Native speakers 230,000 (2004) Glottolog mamp1244 | Ethnicity Mamprusi people ISO 639-3 maw | |
Language family Niger–CongoAtlantic–CongoGurNorthernOti–VoltaWestern-Oti/VoltaSoutheasternMampruli | ||
The Mamprusi language, Mampruli (Mampelle, Ŋmampulli), is a Gur language spoken in northern Ghana by the Mamprusi people, and partially mutually intelligible with Dagbani.
Contents
The Mamprusi language is spoken in a broad belt across the northern parts of the Northern Region of Ghana, stretching west to east from Yizeesi to Nakpanduri and centred on the towns of Gambaga/Nalerigu and Walewale. One speaker is a Ŋmampuriga plural Ŋmampurisi, and the land of the Mamprusi is Ŋmampurigu.
The language belongs to the Gur family which is part of the great block of Niger-Congo languages which cover most of Africa south of the Sahara (Bendor-Samuel 1989). Within Gur it belongs to the Western Oti-Volta subgroup, and particularly its southeastern cluster of six to eight languages (Naden 1988, 1989). Closely related and very similar languages spoken nearby are Dagbani, Nanun, KaMara and Hanga, and Kusaal, Nabit and Talni in the Upper East Region. Not quite so closely related are Farefare, Waali, Dagaari, Birifor and Safalaba in the Upper East and West Regions and southwest of the Northern Region.
Comparatively little linguistic material on the language has been published; there is a brief sketch as an illustration of this subgroup of languages in Naden 1988. A collection of Mampruli proverbs has been published by R.P. Xavier Plissart, and a translation of the New Testament is in print, a sample of which can be read and heard online. There are also beginning Mampruli lessons in which the spoken language can be heard.
Dialects
There is comparatively little dialect variation. The western (Walewale to the White Volta) and Far Western (west of the White Volta, area known by those to the east as 'Overseas') have some variant pronunciation standards. The far Eastern dialect known as Durili is most notable for pronouncing [r] and [l] where the rest of Mampruli pronounces [l] and [r] respectively, and for some characteristic intonation patterns.
Vowels
Mampruli has ten phonemic vowels: five short and five long vowels:
Writing system
Mampruli is written in a Latin alphabet, but the literacy rate is fairly low. The orthography currently used represents a number of allophonic distinctions. There is a description of the process of formulating the orthography.
Grammar
Mampruli has a fairly conservative Oti-Volta grammatical system. The constituent order in Mampruli sentences is usually agent–verb–object. There is a simple, non-technical grammatical study <<to be expanded>>
Lexicon
The rather unusual trilingual (Mampruli-Spanish-English) dictionary was superseded by the more-reliable simple glossary: a full-featured Mampruli dictionary is in course of preparation. A hundred-word sample can be seen on the Kamusi project site