Kabiye (; also rendered ''Kabiyé'', ''Kabiyè'', ''Kabye'', ''Kabyé'', ''Kabyè'', ''Cabrai'' or ''Cabrais'') is an Eastern Gurunsi

Gur language The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur or Mabia, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. They are spoken in the Sahelian and savanna regions of West Africa, namely: in most areas of Burkina Faso, and in south-central Mali, northeastern Iv ...

spoken primarily in northern

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its ...

. Throughout the 20th century, there was extensive migration to the centre and south of

and also to

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...

and

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...

. Kabiye speakers made up over 23% of the Togolese population in 1999.

Status

Kabiye is one of two

national language A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. There is little consistency in the use of this term. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the te ...

s of

(along with Ewe). In the Togolese context, ''

'' currently means that the language is promoted in national media and, in the formal education sector, as an optional exam subject in grades 9 and 10.

Linguistic research

The missionary-linguist Jacques Delord published the first descriptive grammar of Kabiye in 1976. This was followed by Kezié Lébikaza's descriptive grammar in 1999, which remains the key reference work in Kabiye linguistics. There is also a Kabiye-French dictionary. Other topics that have been the focus of research include:

Comparative linguistics Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their history, historical relatedness. Genetic relat ...

Discourse analysis Discourse analysis (DA), or discourse studies, is an approach to the analysis of written, vocal, or sign language use, or any significant semiotic event. The objects of discourse Analysis ( discourse, writing, conversation, communicative even ...

, Language contact,

Lexicology Lexicology is the branch of linguistics that analyzes the lexicon of a specific language. A word is the smallest meaningful unit of a language that can stand on its own, and is made up of small components called morphemes and even smaller eleme ...

, Morphology,

Phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

Sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on language. It can overlap with the sociology of ...

, Syntax, Tone

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mo ...

Tonology Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...

, and the

verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...

system.

Publications

The earliest known publications in Kabiye appeared in the 1930s. Altogether there have been about 200 publications in Kabiye, though not all of these are still in print or easily available for purchase. For an inventory up to the turn of the century see Pouwili, 1999. Publications include two books of

proverbs A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbial ...

, folktales,

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

, medical booklets, agricultural booklets, translations of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...

, political tracts, religious tracts, a short novel, primers, and other pedagogical materials.

Kabiye Wikipedia

The Kabiye Wikipedia was initiated in June 2014 by Gnasse Atinèdi, the secretary of the Académie Kabiye. It currently (July 2017) has 1185 articles on a wide range of international subjects.

Phonology

Consonants

The five voiced consonant sounds only occur either word-medially or as allophones. The retroflex sound can occur as voiced allophones of , , or in medial position.

Vowels

Short vowels

Long vowels

The long back unrounded

vowels A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (l ...

only occur at

morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone ar ...

boundaries.

Tones

Kabiye is a

tonal language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...

, meaning that pitch differences are used to distinguish one word from another. These contrasts may be lexical (e.g. ''ɖálʋ́'' "elder brother" ~ ''ɖálʋ̀'' "intestinal worm") or

grammatical In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the goal of which is to form ...

(e.g. ''ɛɛkɔŋ́'' "he isn't coming" ~ ''ɛɛ́kɔŋ'' "(when) he comes" ~ ''ɛ́ɛkɔ́ŋ'' "if he doesn't come). There are two tones, high (H) and low (L). Six tone contours are possible on mono- and disyllabic nouns (H, L, HL, LH, HLH, LHL) and three on the imperative form of the

(H, L, HL). Kabiye also has automatic downstep, where a H following a L is always pronounced on a lower pitch than the preceding H within the same phonological phrase. Numerous tonal processes occur once words are placed in context. The contour HLH always surfaces as HꜜHH ~ HHꜜH (depending on the consonant–vowel structure that it associates to). This is a postlexical process that occurs wherever the context permits, within

word A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consen ...

s and across

word boundaries Word boundary may refer to: * Word boundary (linguistics) A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often ha ...

. There is lexical L tone spreading in the

verb phrase In linguistics, a verb phrase (VP) is a syntactic unit composed of a verb and its arguments except the subject of an independent clause or coordinate clause. Thus, in the sentence ''A fat man quickly put the money into the box'', the words ''qu ...

and the associative noun phrase.

Vowel harmony

Kabiye has

vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, me ...

, meaning that the quality of the

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (l ...

in an

affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ...

is determined by that of the

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...

. There are two kinds: # ATR

, in which words contain either the − ATR

s (e.g. ''ɛ-ñɩmɩ́-yɛ'' "his key") or the + ATR

s (''e-kalími-yé'' "his chicken"). The vowel is unspecified for ATR and can occur in either set. # Lip rounding

, in which some affixes contains either unrounded

s or

rounded Round or rounds may refer to: Mathematics and science * The contour of a closed curve or surface with no sharp corners, such as an ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, cant, or sphere * Rounding, the shortening of a number to reduce the num ...

s . This process is much more limited, occurring in some TAM suffixes (e.g. ''è-kpéz-íɣ́'' "he coughs" / ''è-ɖóz-ùù'' "he dreams") and some adjectival

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy''. Particu ...

es (e.g. ''kɩ́-kpɛ̀d-ʋ̀ʋ́'' "black", ''kʋ́-hʋ̀lʋ̀m-ʋ́ʋ̀'' "white"). Again, the vowel is unspecified for ATR and can occur in either set. A limited number of

prefixes A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy''. Particula ...

undergo both

processes, e.g. the first

person A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

plural The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...

subject pronoun In linguistics, a subject pronoun is a personal pronoun that is used as the subject of a verb. Subject pronouns are usually in the nominative case for languages with a nominative–accusative alignment pattern. On the other hand, a language wit ...

: ''pà-kpàzá-à'' "they coughed", ''pɛ̀-wɛ̀ɛ́tà-à'' "they whispered", ''pè-wèlìsàá'' "they listened", ''pɔ̀-cɔ́nà-à'' "they looked", ''pò-ɖòzà-á'' "they dreamt".

Orthography

Kabiye was first written in the 1930s, but it was in the early 1980s that the ''Comité de Langue Nationale Kabiyè'' (now the ''Académie Kabiyè''), an organ of the Togolese Ministry of Education, standardized the orthography. Kabiye is written in modified Roman script based on the character inventory of the

African reference alphabet An African reference alphabet was first proposed in 1978 by a UNESCO-organized conference held in Niamey, Niger, and the proposed alphabet was revised in 1982. The conference recommended the use of single letters for a sound (that is, a phoneme) ...

. An alternative

, devised and promoted by R.P. Adjola Raphaël, is widely used among

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

; it uses the same letters but with different spelling rules. The following tables show the grapheme-phoneme correspondences in the Standard orthography.

Consonants

The

contains a significant amount of overspecification, since the 5

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production ...

obstruent An obstruent () is a speech sound such as , , or that is formed by ''obstructing'' airflow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate. All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include vowels as well a ...

graphemes In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word ''grapheme'' is derived and the suffix ''-eme'' by analogy with ''phoneme'' and other names of emic units. The study of graphemes is called ''graphemics ...

''b'', ''g'', ''gb'', ''v'', ''j'' are superfluous from a strictly

phonemic In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

point of view. The

grapheme In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word ''grapheme'' is derived and the suffix ''-eme'' by analogy with ''phoneme'' and other names of emic units. The study of graphemes is called ''graphemics' ...

is reserved for

loanwords A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...

Vowels

Short vowels

Long vowels

Tones

The standard

of Kabiye does not generally mark tone. The single exception is the spelling of two

s that are

tonal minimal pairs Tonal may refer to: * Tonal (mythology), a concept in the belief systems and traditions of Mesoamerican cultures, involving a spiritual link between a person and an animal * Tonal language, a type of language in which pitch is used to make phonem ...

Punctuation

The

hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. ''Son-in-law'' is an example of a hyphenated word. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes ( figur ...

is used in the standard

in order to distinguish

homophone A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (pa ...

s. It appear between the

possessive pronoun A possessive or ktetic form (abbreviated or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict owne ...

and the

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Organism, Living creatures (including people ...

in the associative noun phrase, and between the

verb root A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descrip ...

and the

object pronoun In linguistics, an object pronoun is a personal pronoun that is used typically as a grammatical object: the direct or indirect object of a verb, or the object of a preposition. Object pronouns contrast with subject pronouns. Object pronouns in Eng ...

in the

, e.g.: :

Grammar

Kabiye is an SVO language. The

possessive A possessive or ktetic form (abbreviated or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict owne ...

precedes the head noun.

Adjective In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ...

numerals A numeral is a figure, symbol, or group of figures or symbols denoting a number. It may refer to: * Numeral system used in mathematics * Numeral (linguistics), a part of speech denoting numbers (e.g. ''one'' and ''first'' in English) * Numerical ...

demonstratives Demonstratives (abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame ...

, locatives and

relative clause A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments ...

s follow the head noun.

Noun classes

Kabiye has ten

noun class In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some ...

es. The first eight are grouped in pairs of

singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular homology * SINGULAR, an open source Computer Algebra System (CAS) * Singular or sounder, a group of boar ...

s and

s that are sometimes referred to as

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures us ...

s. Some limited cross-pairing occurs. Class 9 contains

uncountable In mathematics, an uncountable set (or uncountably infinite set) is an infinite set that contains too many elements to be countable. The uncountability of a set is closely related to its cardinal number: a set is uncountable if its cardinal numb ...

s (leaves, dust, mosquitos...), while class 10 contains liquids (milk, blood, oil...). There are certain other

semantic Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...

tendencies (e.g., humans in classes 1 and 2, tools in classes 3 and 4), but these are by no means systematic. The class of any

is identifiable by its class suffix and by the

agreement Agreement may refer to: Agreements between people and organizations * Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law * Trade agreement, between countries * Consensus, a decision-making process * Contract, enforceable in a court of law ** Meeting of ...

of other potential elements in the sentence with it, such as

pronouns In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...

, interrogatives,

adjectives In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ma ...

determiners A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...

and the

one to five. The following table gives an example of a

– determiner construction from each class. In each case, the class suffix is separated from the

with a

Verb conjugations

The

is composed of an obligatory

and TAM ( tense– aspect–

mood Mood may refer to: *Mood (psychology), a relatively long lasting emotional state Music *The Mood, a British pop band from 1981 to 1984 * Mood (band), hip hop artists * ''Mood'' (Jacquees album), 2016 * ''Moods'' (Barbara Mandrell album), 1978 ...

) suffix. The TAM suffix may indicate imperative (''hàzɩ̀'' "sweep!"),

aorist Aorist (; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by th ...

(''ɛ́házɩ̀'' "and he swept"),

perfective The perfective aspect ( abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the i ...

(''ɛ̀hàzàá'' "he swept"),

imperfective The imperfective ( abbreviated or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a ge ...

present The present (or here'' and ''now) is the time that is associated with the events perceived directly and in the first time, not as a recollection (perceived more than once) or a speculation (predicted, hypothesis, uncertain). It is a period of ...

(''ɛ̀házɩ̀ɣ̀'' "he is sweeping"),

past (''ɛ̀hàzàɣ́'' "he was sweeping") or

infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is de ...

(''hàzʋ́ʋ̀'' "to sweep"). Kabiye is unusual in also having two designated paradigms for expressing

comparative general linguistics, the comparative is a syntactic construction that serves to express a comparison between two (or more) entities or groups of entities in quality or degree - see also comparison (grammar) for an overview of comparison, as well ...

s in a

subordinate clause A subordinate clause, dependent clause, subclause, or embedded clause is a clause that is embedded within a complex sentence. For instance, in the English sentence "I know that Bette is a dolphin", the clause "that Bette is a dolphin" occurs as th ...

: an

form (''ɛ̀zɩ́ ɛ̀hàzʋ̀ʋ̀ʋ́ yɔ́'' "as he sweeps") and a

form (''ɛ̀zɩ́ ɛ̀hàzʋ́ʋ̀ yɔ́'' "as he swept"). The

has two forms: unbound (not followed by a

complement A complement is something that completes something else. Complement may refer specifically to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-clas ...

: ''ɛ̀hàzàá'' "he swept") and bound (followed by a

: ''ɛ̀hàzá ɖèdè'' "he swept yesterday"). The

may also optionally include modal

es that add nuances of meaning: adversative (''ɛ̀tɩ́ɩ̀hàzɩ̀ɣ́'' "he swept in spite of it"),

habitual Changes may refer to: Books * ''Changes'', the 12th novel in Jim Butcher's ''The Dresden Files'' Series * ''Changes'', a novel by Danielle Steel * ''Changes'', a trilogy of novels on which the BBC TV series was based, written by Peter Dickinso ...

(''ɛ̀tɩ́ɩ́házɩ̀ɣ̀'' "he usually sweeps"),

expectative In the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, an expectative, or an expectative grace (from the Latin ''expectare'', to expect or wait for), is the anticipatory grant of an ecclesiastical benefice, not vacant at the moment but which will become so ...

(''ɛ̀tɩ́ɩ́házɩ́ɣ́'' "he sweeps in the meantime"), immediative (''ɛ̀tɩ̀hàzàá'' "he swept straightaway"),

pluperfect The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, is a type of verb form, generally treated as a grammatical tense in certain languages, relating to an action that occurred prior to an aforementioned time i ...

(''ɛ̀ɛ̀hàzàá'' "he had swept"),

future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currentl ...

(''ɛ̀ɛ́hàzɩ̀ɣ̀ lɛ́'' "when he will sweep") and negative (''ɛ̀tàhàzɩ́'' "he didn't sweep"). Some of these modal

es may also appear in combination with each other so that, for example, negative + adversative indicates a negative categorical meaning (''ɛ̀tàtɩ́ɩ̀hàzɩ́'' "he didn't sweep at all"). The

may optionally add a

(written joined to the

or the modal

as in the examples above) and/or an

suffix (written joined to the

with a

: ''ɛ̀hàzá-kɛ́'' "he swept it"). There is one modal suffix. It is used in conjunction with a negative modal

to indicate a Provisional meaning. It is written joined to the

(ɛ̀tàhàzɩ̀tá "he has not swept yet"). The

can also be extended by means of the suffix ''-náʋ̀'' to indicate instrumentality, accompaniment, manner, simultaneity or conformity (''ɛ̀hàzɩ́nàà'' "he swept with"). All

s can be nominalised as agentives (''házɩ́yʊ́'' "sweeper"),

adjective In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ...

s ("kɪ̀hàzʊ̀ʊ́" "swept") or

locative In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...

s (''ɖɩ̀hàzɩ̀yɛ́'' "sweeping place").

Sample text

''Man-kabɩyɛ kʋnʋŋ, ŋɖewa pɩfɛyɩ naʋ. Yee pɔyɔɔdʋʋ-ŋ nɛ ɛyʋ welesi yɔ, pɩwɛ-ɩ ɛzɩ wondu peteɣ. Ɛlɛ, yee ɛyʋ ɛwɛɛ nɛ ɛɛmaɣzɩɣ ñɔ-yɔɔ camɩyɛ yɔ, ɛɛnaɣ ñe-ɖeu. Nɔɔyʋ ewelesiɣ pɩŋŋ nɛ ɛnɩɩ pɔyɔɔdʋʋ-ŋ yɔ, pɩlakɩ-ɩ ɛzɩ ɛtazɩ nɛ ɛna ñɛ-wɛtʋ yɔ, pɩɩsaŋɩ-ɩ se eyele. Ŋwɛ yuŋ weyi nɛ ɛyʋ ɛɛtɛŋ ñɔ-tɔm yɔ, pɩtɩna nɛ ɛyʋ ɛɖɔkɩ-ŋ pɩfɛyɩ yebu; Ñɛ-wɛtʋ lɩnɩ le nɛ paasɩŋ ñɔ-tɔm ? Tɔm kɔpɔzaɣ ŋga ɖicosuu-kɛ tobi. Ñɛ-wɛtʋ nɛ tɩ-tɩ solo, mbʋ pʋyɔɔ yɔ ɖooo ŋŋwɛɛ, natʋyʋ taasoki ña-taa se tɩpɩsɩ-ŋ nɔɔyʋjaʋ. Kabɩyɛ kʋnʋŋ, ña-pɩɣa canɩɣna-ŋ nɛ kewiliɣ-ŋ, nɛ kasaŋ-ŋ ño-yuŋ, ñe-ɖeu nɛ ñe-leleŋ yɔɔ.'' and reprinted in (1997) no. 22, p.33.

"My Kabiye language, you are so beautiful! When anyone pronounces you and another listens, you are like a song. But anyone who does not ponder you deeply will not perceive your beauty. Anyone who listens attentively when you are being spoken must, as it were, dig deeply to discover your character. It is because of this inexhaustible weightiness that we cannot let go of you. From where does this impenetrable character come? We can reply straight away to this question. Your character is unique, because ever since you came into being, you have never suffered any outside influences which could turn you into something else. Kabiye language, your child is glad for you, cherishes and praises you, because of your strength, your beauty and your sweetness."

References

External links

Documentation, installation files and fonts for typing Kabiye on your computerEthnologue entry for Kabiye"Lamaakaaou: journalisme, Communication pour le développement, Développement personnel"PanAfriL10n page on Kabiye"Kabiye Proverbs" Facebook page"Blog sur la langue et la culture kabiyè"Association des Femmes pour l'Alphabétisation, la Santé et les Activités génératrices de revenusFree audio Bible in KabiyeThe New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, free videos, audio books and other bible study material (Jehovah's Witnesses)

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