fr
> Areas of interest: phonologie,
syntaxe et sémantique. Work in progress: La place
du contexte dans une théorie de l'énoncé: le cas
de la topicalisation et de la focalisation en dagara, LLACAN, 1995-1998.
- La proposition relative en dagara, Paris 1998. - Dissymétries dans
le système consonantique du dagara: charme et ergonomie des Eléments
Phonologiques, LLACAN, 1995-1998.
Hall, Edward.
SIL,
PO Box 44456, Nairobi, Kenya.
Email: <ed_hall@kastanet.org>
Areas of interest: syntax.
Hellan, Lars.
Department of Linguistics.
The Norwegian University of Science
and Technology (NTNU),
N-7055 Trondheim, Norway.
E-mail: <lars.hellan@hf.ntnu.no>.
Areas of interest: syntax, lexical
semantics, etc.
Kennedy, Jack.
SIL.
Areas of interest: phonology.
Luke, K. K.
Department of Linguistics.
The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam
Road, HONG KONG.
E-mail: <kkluke@hkusua.hku.hk>.
Areas of interest: Conversation
analysis, Cantonese grammar.
Work in progress: Lexical semantics,
etc.
van Oostendorp, Marc. Meertens Institute, P.O. Box 94264, 1090 GG Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Email: <Marc@vanOostendorp.nl>
Areas of interest: phonology, syntax.
Work in progress : Serial verb
nominalization in Dagaare, etc.
Nakuma, Constancio.
Department of Languages, Clemson
University
717 Strode Tower, Clemson, USA.
E-mail: <CNAKUMA@CLEMSON.EDU>
Homepage:
Areas of interest: phonology, orthography
development.
Work in progress: Dagaare phonology,
Gur morphology.
Nino, Maria-Eugenia.
Department of Linguistics,
Stanford University, Stanford,
CA. 94305-2150, USA.
E-mail: <nino@csli.stanford.edu>.
Areas of interest: syntax, LFG.
Work in progress: Multiple exponence
of inflectional features such as tense, aspect, and mood in various languages.
One of my case studies is Dagaare serial verbs.
Poulin, Christine.
Department of Linguistics,
Stanford University, Stanford,
CA. 94305-2150, USA
Email: <poulin@csli.Stanford.EDU>.
Areas of interest: syntax, semantics.
Work in progress: variation in
the expression of result across languages (for example, things like resultatives,
`He smashed the bug flat' and manner-of-motion verbs, `He danced into
the room'). Dagaare is one of the languages I've been looking at.
Saanchi, James.
Department of Linguistics,
P. O. Box 61, University of Ghana,
Legon, Accra, Ghana.
Areas of interest: morphology,
noun classes, Syntax and Semantics.
Work in progress: Grammar of Spatial
Constructions
Schwenter, Scott.
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
The Ohio State University
266 Cunz Hall
1841 Millikin Road
Columbus, OH 43210-1229, USA
Phone: (614) 292-9588
Fax: (614) 292-7726
e-mail: schwenter.1@osu.edu
Areas of interest: syntax, semantics, functional typology.
Work in progress: Dagaare tense.
Somé, Penou-Achille
Professeur de linguistique
The University of Lethbridge
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
<some@uleth.ca>
Areas of interest: Phonology
Yabang, Cletus.
Department of Ghanaian Languages,
P. O. Box 25, University College
of Winneba, Winneba, Ghana.
Areas of interest:grammar.
Recent
Publications in Dagaare Linguistics
Anttila, Arto and Adams Bodomo.
2000. Tonal polarity in Dagaare. In Carstens, Vicki & Frederick Parkinson
(eds.). Trends in African Linguistics 4: Advances
in African Linguistics. Trenton, NJ: Africa
World Press. pps 119-134.
Bodomo, Adams. 2002a. The
syntax of serial verbs in Dagaare. In: New Directions in Ghanaian Linguistics,
edited by F. K. Ameka and E. K. Osam. Accra, Ghana: Black Mask Ltd.
------ 2001a. The temporal systems of Dagaare and Dagbane: re-appraising
the philosophy of linguistic relativity. Journal of Cultural Studies
3 (1): 43-55.[Abstract]
------ 2001b. Dagaare. In: Facts about the World's Languages: an Encyclopedia
of the World's Major Languages: Past and Present, edited by J. Garry
et. al.. New York and Dublin: The H. W. Wilson Press.
----- 2001. History from linguistcs:
loanwords in Dagaare as sources of information for a cultural history of
the Dagaaba. Journal of Dagaare Studies. Vol 1: 1.
pps 15-24.
------. 2001. A comparative
study of English small clauses and Dagaare serial verbs. In Languages
and Linguistics.
Nakuma, Constancio. 2002. A guide
to Dagaahre orthography. Journal of Dagaare Studies. Vol. 2.
------ 2001. Name morphology and significance among
the Dagaaba of Ghana. Journal of Dagaare Studies. Vol 1:1.
Saanchi, James Angkaaraba. 2002..
Linguistic Parallelism and the Dagaaba Dirge. in Ameka, Felix K. and Kweku
Osam (eds) New Directions in Ghanaian Linguistics.
An Introduction
to the Dagaare Language
by Constancio Nakuma
Dagaare is the language of the Dagaaba (plural
of Dagao), a predominantly agricultural community of approximately one million
people located in north-western Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast) called the
Upper-West Region, and in south-western Burkina-Faso (formerly Upper Volta).
The name Dagaare designates, more accurately, one of several dialects in
the continuum of dialects that make up this language. Although speakers of
the language agree on their common ancestry and cultural identity as Dagaaba,
it appears as though the need for a common designation for the language and
cultural identity has never been felt by the indigenous people, hence the
lack of a commonly accepted name for the language and the people who speak
it, as well as the liberty with which scholars like us assign these names,
as we must. Dagaare has been assigned the following names in the literature
by different scholars: Dagaari, Dagaa-Wiile, Dagara, Dagari, Dagarte, Dagarti,
Lobiri, Lo-Dagaa, Lo-Wiile, etc. Classified as a Gur (or Voltaic) language
within the Mole-Dagbane subfamily of the Niger-Congo family of languages,
Dagaare shares with the other family members their characteristically register
tone feature and the use of labio-velar consonants.
Dialect boundaries within Dagaare are generally
not clear cut, but noticeable phonetic (both segmental and prosodic), lexical,
and syntactic differences exist between the dagaare, dagara, and waale dialects,
each of these designations covering internal variations of more or less significant
proportion. The dagara dialect, in addition to the normal internal variations
similar to those which characterize waale and dagaare, suffers from variation
imposed upon it by the political legacy of colonialism : The Dagara of Burkina-Faso
borrows from the French language to enrich its stock of vocabulary, while
the Dagara of Ghana borrows from the English language. A people so divided
by their language, are they still one ? I suspect that behind this question
must lie a gold mine for anthropological linguists and dialectologists. Linguistic
neighbors of the Dagaaba include the Moore or Mossi (in Burkina-Faso) to
the North, the Sisaala and Gurma to the North-east, the Grunne or Grunsi to
the East, the Vagala (in Ghana) to the South and the Lobi (in Cote d'Ivoire)
to the West.
Dagaare studies is still, relatively speaking,
in its infancy despite an increase in the number of native speakers who have
joined the ranks of foreign scholars to document the cultural, artistic,
and linguistic wealth of the Dagaaba. Dagaare needs all the scholarship it
can get, be it in the form of the rigorous and insightful analyses which
"outsiders" like Jack Goody and "insiders" like Malidoma Patrice Some have
already given us in the domain of Dagaare ethnography, for example, or the
complementary perspectives given by Penou-Achile Some (insider) and Alain
Delplanque (outsider) on the linguistics of the lobr and wule subdialects
of the Dagara of Burkina-Faso, or even the proposal by Adams Bodomo to replace
names like "Gur" or "Voltaic" with a more culturally-adapted name like "Mabia."
Equally needed are works focusing on promoting Dagaare literacy, either in
the form of short stories of the type that Mr. Dong was among the first to
compile, or semi-technical works like Dagaare fonologyi by Cletus
Yabang, or even spelling guides, like the one compiled by the Dagaare Language
Committee, or the Guide to Dagaare Orthography still in the works
by Constancio Nakuma and Adams Bodomo. Finally, not less important are studies
on the economics and politics of Dagaabaland. Whatever the particular focus
of any study, it is important that "outsiders" feel just as competent as
"insiders", and vice versa, in making their contribution, for each one's
unique insights help us all to see the full picture - and more clearly. Without
each of us making our brush stroke, the canvas will probably never be completed.
It is in this spirit that this web page is being developed to unite all dagaarephiles
in collaborative and complementary effort, for the better understanding of
the Dagaaba and their language.
In addition to this home page, there is also a mailing list. To
join, send an email message to me (see address below) with a short note introducing
yourself and your work. This homepage and the mailing list are being maintained
and administered by me, A. B. Bodomo, as a voluntary, public service to the
academic community. Requests for addition, modification, and deletion of
information from this home page may be sent to me, using any of the following
lines of communication:
Dr. A. B. Bodomo,
Department of Linguistics,
The University of Hong Kong,
Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
Fax: (852) 2546 4943
'Garebanye!'to all the doyens of Dagaare language studies
and this invaluable homepage. I'm proud of you. I a student here at
the Norwegian University of Science and Tech., Trondheim and your work
on various aspects of the language has been of immense help to me in
my studies.
Trondheim, Norway. 01.52Hrs, Tuesday Feb 4, 2002.
I'm simply excited to read these pages about my people right
here in New York City! This just shows how far we've come, and how far
we can go if we understand that the world is our terrain. My personal
thanks to all who are involved in doing this great job of making all
people get to know, and hopefully, understand one another.
Keep up this wonderful job!
I am going to Ghana for a school trip and wanted to find any
information on the language. If you can help me please feel
free to mail me. I attend the University of North Texas.
