Page Type: languageNawuri | Ethnologue

NAW ISO 639-3

Nawuri

Nawuri Autonym

A language of Ghana

ISO 639
naw
Autonym
Nawuri
Population
14,000 (2003 GILLBT), increasing.
Location:
Northern and Volta regions: Lake Volta, mostly Oti river west bank branch, northeast of Katiajeli.
Language Status
5 (Developing).
Classification
Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Kwa, Nyo, Potou-Tano, Tano, Guang, North Guang
Dialects
Lexical similarity: 72% with the Buipe dialect of Gonja [gjn] (most similar).
Typology
SVO; postpositions; genitives before noun heads; articles, adjectives, numerals, relatives after noun heads; question word initial; word order distinguishes subjects, objects, indirect objects, given and new information, topic and comment; subject pronouns are clitics, objects (postverbal) can be treated as independent words; subject and object pronouns indicate person and number; limited noun class agreement of head nouns with modifiers; verb agreement with prefix concord marker which is usually a copy of the head noun (agreement both within noun phrase and subject-verb), but less extensive than in many Bantu languages; semiproductive causative suffix on verbs; comparison typically indicated by a serial verb or serial clause construction; CV, CVC, limited V(C); tonal.
Language Use
Vigorous. All domains. Used by all. Also use English [eng].
Language Development
Literacy rate in L2: 5%–15%. Literature. Grammar. Texts. NT: 2012.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Nawuri
Writing
Latin script [Latn], used since 1987.
Other Comments
Traditional religion.

Also Spoken in

Map

Location: Northern and Volta regions: Lake Volta, mostly Oti river west bank branch, northeast of Katiajeli.