Wawu (or perhaps Vavu; Russian transcription Вавуски) is an obscure language formerly spoken in West Africa that has not been classified. The only evidence for this language, assuming it is not spurious, is published in a late 18th-century source that includes two languages called "Wawu", the other being a dialect of Ewe. The consultant for the unclassified language called "Wawu" identified his people's neighbors as the Fra (Kasena), Bente, Naena, Gui, Guraa (Anyi), Guaflee and No (= Nejo, Bete).
| Wawu | |
|---|---|
| Vavu | |
| Region | West Africa (Ghana?) |
| Extinct | Attested late 18th century |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | wavu1234 |
Data
editA few words of Wawu are recorded. Numerals are as follows, with ⟨y⟩ substituted for German ⟨j⟩.[1]
- 1 baba
- 2 bauli
- 3 yanna
- 4 tofla
- 5 guena
- 6 brong
- 7 yegra
- 8 khiboa
- 9 boafri
- 10 magro
- 11 tobno
- 12 donu
A sentence has also been recorded:
- [Christ] esoaree, amboaree anyembo
- '[Christ] loves me, has washed me with blood'
Notes
edit- ^ István Fodor, 1975 [1789]. Pallas und andere afrikanische Vokabularien vor dem 19. Jahrhundert: Ein Beitrag zur Forschungsgeschichte. (Kommentare zu Peter Simos Pallas, Linguarum totius orbis vocabularia comparativa, 1.) Hamburg: Helmut Buske, p. 132–137.