A Brief Sketch of Arabic Influence in Dagbani

Dagbani belongs to the Western-Oti-Volta branch of the Gur languages, which is a part of the larger Niger-Congo language family (Olawsky 1996: 3). It is spoken in the Eastern part of the Northern Region of Ghana by 746,924 according to the 2000 Ghana Population Census and in north-western Togo by more or less 150.000 people. Tamale and Yendi are the main towns in Ghana, where the largest communities are found. There are no special names for dialects. But the main dialects, centred on Tamale in the West, and Yendi in the East, are generally accepted. The differences affect mainly details of pronunciation and vocabulary, the structure of language remains uniform throughout the area. Number of speakers are probably about equal for the two.