Dompo language

Dompo is an endangered language of Ghana. Speakers are shifting to Nafaanra. It is spoken adjacent to the main town of the Nafaanra people, namely Banda, Brong-Ahafo Region, Ghana. Blench (2015) reports that it is spoken by 10 households.

Dompo
Native toGhana
Ethnicity970 (2000)[1]
Native speakers
65 (1999)[1]
possibly Guang
Language codes
ISO 639-3doy
Glottologdomp1238
ELPDompo[2]

Classification

Dompo has numerous parallels with the Gonja language, but according to Blench (1999) does not appear to be directly related to it. Blench suggests three possibilities:

  1. it is a Gonja dialect that has come under heavy external influence;
  2. it is a related Guang language that has been relexified, largely from Gonja;
  3. it is of some other source, and relexified, largely from Gonja.

None of the Dompo names for wild plants or animals resemble Gonja, suggesting that the last is the most likely. Some Dompo animal names show resemblances with Mpra.[3]

However, Gueldemann (2018) finds the Guang/Gonja connection to be overwhelming:

[Blench's] conclusion is hard to understand after a superficial comparison of his data with published Gonja material. The specific similarities to this Guang language, many of which Blench fails to identify and which include all available numerals and pronouns, are so numerous and diagnostic that the classificatory assessment in the Ethnologue [an North Guang] is the most plausible hypothesis.

References
  1. Dompo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Endangered Languages Project data for Dompo.
  3. Blench, Roger (2007) Recovering data on Mpra [=Mpre] a possible language isolate in North-Central Ghana


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