Likpe language

Likpe or Sekpele (also Bosele, Mu) is spoken in the mountainous lower part of the Oti Region of Ghana. It belongs to the geographic group of Ghana–Togo Mountain languages (traditionally called the Togorestsprachen or Togo Remnant languages) of the Kwa branch of Niger–Congo.

Likpe
Sekpele
Sεkpεlé
Native to	Ghana
Region	Oti Region, north of Hohoe
Native speakers	23,000 (2003)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Kwa Na-Togo Lelemi Likpe
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lip
Glottolog	sekp1241
ELP	Sekpele

Likpe
Person	Ɔkpεlé
People	Bakpεlé
Language	Sεkpεlé

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial- velar	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k	kp	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	dʒ	g	gb
Fricative		f	s	ʃ
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Approximant			l	j		w

• /p/ and /g/ are rare.
• Clusters include ⟨Cl⟩, ⟨Cw⟩, and ⟨Cy⟩.

Vowels

Oral vowels

	Front		Central	Back
	[-round]	[+round]
Close	i			u
Close-mid	e			o
Open-mid	ɛ	œ		ɔ
Open			a

Nasal vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ĩ		ũ
Close-mid			õ
Open-mid			ɔ̃
Open		ã

Tones

Likpe has three tones: high, low, and mid.

References

• Allen, Edward Jay (1980). "Likpe". In Kropp Dakubu, M. E. (ed.). West African Language Data Sheets. Vol. 2. West African Linguistic Society. pp. LIK 1-LIK 6.

Further reading

• Ford, Kevin C. (1973). "On the loss of cross-height vowel harmony". Research Review (Institute of African Studies, Legon, Ghana). Supplement 4.
• Heine, Bernd (1968). Verbreitung und Gliederung der Togo-Restsprachen (in German). Berlin: Reimer.
• Ladefoged, Peter (1964). A Phonetic Study of West African Languages. London: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 1801799.

External links

• ELAR archive of Description and Documentation of Sekpele