Frafra language

Frafra or Farefare, also known as Gurenɛ, is the language of the Frafra people of northern Ghana, particularly the Upper East Region, and southern Burkina Faso. It is a national language of Ghana, and is closely related to Dagbani and other languages of Northern Ghana, and also related to Mossi, also known as Mooré, the national language of Burkina Faso.

Frafra
Gurenɛ
Native to	Ghana, Burkina Faso
Ethnicity	Frafra people
Native speakers	720,000[1] (2003)[2]
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Gur Northern Oti–Volta Mooré–Dagbani Mooré Frafra
Dialects	Gurenɛ Nankani Booni
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gur
Glottolog	fare1241[3]

Frafra consists of three principal dialects, Gurenɛ (also written Gurunɛ, Gudenne, Gurenne, Gudeni, Zuadeni), Nankani (Naani, Nankanse, Ninkare), and Booni. Nabit and Talni have been mistakenly reported to be Frafra dialects.[4]

Orthography

The Frafra language uses the letters of the Latin alphabet with the exception of c, j, q, x, and with the additions of ɛ, ɔ, ŋ, and ɣ.

Gurunɛ Vowels

Sound	Representation	Example	Meaning
/a/	a	ya /ja/	houses
/a:/	aa	gaarɛ /ga:ɹɛ/	a type of bean cake
/ɛ/	ɛ	ɛkɛ /ɛkɛ/	to fly
/e/	e	zoore /zo:ɹe:/	mountain/hill
/ẽ/	ẽ	tẽŋa	city
/ɪ/	ɩ	taablɩ /ta:blɪ/	table (French borrowing)
/i/	i	piika /pi:ka/	little
/ɔ/	ɔ	ɔɔrɔ /ɔ:ɹɔ/	cold
/o/	o	toma toma /to:.ma.to:.ma/	a greeting similar to "hi"
/ʊ/	ʋ	teebʋl /te:bʊl/	table (English borrowing)
/u/	uu	buulika /bu:lika/	morning

Grammar

Words in Gurunɛ have different "classes" for verb endings:

Gurunɛ Plurals

Class	Singular	Plural	Example	Meaning
1	-a	-ba	nẽra > nẽrba	Person > People
2	-ka	-gsɩ	bɛka > bɛgsɩ	part(s)/fraction(s)
4	-ko	-gro	boko > bogro[5]	hole(s)
Used mainly for loanwords from Twi, English, and other languages	-	-dõma	ãnkɔra > ãnkɔrdõma	water barrel(s) [Twi]
			foto > fotodõma	photo(s) [most likely French and English]
			taablɩ > taablɩdõma	table(s) [French]
n/a	-grɛ	-ga	dɩgrɛ > dɩga	dwarf(s)
	-ɩa	-ɩɩsɩ	bɩa > bɩɩsɩ	child > children
	-kɔ	-grɔ	dʋkɔ > dʋgrɔ	pot(s)
	-õa	-õosɩ	kõa > kõosɩ	voice(s)
			pɔgdɔgnõa > pɔgdɔgnõosɩ[6]	Cuckoo bird
	-lɛ	-la	ɩɩlɛ > ɩɩla[7]	horn(s)
			ʋʋlɛ > ʋʋlɛ[8]	Uulea mushroom
	-nɛ[9]	-ma	gɩgnɛ > gɩgma	lion(s)
			bẽmnɛ > bẽma	Bemnea calabash drum
	-(n)na	-nɩba	sɔ'ɔna > sɔ'ɔnɩba	owner(s)

Greetings

Gurunɛ	Phonetic	English
Buulika	/bu:lika/	morning (Greeting in the morning)
Wuntɛŋa	/ˈvʊntɛŋa/	sun (Greeting around noon)
Zaanure	/za:juɻɛ/	Evening (Greeting in the evening)
Zaare	/za:r̝e/	Welcome
Toma Toma	/to:.ma.to:.ma/	a greeting similar to "Hello" (every time of the day)
Nambaa	/ˈnaːmba:/	Response to these greetings

Geography

Continents

English	Gurunɛ
Africa	Afrika
America	Amerika
Antarctica	Antarktika
Asia	Asia
Australia	Australia
Europe	Europa
Oceania	Okeania

Solemitiŋa means "land of the white man" and is used to refer to all non-African countries.

Solemine is theoretically referring to all non-African languages however it is only used to refer to English.

Bibliography

• M.E. Kropp Dakubu, S. Awinkene Antintono, and E. Avea Nsoh, A Gurenɛ–English Dictionary and accompanying English–Gurenɛ Glossary
• https://ninkare.webonary.org/

References

1. Excluding ?30,000 Nabit and ?100,000 Talni
2. Frafra at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Farefare". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
4. ISO change request
5. "Ninkare Frafra Dictionary » boko" (in French). Retrieved 2019-08-09.
6. "Ninkare Frafra Dictionary » pɔgdɔgnõa" (in French). Retrieved 2019-08-09.
7. "Ninkare Frafra Dictionary » ɩɩlɛ" (in French). Retrieved 2019-08-09.
8. "Ninkare Frafra Dictionary » ʋʋlɛ" (in French). Retrieved 2019-08-09.
9. "Ninkare Frafra Dictionary » Search Results » nɛ". Retrieved 2019-08-09.