Ewe 102

As I mentioned in Ewe 101, the term Ewe refers to both the tribe and the language they speak. Today we’re going to review the latter. And even though I’m admittedly not great at it (yet), I sometimes pinch myself at the thought that I can have conversations in an African tribal language – it truly is one of the most fun things about being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana. So while this is a longer post, I hope it’s as much fun to learn about as it is to talk about.

Let’s start with the basics, which will expose the fact that I’ve already accidentally mislead you (this is why I’m not an education volunteer) because while the rest of Ghana knows the language as Ewe, the Ewe tribe themselves actually refer to their language as “ʋe gbe”. Think of it as “Ewe” is to “Spanish” as “ʋe gbe” is to “Espanol”. Quite literally, gbe translates to “language” and “ʋe” is the specific language being referring to. You often see or hear it as “eʋe gbe” as well (I believe the extra e identifies a specific noun being referenced) and thus the name “Ewe” was born for those that don’t have the ʋ in their alphabet.

So let me address the obvious questions that you are probably asking yourself. What the heck is a “ʋ” and how on earth do you start a word with “gb”? Great questions! 5 points to Gryffindor.

Ewe has 7 letters not included in the traditional English alphabet and 5 unique letter combinations. They also don’t have the letter C (instead only using K or S) or the letter J (you’ll see why in a minute). This is of course incredibly ironic because Ghanaians struggle to pronounce my name (Cory) and but have no problems with my nickname with PCVs, “CJ” – the exact two letters they don’t have. Anyway, one last letter related thing to mention: X is, as far as I’m concerned, used exactly as the letter H is, although I’m sure a native speaker could tell you the difference.

The special letters and sounds are:

Ɖ/ɖ: This has a very subtle difference to the tradition letter D (which is also in the ʋe gbe alphabet). This version of the letter is softer and I was taught to say it by taking the bottom of my tongue, placing it on the roof of my mouth and then saying the letter. Try doing that natively in a sentence and you’ll see why I usually just pronounce this as a normal D.

Ɛ/ɛ: This sound is native to the English language, but because Ewe uses each vowel as strictly one sound each, they needed an extra letter. A is used as “ah” as in “mama”. E is used as if you’re saying the letter A, as in “Bay”. And the letter I is used as if you’re saying the letter E, as in “Bee”. So the new letter, Ɛ, is used as if you’re saying “Eh” as in “Pet”. This letter is somewhat uncommon in Ewe and I was taught that it is only used when “e” and “a” appear grammatically next to each other in a word or sentence. Over time, native speakers shortened the two letters into one.

Ƒ/ƒ: This is a tough one to describe and I’ve heard native speakers pronounce it differently. It’s a mixture of an F, a P and a W. I was taught to pretend you’re blowing out candles and saying the letter F, which I think gets you close to the pronunciation. Maybe try getting your lips ready to say an F, but then changing to say P and W together is more like it.

Ɔ/ɔ: Another tough one. Similar to the letter “o” but it comes more from the throat and you end almost as if you’re about to say the letter R. I can’t think of an English equivalent.

ŋ/ŋ: [Capital letter is larger]The symbols available in Microsoft Word don’t quite capture how it’s written here, but it’s basically the lowercase letter n and the lowercase letter g combined. That’s also exactly how it’s pronounced. Kind of like a very nasaly G, or simply saying “ing”.

ɣ/ɤ: My teacher joked that if you ask a native ʋe gbe speaker to say this letter by itself they wouldn’t be able to do it. It’s another rare letter and while it’s supposed to be very throaty, I hear it usually said closer to a regular Y.

ʋ/ʋ: [Capital letter is larger] And finally the one in question. A cross between a W and a V. Try to say a V without touching your teeth and your lip, instead using just your lips to make the sound.

Ts: The equivalent to the sound made from “Ch” in English.

Dz: Equivalent to the letter J.

Gb: Get your mouth ready to say the letter G and from that position say the letter B. You should hear just a little of the letter G but it’s predominately the letter B.

Kp: Get your mouth ready to say the letter K and from that position say the letter P. You should hear the letter K but it’s predominately the letter P.

Ny: Pronounced like the “ny” in Kenya.

Now that we know the letters and sounds, let’s about talk the language itself. ʋe gbe is a beautifully simple language, which is also what makes it so difficult. Most base words are 2 to 3 letters long, which means it gets complicated in a hurry because the same sounds are repeated often. Larger words are often made up of smaller words that form a literal representation of the new word. For example, “afomizi” means “rabbit” but the word is formed because “afo” means “foot/leg”, “ami” means “poop” and “azi” means “peanut” so the literal translation of rabbit is “legs that poop peanuts”.

Here are some more examples of small words and sounds having many potential meanings.

• “Tɔ” can mean (among other things) Father, river, meadow, to stop, to take, the seller of and the people of. To differentiate the intended meaning the Ewe rely on tonalities (some are said in higher pitches while others are said in regular or lower pitches) and the context in which the word is used.

• To make something negative, you start the condition you wish to negate with “Me” and end it with “O”, so “Me le o” means there are none (“le” means “am/are”). It seems simple enough, right? Unfortunately, “Me” is also how you say “I”, so “Me le Togo” means “I am in Togo”. Both sentences start with “Me” and end with “O” but they mean very different things.

• Future tense is marked by the subject gaining an A. So “Mi” for “We are”, becomes “Mia” for “We will”. But again, “Mi” can appear in front of “A” and sound the same very easily without intending future tense. For example, “Ne nami avuviwo” means “Give us puppies”.

• This seems like as good a time as any to mention that adding an A also indicate a question (eg. “Tɔ!” means “Stop!” and “Tɔa” means “Stop?”). Also, there is no past tense, so “Ne nami avuviwo” could also mean “You gave us puppies”!

• In case you were wondering, “puppies” is also a larger word built from smaller pieces. “Avu” means “dog”, “vi means “small”, and “wo” makes something plural. The added challenge here is that “wo” can also mean “you” or “your” so just hearing the sound “wo” often complicates things as well.

The point is, listening to someone speak is ʋe gbe extremely challenging but it also, in my opinion, makes the language sound almost hypnotic when spoken by a native speaker. The good news is that grammatically it’s similar to English and even when it’s not, using English grammar is not only accepted but also seeping into the way people are natively speaking ʋe gbe.

Okay, so now for the fun part. Let’s learn to speak some ʋe gbe! And what makes this so fun is that if you ever meet an Ewe and you speak even a little ʋe gbe to them they will lose their mind as if they had just seen a David Blaine illusion up close. At least once a day I surprise a local by using some ʋe gbe and it truly one of the greatest joys of being here. Sometimes simply saying “Thank You” (“Akpe”) in the local language will make them roll over in a fit of laughter.

So here it is. And I like this example because it incorporates so many of the lessons we just learned.

What is your name? = ŋkɔwoɖe?

First, the noun “name” in ʋe gbe is “ŋkɔ”. Remember how to pronounce it? Try saying “ingkoh” very throaty if you’re struggling. Then we add “wo” to make it the possessive “your”, and “ɖe”, which means “What about?”

My name is (name). = ŋkɔnye enye (name).

So we know “ŋkɔ” means “name”, but this time instead of adding the possessive “your”, we’re adding the possessive “my”, which is “nye”. Then we have to say “is”, which (to the surprise of no one reading this I hope) IS ALSO “NYE”! The extra e in front of the word simply adds emphasis.

So that’s it - you’re now speaking ʋe gbe! If this was fun, I can write another with other challenges the language presents and more conversation examples.