1. Family: Niger-Congo
  2. Genus: Gur

Dagbani

WALS coordinates: 9° 35′ N, 0° 30′ W

spoken in Ghana

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Dagbani
Routledge:
    Other:
    • Dagomba
    ISO 639-3:

    Features

    Feature Value References
    Phonology
    Consonant Inventories Average
    Vowel Quality Inventories Average (5-6)
    Consonant-Vowel Ratio Moderately high
    Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives In both plosives and fricatives
    Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems None missing in /p t k b d g/
    Uvular Consonants None
    Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants
    Lateral Consonants /l/, no obstruent laterals
    Vowel Nasalization Contrast absent
    Front Rounded Vowels None
    Syllable Structure Moderately complex
    Tone Simple tone system
    Absence of Common Consonants All present
    Presence of Uncommon Consonants Labial-velars
    Morphology
    Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Weakly suffixing
    Nominal Categories
    Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural suffix
    Occurrence of Nominal Plurality All nouns, always obligatory
    Definite Articles Definite word distinct from demonstrative
    Indefinite Articles No indefinite, but definite article
    Indefinite Pronouns Generic-noun-based
    Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes
    Nominal Syntax
    Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Differentiation
    Verbal Categories
    Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Mixed type
    Word Order
    Order of Subject, Object and Verb SVO
    Order of Subject and Verb SV
    Order of Object and Verb VO
    Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Postpositions
    Order of Genitive and Noun Genitive-Noun
    Order of Adjective and Noun Noun-Adjective
    Order of Demonstrative and Noun Noun-Demonstrative
    Order of Numeral and Noun Noun-Numeral
    Order of Degree Word and Adjective Adjective-Degree word
    Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Initial interrogative phrase
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase VO and Postpositions
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun VO and NAdj
    Simple Clauses
    Expression of Pronominal Subjects Obligatory pronouns in subject position
    Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Double-object construction
    Negative Morphemes Negative particle
    Predicative Adjectives Mixed
    Nominal and Locational Predication Different
    Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Impossible
    Comparative Constructions Exceed
    Complex Sentences
    Relativization on Subjects Gap
    'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is expressed overtly