Dompo is an endangered language of
Ghana
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
. Speakers are shifting to
Nafaanra. It is spoken adjacent to the main town of the Nafaanra people, namely
Banda,
Brong-Ahafo Region
The Brong-Ahafo region was a region in central Ghana. Brong-Ahafo was bordered to the north by the Black Volta river and to the east by the Lake Volta, and to the south by the Ashanti, Eastern and Western regions. The capital of Brong-Ahafo ...
, Ghana. Blench (2015) reports that it is spoken by 10 households.
Classification
Dompo has numerous parallels with the
Gonja language, but according to Blench (1999) does not appear to be directly related to it. Blench suggests three possibilities:
#it is a Gonja dialect that has come under heavy external influence;
#it is a related
Guang language
The Guang languages are languages of the Kwa language family spoken by the Guang people in Ghana and Togo:
*Southern Guang
** Efutu-Awutu
** Hill Guang: dialects Cherepon, Gua (Gwa), Larteh
Larteh is a language of southeastern Ghana. I ...
that has been relexified, largely from Gonja;
#it is of some other source, and relexified, largely from Gonja.
None of the Dompo names for wild plants or animals resemble Gonja, suggesting that the last is the most likely. Some Dompo animal names show resemblances with
Mpra.
[Blench, Roger (2007) ]
Recovering data on Mpra [=Mpre] a possible language isolate in North-Central Ghana
'
However, Gueldemann (2018) finds the Guang/Gonja connection to be overwhelming:
References
Sources
*Blench, Roger. 1999.
Recent Field Work in Ghana: Report on Dompo and a note on Mpre'.
*Blench, Roger. 2015.
The Dompo language of Central Ghana and its affinities'.
Guang languages
Languages of Ghana
Unclassified languages of Africa
Endangered unclassified languages
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