View source for Ga language

{{short description|Kwa language spoken in Ghana}}
{{distinguish|Gaa language|Kaansa language|Gan Chinese}}
{{for|the language with ISO 639-1 code "ga"|Irish language}}
{{lead too short|date=September 2015}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Ga
| nativename       = Gã
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|gaa|ɡã|}}
| states           = [[Ghana]]
| region           = South-eastern [[Ghana]], around [[Accra]]
| ethnicity        = [[Ga-Adangbe people|Ga]]
| speakers         = 745,000
| date             = 2016
| ref              = e25
| familycolor      = Niger-Congo
| fam2             = [[Atlantic–Congo languages|Atlantic–Congo]]
| fam3             = [[Volta-Congo]]
| fam4             = [[Kwa languages|Kwa]]
| fam5             = [[Ga–Dangme languages|Ga–Dangme]]
| nation           = None. Government sponsored language.
| script           = [[Latin script|Latin]] (Ga alphabet)<br>[[Ghanaian braille]]
| iso2             = gaa
| iso3             = gaa
| glotto           = gaaa1244
| glottorefname    = Ga
| notice           = IPA
}}
[[File:Samuel speaking Gaa (Wikitongues and AfroCrowd).webm|thumb|Samuel Okpoti speaking Ga in Ghana.]]

'''Ga''' is a [[Kwa languages|Kwa language]] spoken in [[Ghana]], in and around the capital [[Accra]], by the [[Ga people]]. There are also some speakers in [[Togo]], [[Benin]] and western [[Nigeria]].{{nvb|date=April 2025}} It has a phonemic distinction between three vowel lengths.{{nvb|date=April 2025}}

==Classification==
Ga is a [[Kwa languages|Kwa]] language, part of the [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger–Congo family]]. It is very closely related to [[Adangme language|Adangme]], and together they form the [[Ga-Dangme languages|Ga–Dangme]] branch within Kwa.

Ga is the predominant language of the [[Ga people]], an ethnic group of Ghana. Ethnic Ga family names (surnames) include [[Owoo]], Lartey, Lomo, Nortey, Aryee, Lamptey, Tetteh, Ankrah, Tetteyfio, Laryea, Ayitey, Okine, Bortey, Quarshie, Quaye, Quaynor, Ashong, Kotei, Clottey, Nai, Sowah, Odoi, Maale, Ako, Adjetey, Annang, Yemoh and Abbey.

==Geographic distribution==
Ga is spoken in south-eastern [[Ghana]], in and around the capital [[Accra]]. It has relatively little dialectal variation. Although English is the official language of Ghana, Ga is one of 16 languages in which the ''Bureau of Ghana Languages'' publishes material.

==Phonology==
===Consonants===
Ga has 31 consonant phonemes.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" border="1"
|+'''Consonant phonemes'''
|-
! rowspan="2" | &nbsp;
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | [[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! colspan="4" | [[Postalveolar consonant|Postalveolar]]<br/>and [[Palatal consonant|palatal]]
! colspan="4" | [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | [[Labial-velar consonant|Labial-<br/>velar]]
! colspan="2" | [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! colspan="2" |<small> Plain</small>
! colspan="2" |<small> [[Labialization|Labialized]]</small>
! colspan="2" |<small> Plain</small>
! colspan="2" |<small> [[Labialization|Lab.]]v</small>
! <small> Plain</small>
! <small>[[Labialization|Lab.]]</small>
|-
! [[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
| colspan="2"| {{IPA link|m}}
| colspan="2"| {{IPA link|n}}
| colspan="2"| {{IPA link|ɲ}}
| colspan="2"| &nbsp;
| colspan="2"| {{IPA link|ŋ}}
| colspan="2"| &nbsp;
| colspan="2"| {{IPA link|ŋ͡m}}
| colspan="2"| &nbsp;
|-
! [[Stop consonant|Stop]]
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|p}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|b}}
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|t}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|d}}
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|tʃ}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|dʒ}}
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|tʃʷ}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|dʒʷ}}
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|k}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|ɡ}}
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|kʷ}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|ɡʷ}}
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|k͡p}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|ɡ͡b}}
| colspan="2"| &nbsp;
|-
![[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|f}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|v}}
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|s}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|z}}
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|ʃ}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | &nbsp;
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPA link|ʃʷ}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | &nbsp;
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | &nbsp; || style="border-left-width: 0;" | &nbsp;
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | &nbsp; || style="border-left-width: 0;" | &nbsp;
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | &nbsp; || style="border-left-width: 0;" | &nbsp;
| {{IPA link|h}} || {{IPA link|hʷ}}
|-
! [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
| colspan="2"| &nbsp;
| colspan="2"| {{IPA link|l}}
| colspan="2"| {{IPA link|j}}
| colspan="2"| {{IPA link|ɥ}}
| colspan="2"| &nbsp;
| colspan="2"| &nbsp;
| colspan="2"| {{IPA link|w}}
| colspan="2"| &nbsp;
|}

*{{IPA|[ŋʷ]}} is an allophone of {{IPA|/w/}} which occurs before nasals and is represented with its own digraph in writing.
*{{IPA|/l/}} may be realised as {{IPA|[ɹ]}} when between a consonant and vowel
*{{IPA|/j/}} has an allophone {{IPA|[ɲ]}} before nasal vowels

===Vowels===
Ga has seven oral vowels and five nasal vowels. All of the vowels have three different [[vowel length]]s: short, long or extra long (the latter appears only in the simple future and the simple past negative forms).

{|class="wikitable"

|+ [[Monophthong]]s
! rowspan=2|
!colspan=2|[[Front vowel|Front]]
!colspan=2|[[Central vowel|Central]]
!colspan=2|[[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
!<small>[[oral vowel|oral]]</small>
!<small>[[nasal vowel|nasal]]</small>
!<small>[[oral vowel|oral]]</small>
!<small>[[nasal vowel|nasal]]</small>
!<small>[[oral vowel|oral]]</small>
!<small>[[nasal vowel|nasal]]</small>
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| align=center | {{IPA link|i}}
| align=center | {{IPA link|ĩ}}
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| align=center | {{IPA link|u}}
| align=center | {{IPA link|ũ}}
|-
![[Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]]
| align=center | {{IPA link|e}}
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| align=center | {{IPA link|o}}
| &nbsp;
|-
![[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]
| align=center | {{IPA link|ɛ}}
| align=center | {{IPA link|ɛ̃}}
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| align=center |  {{IPA link|ɔ}}
| align=center |  {{IPA link|ɔ̃}}
|-
![[Open vowel|Open]]
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| align=center | {{IPA link|a}}
| align=center | {{IPA link|ã}}
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|}

===Tones===
Ga has two tones, high and low. Like many West African languages, it has [[tone terracing]].

===Phonotactics===
The syllable structure of Ga is {{Transliteration|gaa|italic=no|(C)(C)V(C)}}, where the second phoneme of an initial consonant cluster can only be {{IPA|/l/}} and a final consonant may only be a (short or long) nasal consonant, e.g. ''ekome'', "one", V-CV-CV; ''kakadaŋŋ'', "long", CV-CV-CVC; ''mli'', "inside", CCV. Ga syllables may also consist solely of a syllabic nasal, for example in the first syllable of ''ŋshɔ'', "sea".

==Writing system==
[[File:Alphabet in Rasmus Rask, Vejledning til Akra-Sproget, 1828.png|thumb|Ga alphabet of 1828]]
Ga was first written in about 1764, by [[Christian Jacob Protten]] (1715–1769), who was the son of a Danish soldier and a Ga woman.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web|url=https://dacb.org/stories/ghana/protten-cj/|title=Christian Jacob Protten|last=Smith|first=Noel|website=dacb.org|language=en|access-date=2018-10-14}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite web|url=https://dacb.org/stories/ghana/protten-chrisjacob/|title=Christian Jacob Protten|last=Dreydoppel|first=Otto|website=dacb.org|language=en|access-date=2018-10-14}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Sebald|first=Peter|date=1994|title=Christian Jacob Protten Africanus (1715-1769) - erster Missionar einer deutschen Missionsgesellschaft in Schwarzafrika|journal=Kolonien und Missionen.|language=de|pages=109–121|oclc=610701345}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|date=June 2012|title=This Month in Moravian History: Christian Protten - Missionary to the Gold Coast of Africa|url=http://www.moravianchurcharchives.org/thismonth/12_06%20Protten.pdf|url-status=live|journal=Moravian Archives|location=Bethlehem, PA.|issue=74|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914181657/http://www.moravianchurcharchives.org/thismonth/12_06%20Protten.pdf|archive-date=14 September 2016|access-date=14 October 2018|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Protten was a [[Gold Coast Euro-Africans|Gold Coast Euro-African]] [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] missionary and educator in the eighteenth century. In the mid-1800s, the Germany missionary [[Johannes Zimmermann (missionary)|Johannes Zimmermann]] (1825–1876), assisted by the Gold Coast historian [[Carl Christian Reindorf]] (1834–1917) and others, worked extensively on the grammar of the language, published a dictionary and translated the entire Bible into the Ga language.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://dacb.org/stories/ghana/zimmermann/|title=Johannes Zimmerman|website=dacb.org|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171124022931/https://dacb.org/stories/ghana/zimmermann/|archive-date=2017-11-24|url-status=live|access-date=2017-11-24}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.johannes-rebmann-stiftung.de/cms/en/missionaries/zimmermann-johannes/zimmermann-johannes-life-and-work/|title=Zimmermann, Johannes – Life and work – Johannes-Rebmann-Stiftung|website=www.johannes-rebmann-stiftung.de|language=en-GB|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171124022932/http://www.johannes-rebmann-stiftung.de/cms/en/missionaries/zimmermann-johannes/zimmermann-johannes-life-and-work/|archive-date=2017-11-24|url-status=dead|access-date=2017-11-24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bzNGAAAAYAAJ&q=The+History+of+the+Gold+Coast+and+Asante|title=History of the Gold Coast and Asante, Based on Traditions and Historical Facts: Comprising a Period of More Than Three Centuries from about 1500 to 1860|last=Reindorf|first=Carl Christian|date=1895|publisher=The author|isbn=9780598937520|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QvYNswEACAAJ&q=The+History+of+the+Gold+Coast+and+Asante|title=History of the Gold Coast and Asante (Classic Reprint)|last=Reindorf|first=Carl Christian|date=2018-04-21|publisher=LULU Press|isbn=9781330819852|language=en}}</ref> The orthography has been revised a number of times since 1968, with the most recent review in 1990.

The writing system is a [[Latin script|Latin]]-based [[alphabet]] and has 26 letters. It has three additional letter symbols which correspond to the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] symbols. There are also eleven digraphs and two trigraphs. Vowel length is represented by doubling or tripling the vowel symbol, e.g. 'a', 'aa' and 'aaa'. Tones are not represented. Nasalisation is represented after [[oral consonant]]s where it distinguishes between [[minimal pairs]].

The Ga alphabet is:

Aa, Bb, Dd, Ee, Ɛɛ, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Ŋŋ, Oo, Ɔɔ, Pp, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Yy, Zz

The following letters represent sounds which do not correspond with the same letter as the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] symbol (e.g. B represents {{IPA|/b/}}):
*J j - {{IPA|/d͡ʒ/}}
*Y y - {{IPA|/j/}}

Digraphs and trigraphs:
*Gb gb - {{IPA|/ɡ͡b/}}
*Gw gw - {{IPA|/ɡʷ/}}
*Hw hw - {{IPA|/hʷ/}}
*Jw jw - {{IPA|/d͡ʒʷ/}}
*Kp kp - {{IPA|/k͡p/}}
*Kw kw - {{IPA|/kʷ/}}
*Ny ny - {{IPA|/ɲ/}}
*Ŋm ŋm - {{IPA|/ŋ͡m/}}
*Ŋw ŋw - {{IPA|[ŋʷ]}} (an allophone rather than a phoneme)
*Sh sh - {{IPA|/ʃ/}}
*Ts ts - {{IPA|/t͡ʃ/}}
*Shw shw - {{IPA|/ʃʷ/}}
*Tsw tsw - {{IPA|/t͡ʃʷ/}}

==Oral literature==
In his 1865 collection, ''Wit and Wisdom from West Africa'', [[Richard Francis Burton]] published over 200 Ga proverbs and sayings with English translations,<ref>Burton, Richard (1865). ''[https://archive.org/details/witandwisdomfro01burtgoog/page/n168/mode/2up?view=theater Wit and Wisdom from West Africa]''. pp. 133-175.</ref> taken from Johannes Zimmermann's ''Grammatical Sketch of the Akra Language''.<ref>[Johannes Zimmermann (1858). https://archive.org/details/agrammaticalske01zimmgoog Grammatical Sketch of the Akra Language] pp. 158-9</ref> Here are some of those sayings as recorded with its historical orthography:{{efn|In the modern orthography, these would be written as:
* {{lang|gaa|Tutsɔfa kɛ la yeee.}}
* {{lang|gaa|Kɛji na lɛ, gbɔmɛi fɛɛ diɔ.}}
* {{lang|gaa|Nu ni akɛbaagbe la lɛ, ataooo lɛ krɔŋkrɔŋ.}}
* {{lang|gaa|Akɛ hiŋmɛii enyɔ kwɛɛɛ tɔ mli.}}}}
* "{{lang|gaa|Tutsofa ke la yee.}}" "Gunpowder and fire do not agree." (#7)
* "{{lang|gaa|Ke dse na le, gbomei fe dio.}}" "If it is dark, all men are black." (#11)
* "{{lang|gaa|Nu ni ake-bagbe la le, ataoole kronkron.}}" "Clear water is not wanted for quenching fire." (#13)
* "{{lang|gaa|Ake hinmeii enyo kwee to mli.}}" "Not with both eyes people look into a bottle." (#15)

==See also==
* [[Ga people]]
* [[Languages of Ghana]]
*[[Christian Jacob Protten]]
* [[Carl Christian Reindorf]]
* [[Johannes Zimmermann (missionary)|Johannes Zimmermann]]

==Footnotes==
{{notelist}}
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite book | title=West African Language Data Sheets Vol 1 | publisher=West African Linguistic Society | year=1977 | editor=M. E. Kropp Dakubu}}
*{{cite book | title=The Languages of Ghana | location=London | publisher=Kegan Paul International for the International African Institute | year=1988 | editor=M. E. Kropp Dakubu | isbn=0-7103-0210-X}}
*{{cite book | author=M. E. Kropp Dakubu | title=Ga-English dictionary with English-Ga Index | publisher=Black Mask Ltd.| year=1999 |location=Accra | isbn=9964-960-50-6}}
*{{cite book | author=M. E. Kropp Dakubu | title=Ga Phonology | publisher=Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana | year=2002 |location=Legon }}
*{{cite book | author=Bureau of Ghana Languages | title=Ga Wiemɔ Kɛ Ŋmaa | publisher=Accra:Bureau of Ghana Languages | year=1995 | isbn=9964-2-0276-8}}
*{{cite book | author=A. A. Amartey | title=Beginners' Ga | publisher=Ga Society | year=1989 }}
*{{Cite thesis |last=Campbell |first=Akua Asantewaa |title=A Grammar of Gã |date=2017 |degree=Doctor of Philosophy |publisher=Rice University |hdl=1911/102269 |hdl-access=free}}

==External links==
{{Incubator|code=gaa}}
*[http://ge.kasahorow.org/app/d My First GaDangme Dictionary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250322041615/https://ge.kasahorow.org/app/d |date=2025-03-22 }} kasahorow
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzSlq2IIBzY Short tutorial on counting in the Ga language]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvQdxopc9B0&feature=relmfu Young boy speaking about Ghanaian tribes in Ga language]

{{Languages of Ghana}}
{{Kwa languages}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ga Language}}
[[Category:Ga–Dangme languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Ghana]]