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Ebrié, or Cama (Caman, Kyama, Tchaman, Tsama, Tyama), is spoken by the Tchaman people in Ivory Coast and Ghana. It is a Potou language of the Kwa branch of the Niger–Congo family of languages.

Phonology

Phonemic Inventory

The sounds and are marginal and occur only in loanwords.

There are no nasal consonant phonemes in Ebrié. Instead, the nasal vowels cause the voiced lenis consonant series to assimilate into .

Tones

Ebrié has two level tones (H and L) and a falling tone (HL). It also has floating tones, and the voiced fortis consonants have a tendency to lower the pitch of the low tone.

Morphology

Nominal Prefixes

The noun class prefixes in Ebrié distinguish between certain homophones and between singular and plural forms. Originally, this system would have been more robust, as seen in other Niger-Congo languages.

The four nominal prefixes are á-, à-, ɛ̃́-, and ɛ̃̀-. The latter two, which are nasal vowels, can also be realized as syllabic nasals, transcribed as ɴ́- and ɴ̀- but written orthographically as <n>.

The second noun in a compound retains its prefix, as shown below.

cámã́

the Ebriés

+

ńcã̀

language

→

cámã́ǹcã̀

Ebrié language

cámã́ + ńcã̀ → cámã́ǹcã̀

{the Ebriés} {} language {} {Ebrié language}

átɛ̃̀

fire

+

ńtʰù

sand

→

ńtɛ̃̀ǹtʰù

ash

átɛ̃̀ + ńtʰù → ńtɛ̃̀ǹtʰù

fire {} sand {} ash

Plural Nouns

Nouns can be made plural through the use of nominal prefixes or plural suffixes. Certain nouns are irregular or invariable.

When a singular noun begins with the prefix á- or à-, its plural form will have the prefix ń- or ǹ- respectively. If a singular noun lacks a prefix, it will often have the prefix ń- in the plural. Other nouns take one of the plural suffixes -mã́, -hɔ̃̀, or -mã́hɔ̃̀.

• áyá /ájá/ 'tree' → ńyá /ńjá/ 'trees'
• agban /àg͡bã́/ 'plate' → ngbán /ǹg͡bã́/ 'plates
• lalabhô 'duck' → ńlalabho 'ducks'
• mmanhɔn 'mothers'
• nmyahɔn 'spouses'

Subject Pronouns

In Ebrié, tense/aspect/mood markers are found on the verb or as separate morphemes if the subject is a noun or a plural subject pronoun. The singular subject pronouns merge with the TAM markers, resulting in morphophonemic changes.

For exampleː

mɛ̃̀

1SG

+

ɓâ

FUT

→

mã̀ã́

1SG.FUT

mɛ̃̀ + ɓâ → mã̀ã́

1SG {} FUT {} 1SG.FUT

Syntax

Ebrié is a SVO language, as seen in the following example.

jàjó

Yayo

étʰà

chew.PROG

kpã́hɔ̃̀

bread

jàjó étʰà kpã́hɔ̃̀

Yayo chew.PROG bread

'Yayo eats bread.'

Orthography

The high tone is marked with the acute accent (ájí 'respect'), and the low tone is left unmarked (aji 'clay'). The falling tone is marked with a circumflex (â).

The apostrophe (') is used to mark the habitual form of the verb.

References

1. Ebrié at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. ^ Bolê-Richard, Rémy (2018). "Contribution à la phonologie historique du Niger-Congo: vers la reconstruction du Proto-Potou". Linguistique africaine: perspectives croisées (in French). Institut de Phonétique. ISBN 978-29-570-8944-4.
3. ^ Dido, Yao Maxime (2018). "Les pronoms mɛn, ɛ, an et nkɛ de l'ébrié ː morphophonologie et fonctions syntaxiques". Cahiers Ivoiriens de Recherche Linguistique. 43: 37–48.
4. ^ Bolê-Richard, Rémy (1986). Guide de lecture de l'ébrié (in French). Institut de Linguistique Appliquée. ISBN 9782809101270.
5. ^ Meyan, Meyan Djeya Ange Océane (2020), Planning an onomasiological dictionary for Atchan: an endangered language of the Ivory Coast

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