Talk:Kwa languages

Ghana Togo mountain languages

I'm going to remove the Ghana Togo mountain languages from the subdivisions of Kwa in the taxonomy box, because the GTMLs are part of Nyo. If we put them back, then (1) they should be indented under Nyo, and (2) we should list all the second-layer groups, and not artificially favor the GTMLs. ACW 03:13, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

I see. The problem is that the GTM languages aren't really classified as 'part of Nyo' except by the Ethnologue, and Ethnologue does it for unclear reasons. I really don't think we should simply duplicate Ethnologue's classification here, especially since the internal classification of Kwa is notoriously unclear. Stewart (1989, 2000 as cited in Williamson & Blench 2000:29) distinguishes the following major branches of Kwa:

• Potou-Tano (including e.g. Akan)
• Ga-Dangme
• Na-Togo (half of the GTM languages, based on Heine 1968)
• Ka-Togo (the other half of the GTM languages, based on Heine 1968)
• Gbe (based on Capo 1991, Stewart's own work)

The Ethnologue seems to collapse a few of these into 'Left Bank' and the rest into 'Nyo', but that really is mostly a geographical grouping for which no comparative evidence whatsoever has been offered. As Blench (2006) points out, the GTM languages have traditionally been classified as Kwa languages at least since Westermann, but no-one has really provided evidence for their exact place within Kwa. As long as this position isn't really clear, I thought it best to just provide a link to the GTM languages as a whole (a grouping which admittedly, as Blench puts it, 'bears features of a typological classification'). — mark ✎ 08:18, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree however that the inclusion of Left Bank and Nyo in the infobox rendered the addition of GTM on its own superfluous. I have revised the part of the article dealing with classification and have adjusted the infobox accordingly. — mark ✎ 08:44, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Tonal

The fact that they are tonal should not fail to be mentioned in the article! Badagnani 08:44, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

How Many People?

The article is missing the information how many people the Kwa languages speak. In other articles on languages this information is present, so it could be present here as well. --Alfe (talk) 15:19, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

Gbe languages

The references to Gbe languages on this page lack coherence.

On the one hand, Gbe is not listed as a branch of Kwa in the infobox, and the article includes the statements “Since Stewart … the Gbe languages [have been] reassigned to Volta-Niger.” and, more ambiguously, “[formerly] Gbe (inclusion doubtful as they show more features of Kwa the closer one moves to Akan)”.

On the other hand, the article includes the statement “the Gbe languages are called Left Bank because they are spoken to the East of the Volta River”. Also, Ewe, which is Gbe, is listed as being one of the largest Kwa languages; Gbe is listed in the table of comparative vocabulary; Gbe is listed in the table of comparative numerals; and the Gbe-speaking area is coloured as if it is Kwa on the map. All these statements should be deleted if Gbe is not a branch of Kwa.

Neither is the Kwa language page coherent with the Gbe language page which states more categorically: “The Gbe languages were traditionally placed in the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo languages but more recently have been classified as Volta-Niger languages” (although without the support of a citation.).

Ethnologue continues to list Gbe under Kwa Left Bank, and this should be acknowledged even if it is contentious.

However, I’m not a Kwa or Gbe specialist, so am reluctant to make any changes without posting these issues for discussion first. Gnangbade (talk) 10:53, 27 August 2024 (UTC)