Everything about Kwa totally explained
"Kwa" redirects here. For the Singaporean lawyer, see Kwa Geok Choo. For the Kwa River see Kasai River
The
Kwa languages are spoken in the south-eastern part of
Côte d'Ivoire, in
Ghana,
Togo and
Benin, and the southwestern corner of
Nigeria. The term was introduced 1885 by
Krause and used by
Westermann (1952) and
Greenberg (1963). It is derived from the word for 'people' in many of these languages, which contains the root
kwa. The Kwa group of languages is a branch of
Volta-Congo and ultimately
Niger-Congo.
Bennett & Sterk (1977) argued that Kwa in its original form wasn't a genetic unit, and proposed a reclassification in which the
Yoruboid and
Igboid languages are members of the
Benue-Congo subfamily. The remaining languages are sometimes labeled
New Kwa in order to avoid confusion with the old, larger Kwa family.
Based on historical-comparative analysis, Stewart distinguished the following major branches of (New) Kwa:
- Potou-Tano (including for example Guang and Akan)
- Ga-Dangme
- Na-Togo
- Ka-Togo
- Gbe
Several languages of southern Côte d'Ivoire, such as Attie, Adioukrou, Abidji, and Ega are considered Kwa languages, but their exact position within the family is still unclear so they're conservatively left ungrouped.
Ethnologue divides the Kwa languages into two broad geographical groupings:
Nyo and
Left bank. The Nyo group collapses Stewart's Potou-Tano and Ga-Dangme branches and also includes the ungrouped languages of southern Côte d'Ivoire, while the remaining Kwa languages are called
Left bank because they're spoken on the Eastern side of the
Volta River in Ghana, Togo, Benin and southwestern Nigeria.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Kwa'.
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