Tampulma,

anglicized Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

as Tamprusi is a Mabia language (formerly Gur) 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 ...

. It is primarily spoken in the

Savannah Region The Savannah Region is one of the newest regions of Ghana and yet the largest region in the country. The creation of the Region follows presentation of a petition by the Gonja Traditional Council, led by the Yagbonwura Tumtumba Boresa Jakpa I ...

. It is related to the languages of Deg,

Sisaala Sisaala (''Sissala'') is a Gur language cluster spoken in northern Ghana near the town of TumuEdited by M.E.Kropp Dakubu, ''The Languages of Ghana'', Kegan Paul International, 1988. and in the neighbouring republic of Burkina Faso. Western Sisa ...

and Vagla.

Etymology

Tampulma refers to the language, while Tamprusi refers to the people. The general and accepted name for the language is Tampulma. The name Tamprusi Is mostly used to refer to the ethnic group who speak the language, and it is not used by native speakers to refer to the language.

Geographic distribution

The Tamprusi are located in the

, in the

North Gonja District North Gonja District is one of the seven districts in Savannah Region, Ghana. Originally it was formerly part of the then-larger West Gonja District West Gonja Municipal Assembly is one of the seven districts in Savannah Region, Ghana. Originall ...

, along with the

Gonja people Gonja (also Ghanjawiyyu, endonym Ngbanya) is a member of the Guan ethnic group that live in Ghana. The Gonja established a kingdom in northern Ghana of the same name, which was founded in 1675 by Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa. Origin The Gonja are a G ...

and in the

Mamprusi District Mamprusi District is a former district council that was located in North East Region, Ghana. It was created as an ordinary district assembly in the Northern Region in 1975. However on 1988, it was split off into two new district assemblies: E ...

, along with the

Mamprusi people Mamprusis are an ethnic group in northern Ghana and Togo. Estimates are that there are about 200,000 Mamprusis living in the Northern Regions of Ghana as of 2013. They speak Mampruli, one of the Gur languages. In Ghana, the Mamprusis live main ...

. The Tampulma,

Hanga Hanga is a village in Parner taluka in Ahmednagar district of the state of Maharashtra.Maps of India, Map of Haga Village. https://www.mapsofindia.com/villages/maharashtra/ahmadnagar/parner/hanga.html. Temple Hanga has a popular temple of ...

and Kamara are native to the west of the White Volta before the Gonja Invasion of Dagbon in the 1600s. Today, the Tamprusi, Hanga, and Kamara are part of the Gonja Traditional Council, although they are more ethnically related to the Dagombas, as they all belong to the Mabia ethnic Group. Linguistically, Hanga and Kamara are mutually intelligible with the Dagbanli language. Some Tamprusi have called for an Independent Traditional Council.

Classification

The Tampulma language is one of the

Gurunsi languages The Grũsi or Gurunsi languages, also known as the East Mabia languages, Bodomo, Adams. 2020.Mabia: Its Etymological Genesis, Geographical Spread, and some Salient Genetic Features" In: Bodomo A., Abubakari H. & Issah, S. 2020. ''Handbook of the ...

, a part of the Mabia language subdivision of the

Niger–Congo languages Niger–Congo is a hypothetical language family spoken over the majority of sub-Saharan Africa. It unites the Mande languages, the Atlantic–Congo languages (which share a characteristic noun class system), and possibly several smaller groups ...

. It is related to the languages of Dega,

and Vagla. Other languages in the area include Mampruli and

Gonja Gonja may refer to: *The Gonja kingdom * The Gonja people who live there *Gonja language *Ranjan Ramanayake See also * Central Gonja District * East Gonja Municipal District * North East Gonja District * North Gonja (district) * West Gonja Munici ...

, which is a

Kwa language The Kwa languages, often specified as New Kwa, are a proposed but as-yet-undemonstrated family of languages spoken in the south-eastern part of Ivory Coast, across southern Ghana, and in central Togo. The Kwa family belongs to the Niger-Congo ...

, are the dominant languages in these areas. There are substantial

Dagbanli Dagbani (or Dagbane), also known as Dagbanli or Dagbanle, is a Gur language spoken in Ghana and Northern Togo. Its native speakers are estimated around 1,170,000. Dagbani is the most widely spoken language in northern Ghana, specifically among t ...

speakers in the area. Just like many African languages, Tampulma has a

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 ...

system. For example, Tampulma is a component of Tamp- and -ulma, similar to

Kiswahili Swahili, also known as as it is referred to in the Swahili language, is a Bantu language originally spoken by the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent littoral i ...

, which is composed of Ki- and -swahili.

References

Languages of Ghana Gurunsi languages {{gur-lang-stub