Mangree language
| Mangree | |
|---|---|
| Region | West Africa |
| Extinct | 18th or 19th century?[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None(mis) |
| Glottolog | mang1422 |
Mangree(pronunciation approximately[maŋɡreː]) is a poorly attested, unclassified, and extinct language of the interior of West Africa, possibly from what is nowIvory Coast.It is only attested in a list of a dozen words collected in the late 18th century.[1]There is some indication that it might have been aKru language,but there is not enough data to classify it.
Location
[edit]The Mangree were reported to live adjacent to theKanga,not far from theMandingaandAmina.A large river formed the border between the Mangree and theGien. Fodor believes that the location was somewhere around 7° north latitude and that the river was either theSassandraor theBandama.[1]
Word list
[edit]Fodor reports the following 11 words:[1]
- god:yankombum('jankombum')
- sky:tata
- sun:lataa
- human:mia
- foot:trippi
- head:tri
- man:laniu
- woman:auvee('auwee')
- child:pikkeninne
- father:amee
- mother:pakkabel
A brief summary of the source repeats 'head', 'man', 'woman' and addsichi('itchi') 'water'.[2]
Classification
[edit]The Mangree language was said to be little different fromGien,which would suggest it was Kru. However, the known vocabulary is not obviously Kru, at least as it was recited and transcribed. The informants were Kanga (also Kru) who said they spoke the language well.
Fodor suggests that the word for God may be the same asTwio-nyàŋkṍpɔŋ'God'. The word for 'father' resemblesEweame'human' (and possibly came from a translation of the phrase 'heavenly Father', in which casetatamight be 'father' andamee'sky'), while the word for 'human' resembles Gienme'human'. The word for 'head' resembles both Twi (with anivowel) and several Kru languages (with auvowel). Fodor suggests that the word for 'foot' may be a compound, 'head of the leg'.
The word for 'child' resembles Portuguesepequenino(and Englishpiccaninny), which is widespread in West Africa pidgins and creoles. Fodor was not able to find parallels for the other words in Kru orKwalanguages.
The vocabulary that resembles Twi may be loanwords.[1]
References
[edit]- ^abcdeFodor, István 1975 [1789]Pallas und andere afrikanische Vokabularien vor dem 19. Jahrhundert: Ein Beitrag zur Forschungsgeschichte
- ^R.G. Latham, 1848, 'On the present state and recent progress of Ethnographical Philology', inReport of the seventeenth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science,p. 176.