Animere language

Animere
Native to Ghana
Region East Central Ghana, Kecheibi and Kunda villages
Native speakers
 30  (2006)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 anf
Glottolog anim1239[2]

Animere (sometimes Anyimere or Kunda, the latter being a toponym) is a language spoken in Ghana, in the Kecheibe and Kunda villages of the Benimbere people. It is most closely related to Kebu or Akebu of Togo. Both are Ghana Togo Mountain languages (GTM), classified as members of the Ka-Togo group by Heine (1968). Like most other GTM languages, Animere is a noun-class language.

Animere is an endangered language which is no longer being passed on to children; the speaker count is approximately 30 (Blench 2006).[1] Already in 1965 Adele, another GTM language, was the dominant language among the younger generation in the Animere area, and only elderly people spoke Animere among themselves, leading Heine (1968) to expect that 'the language is going to be extinct in a few decades'.[3] Knowledge of Twi, a dominant regional language, is also widespread among the Benimbere.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Blench (2006) notes that all 30 speakers are over 35 years old. A 2003 Ethnologue estimate of 700 probably counts all ethnic Benimbere. Bodomo 1996:38 states that "Animere (...) is said to be dying out (only 250 speakers now)". Bodomo's figure probably derives from an older edition of the Ethnologue also cited by Sommer 1992.
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Animere". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ↑ Heine (1968) says that only members of Nkwantá and Kontrô clans of the Benimbere speak (some) Animere; cf. Sommer 1992:308

References

External links