Tamprusi is a

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 ...

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 ...

Names

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 unaccepted by native speakers to refer to the language.

Geographic distribution

The Tampulma language is the language of the Tamprusi people. The Tamprusi are located in the Northern Region, especially in the North Gonja District, dominated by the

Gonja people Gonja (also Ghanjawiyyu, endonym Ngbanya) was a kingdom in northern Ghana founded in 1675 by Sumaila Ndewura Jakpa. The word can also refer to the people of this kingdom. Origin The Gonja are a Guan people who have been influenced by Dagbon, Ak ...

and in the Mamprusi District, dominated by 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 mainly ...

. The

Dagomba people The Dagombas are a Gur ethnic group of northern Ghana, numbering more than 2.3 million people. They inhabit the Northern Region of Ghana in the sparse savanna region below the sahelian belt, known as the Sudan. They speak the Dagbani langu ...

are also present and dominant in the Region.

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 M ...

. It is related to the languages of Dega,

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

and Vagla. The Gurunsi languages are

Gur languages 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 ...

, which are

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, Atlantic-Congo languages (which share a characteristic noun class system), and possibly ...

. Mampruli, another Gur language, and Gonja, 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 name was introduced 1895 by Gottlob Kr ...

, are the dominant languages in this areas. Also,

Dagbani Dagbani (or Dagbane), also known as Dagbanli and Dagbanle, is a Gur language spoken in Ghana and Northern Togo. Its native speakers are estimated around 3,160,000. It is a compulsory subject in primary and junior high school in the Dagbon Kingdo ...

, related to Mampruli, is also a dominant language all over the area. The Tamprussi also speak

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

, French and

Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also ...

. In a similar way as in other African languages, Tampulma has a Nown class sistem. For example, Tampulma is a component of Tamp- and -ulma, similar to

Kiswahili Swahili, also known by its local name , is the native language of the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent litoral islands). It is a Bantu language, though Swahili h ...

, which is composed of Ki- and -swahili.

References

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