Afrihili is a constructed language

Constructed language

A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...

 designed in 1970 by Ghanaian historian K. A. Kumi Attobrah (Kumi Atɔbra) to be used as a lingua franca

Lingua franca

A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...

 in all of Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. The name of the language is a combination of Africa and Swahili

Swahili language

Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...

. The author, a native of Akrokerri

Akrokerri

Akrokerri is a town in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The town is located in the Adansi North District and is best known for the Akrokerri College of Education, formerly known as Akrokerri Training College. There is also a senior high school in the town; Asare Bediako Secondary School...

 (Akrokɛri) in Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

, originally conceived of the idea in 1967 while on a sea voyage from Dover

Dover

Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

 to Calais

Calais

Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....

. His intention was that "it would promote unity and understanding among the different peoples of the continent, reduce costs in printing due to translations and promote trade". It is meant to be easy for Africans to learn.

Source languages

Afrihili draws its phonology

Phonology

Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...

, morphology

Morphology (linguistics)

In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...

 and syntax

Syntax

In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....

 from various African languages

African languages

There are over 2100 and by some counts over 3000 languages spoken natively in Africa in several major language families:*Afro-Asiatic spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel...

, particularly Swahili

Swahili language

Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...

 and Akan

Akan language

Akan, also known as Twi and Fante, is an Akan language that is the principal native language of Ghana, spoken over much of the southern half of that country, by about 52% of the population, and to a lesser extent across the border in eastern Côte d'Ivoire...

. The lexicon

Lexicon

In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...

 covers various African languages, as well as words from many other sources "so Africanized that they do not appear foreign", although no specific etymologies are indicated by the author. However, the semantics

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....

 is quite English, with many calque

Calque

In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...

s of English expressions, perhaps due to the strong English influence on written Swahili and Akan. For example, mu is 'in', to is 'to', and muto is 'into'; similarly, kupitia is 'through' (as in 'through this remedy'), paasa is 'out' (as in to go outside), and kupitia-paasa is 'through-out'—at least in the original, 1970 version of the language.

Script and pronunciation

The language uses the Latin alphabet

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

 with the addition of two vowel letters, ⟨Ɛ ɛ⟩ and ⟨Ɔ ɔ⟩, which have their values in Ghanaian languages and the IPA

International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...

, ɛ and ɔ. Foreign names are spelled out phonetically rather than in the original orthography, so for example 'Hastings' is spelled Hestins. There are two digraph

Digraph

Digraph may refer to:* Digraph , a pair of characters used together to represent a single sound, such as "sh" in English* Typographical ligature, the joining of two letters as a single glyph, such as "æ"...

s, ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨sh⟩, which have their English and Swahili values, tʃ and ʃ. J and y also have their English and Swahili values, dʒ and j. Ng is not a digraph, but pronounced as in English finger, [ŋɡ].

There is no tone

Tone (linguistics)

Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...

. Stress is on the second-last vowel. Exclamation marks come at the beginning of a clause, which ends in a comma or period as normal; question marks come at the end.

Grammar

The grammar

Grammar

In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...

 is similar to Swahili, but in addition there is the 'vowel triangle', which is more like Akan and is central to Afrihili inflection:

a
/ \
u e ɛ
/ \
ɔ __ o __ i

Many grammatical processes are accomplished by exchanging a vowel with its directional opposite on the triangle: a for o, u for i, e for ɔ, and vice versa. For example, a verb can be made into an adjective by changing its final vowel in this manner: from pinu 'to determine' comes the adjective pini 'determinate'. Ɛ does not participate in these swaps, but is used in other situations (below).

All nouns, and only nouns and adjectives modifying nouns, begin with a vowel. In the singular this will be different from the final vowel of the word; the plural is formed by making it the same as the final vowel. For example, omulenzi 'boy' becomes imulenzi 'boys'; similarly, oluga is 'language' and aluga 'languages'.

Nouns are derived from verbs or adjectives by prefixing the opposite of the final vowel, according to the triangle above. So, from pinu 'to determine' comes the noun ipinu 'determination'. If all the vowels in the verb or adjective are the same, as in mono 'to disgrace' and kana 'one', then the neutral vowels ɛ- is used: ɛmono 'a disgrace', ɛkana 'unity'.

Verbal nouns (gerund

Gerund

In linguistics* As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb as a noun ....

s) are formed from the infinitive

Infinitive

In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...

 in -de, and so always begin with ɔ- : soma 'reads', somade 'to read', ɔsomade yɛ papa 'reading is good'. (Compare ɔkaratide 'harvesting' and ukarati 'a harvest', from karati 'to harvest'.)

In the opposite direction, nouns drop their initial vowels to form verbs, and with the appropriate change in final vowel, adjectives. So, from etogo 'a house' comes togo (or togode) 'to house', and from umeme 'electricity' comes memɔ 'electric'.

Participle

Participle

In linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...

s are formed with mɛ-, further derived as nouns or adjectives (gerunds): mɛpini 'determinative', ɛmɛwako 'driver' (wako to drive).

Verb phrase

Verb phrase

In linguistics, a verb phrase or VP is a syntactic unit composed of at least one verb and the dependents of that verb. One can distinguish between two types of VPs, finite VPs and non-finite VPs . While phrase structure grammars acknowledge both, dependency grammars reject the existence of a...

s are formed with tense

TAM

-Finance:* Total addressable market, a financial term used to reference the revenue opportunity available for a product or service- Military :* TAM – Transporte Aéreo Militar , an airline in Bolivia...

 prefixes, with the subject pronouns written together with the verb. (Subject pronouns are not used if there is a noun subject.) Objects, however, are written separately after the verb: From jira 'to wait for', mingijira lε 'I (mi-) would have waited for him (lɛ)'.

Pronouns include mi 'I', nɛ 'me and you', nɛu 'us and you', nu 'we' (not you), wu 'you (thou)' ku 'you (ye)', lɛ 'he', yo 'it', fu 'they'. For possession, pronouns are prefixed on a noun, dropping their vowel: l'arafi 'his letter', w'agoji 'your money'.

Tense prefixes include li- (past), ta- (future), lii- (habitual past), taa- (habitual future), yɛɛ- (habitual present), re- (present continuous -ing), ri- (past continuous -ing), ngi- (conditional, would), nge- (subjunctive, may), and perhaps a perfect in lo-. Simple present is not marked. U- forms relative clause

Relative clause

A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun phrase, most commonly a noun. For example, the phrase "the man who wasn't there" contains the noun man, which is modified by the relative clause who wasn't there...

s (who, which).

So, from du 'eat', lɛdu 'he eats', nɛtadu 'you & I will eat', fulidu 'they ate', miyɛɛdu ɛn zinga 'I eat in the morning (as a matter of habit)', miliidu ɛn zinga 'I would eat / used to eat in the morning', miredu 'I am eating', nuridu 'we were eating (when)', kama kungiwa, kungidu 'if y'all would come, you'd eat', ni omuntu lodu 'the man has eaten'.

'This' and 'that' are ki and ka. They may occur before a noun, or afterward by copying the final syllable:

Ki omulenzi, omulenzi kinzi 'this boy'

Ka omukama, omukama kama 'that king'

Imukazi kangazi 'those girls'

Some suffixes are full syllables, as -wi inchoative

Inchoative

Inchoative aspect is a grammatical aspect, referring to the beginning of an action or state. It can be found in conservative Indo-European languages such as Latin and Lithuanian, and also in Finnic languages. It should not be confused with the prospective, which denotes actions that are about to...

 (to get or become): sana 'drink', sanawi 'get drunk'; furaha 'happy', furahawi 'be happy'. However, most have an echo vowel

Echo vowel

In speech, an echo vowel is a vowel that repeats the final vowel in a word. For example, in Chumash, when a word ends with a glottal stop and comes at the end of an intonation unit, the final vowel is repeated after the glottal stop, but is whispered and faint, as in for "arrow" . In Rukai , echo...

, identical to the final vowel of the root, as in -bw- (passive): bona 'see', bonabwa 'be seen'; or -t- '-able': bonata 'visible', dutu 'edible'.

'Of' (partitive

Partitive

In linguistics, the partitive is a word, phrase, or case that divides something into parts. For example, in the English sentence I'll have some coffee, some is a partitive determiner because it makes the noun phrase some coffee refer to a subset of all coffee...

?) is either a suffix -n or a particle pe, with opposite word order. Nun kisi or kisi pe nu 'some of us', imulenzin kisi or kisi pen imulenzi 'some of the boys'.

When an adjective or numeral follows a noun, it takes the initial vowel of the noun as grammatical agreement, as well as the suffix -n:

oluga ozurin na opapan 'a pleasant and good language'

kana oluga, oluga okanan 'one language'

Sample phrases

Zuri lu – Good day (alu 'a day')

Zuri zinga – Good morning

Zuri masa – Good afternoon

Zuri dani – Good evening

Zuri bali – Good night

Jo koni – Go at once

– Cheers!

Sama papa obeka al dude – Find a good place to eat

Kama mingipewa l'arafi gaba milijo paasa, mingijira lε. – If I had received his letter before I went out, I would have waited for him.

Kwaku na Akua mai atapiro atajirin wɛna liwa yide fu kusa. Ni atapiro atajirin mai imulezi ibarin wɛna yɛ f'amotsoala. Ni amotsoala yɛ arenobo kika Kwaku na Akua baitu fu duka yɛ ukuetu upapam tare.

Ku atapiro mai afu okisiwa so nehi nesa bɛ, na ni imao no inta tabonadi you. Fumai arafi f'amotsoala tɔ okisiwa.

Text

The following text, from a 1971 newsletter, was clipped on its left margin. Missing words are in brackets.

Afrihili	English	glosses
Dɛna wungida?	What would you have done?	da – to do
Koda ni amɛgenda ɛn arabiyado, kɛna rigenda to Afrilikrom, rifunda kɛna lɛriwako harakalo ma, ni ɛmɛwako lidinga wakode harakalo.	Although the passengers in a lorry, which was travelling to Afrilikrom, were complaining that he was driving too fast, the driver continued to drive fast.	ni – the; genda – to travel; ɛn – in; arabiyado – a lorry/truck; kɛna – that, which; to – to; funda – to complain; wako – to drive; haraka – fast; ma – very? too; dinga – to continue
[?]rɛ lɛlundi ni ɛndɛmo mu, pɛna ni [arab]iyado luduri muto umuti ni uzo te.	He had almost arrived in the town, when the lorry ran into a tree beside the road.	lundi ? – arrive; ɛndɛmo – a town; mu – in; umuti – a tree; uzo – a road; te – beside
[?] amɛganda bi lipewa apira na bi lifua. [Ni ɛ]mɛwako lipirabwa ko.	Some of the passengers received wounds and some died. The driver was not hurt.	bi – some, some or other; pira – to hurt/wound; fua – to die; ko – not
[?]uma rendeke tɛ adoncho tɛ ɛtaya, lɛliwa [na ?]eri ni arabiyado te na likukua, [kam]a wufuaseko. kama wufuaseko.	Instead of ringing for an ambulance for help, he came and stood beside the lorry and shouted, "Your money, if you are not dead! Your money if you are not dead!"	tɛ – for; adoncho – an ambulance; taya – to help; wa – to come; kukua – to shout; agoji – money; kama – if; -se (unidentified)
[Ka]na pe fu, ɛn reti yo lijika l'oliso na [?]nya lɛlifuase.	One of the passengers, on hearing this, closed his eyes and pretended he was dead.	kana – one; ti – to hear; yo – it; jika – to close; oliso – eyes;
Dɛna wungida wuriyɛ ka omuntu [?]	What would you have done if you were that man?	yɛ – to be; omuntu – a human

External links

• An Afrihili newsletter (1971 version) on Roger Blench's website.http://www.rogerblench.info/Language%20data/Africa/General/Afrihili%20brochure.pdf