Aspects of Tùtrùgbù (Nyagbo) Phonology

Abstract

This thesis presents aspects of the Phonology of Tùtrùgbù. The main focus of the study is the Syllable Structure, Tone, ATR Vowel harmony, and Loanword Phonology. The people of Nyagbo are called Bàtùgbù while the language is called Tùtrùgbù. Tùtrùgbù is one of the fourteen (14) languages classified as Ghana-Togo Mountain (GTM) languages of the Kwa family. Nyagbo communities are located in the new Afadzato West District of the Volta Region. From the Ghana ethnologue (2010), Tùtrùgbù has a population of 4405 speakers out of which 2176 live in diaspora. Nyagbo shares borders with other GTM Languages like Tafi and Logba in the North and Avatime on the East. The objective of this research is to study the phonology of the language under the themes indicated above. The significance of this study is that, data from Tùtrùgbù would be used for cross linguistic study in relation to other world languages. Data for the study was collected through recording, use of picture stories and direct elicitation of structures with assistance from native speaker informants. The Theoretical Frameworks adopted for this study are the Autosegmental Theory (Goldsmith, 1976) and the Mora Theory. This thesis has demonstrated, among other things, how tone is used to express tense and aspect in the language. It has also shown that, vowels are in harmonious relationship and that foreign words are borrowed into the language through noun class marking, change of tone, change of phonation, deletion of some segments and epenthesis.