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A Note on Ewe Orthography
- Indiana University Press
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A Note on Ewe Orthography The Ewe language was committed to writing by missionaries associated with the North German Missionary Society (Norddeutche Missionsgesellschaft) in the mid-nineteenth century. They chose to use a mix of Roman and phonetic symbols that to this day constitute the Anlo alphabet. But in more recent times, authors who have written about the Ewe have tended to use the Ewe alphabet rather selectively. It is common, for example, to ¤nd most spellings of the word “Ewe” written as indicated even though the correct spelling according to the Ewe alphabet would be “Eve.” Similarly, it is rather unusual to ¤nd any author using the Ewe alphabet to spell the word Anlc (Anlo). Individuals sometimes use the letters “or” to replace the Anlo letter c, or “p” to replace the bilabial fricative f. Such usage is quite inconsistent, however. In this study, I have used the English spelling that is most common for proper names. When listing a speci¤c Ewe term for an English word, however, I use the following equivalents for the Ewe letters. o = the open sound found in the English word “fought,” written as c, in Ewe w = the voiced bilabial fricative, written as v, in Ewe f = the voiceless bilabial fricative, written as f, in Ewe. e = pronounced like the English long “a” sound, written as e, in Ewe d = a voiced retro®ex stop, written as d, in Ewe x = a voiceless dorsal-velar fricative, like the “ch” in the German word hoch (high) xiii Map 1. Eweland (Ghana and Togo), Showing Major Towns. Based on D. E. K. Amenumey, The Ewe Uni¤cation Movement (Accra: Ghana Press, 1989), p. 3. Modi¤ed to highlight the noted features by David K. Wyatt. ...