ARTICLES 27, by M.E. Kropp' Numerous and widely scattered places in the Gct~Adangme For example, Ga 1 . territory have names involving a stem ]a_ or jje . 1°/ ISBSH a n'" a* ^ie western limit of rhe Ga coast,, |a/Jbj_ a deserted sire near Sakumofio lagoon, te§*5| tKe site of the Univer- sity of Ghana# j*n£i_ a quarter of Teshie; Adangme i£kj3Jeku just north of Old Ningo, Josfbj_~kjgo an island In Hie Volta near Kpotig, iS^S^M/ '23S.anc^ l2*e~£!sPi? ^n Shai, fans in Osudoku, feiom_ in ^n a'* iskfiSSHDE between Ningo and Ada. la and le are also common elements in persona! names; Ga la I kotei a historical personage, \a\e, J£w_ote_? loak^t deity of Adangme origin; Adangme |awe» Iggmee, the Icsbadi deiry, J£gbile_ a Teshie It is generally believed by both Gas and Adangmes that ja_ and Ut_ are in some sense ihe some name, and fhat the geographical and personal names containing this element perpetuate the name of _ an ancestral ethnic stock, linguistic evidence a) tc indicate that the identification of |a_and |e_ is historicaily correct, and b) to shed a little light on the etymologies of certain geographical names which hove given rise to considerable speculation. it is the purpose of this note to use 2. Ga laj: Adangme 1«_. ft was suggested by Wilks (page 14) fhat the j^ of \&_ m l©j<£^aHI2S_ (^e name °f a village on the coasf near Ada) is the result of a sound change in the vowel; that is, that in this word (only ?) a_ has changed to j_ in Adangrtie. Irr a sense, this Is * Dr. M.E. Kropp is c Research Fellow in Linguistics, ARTICLES 28. !t is demonstrable that in Adangme there has been a change to JL1 'tick', ^a s*''^ retains the jaL For instance, Ga Xai: faM Adangme _p_e_ "hat1, Ga mlai : it may be said therefore that the Adangme correct. °^ * 91 Adangme _se_ fShai% Ga Adangme mjjs_ name {§_ is probably a reflex of *la_-i. That is, the name "La" (like several other nouns) was sometimes followed by a suffix * - j _. The combination *tajj_ became U_ in Adangme, but not in Ga, The form |a_ stiii occurs in Adangme, in words in which the suffix *-!_ was not present. Evidently the [t_ of |jL"9*SL 'LQ n' "' a n c' iiL""D."Xi 's an 'mPort into Ga country from Adangme. Although not very common, the form \aj_ occurs in certain Ga names, e.g. laj kotei. Old documents mention an important town between Prarnpram and Ada, which is spelled "Lay", "Laye" or "Ley". Ogilby (Map) spelis it "Lay", as does Barbot (page 185). Dapper (page 303) spells it "Ley". This suggests the pronunciation l £ i, spelled "lay" in English but "ley" in French. This is a plausible reconstruction if rt is assumed that at the time these people wrote, the *a_ had become j -_ before *]_, but the suffix *-jj_ had not yet been dropped. A place marked "Laidoku" appears on early nineteenth century maps (Wiiks page 113) J 3. "Labadi". The town, now part of the Accra urban area, which is called |a in Ga, drew at least a segment of its founding settlers from old "Lay",, whence its name. In English, but not in Ga or Adangme, it is called "Labadi", The precise origin of this name has been a source of some puzzlement. Also associated with the area is the name bsme, as in \a_ bane, now the name of a second- ary school and a housing estate. The meaning of bone is also some- what obscure, but according to Field (page 142) this was the name of one section of the Gas, "the Ga_ Born, or La, people". This ARTICLES 29. name is apparently the source of the speculation that the Gas origin- ated at Bonny in Nigeria (e.g. Field page 200). <• It is fairly certain that there has been a change of *d to n_ in Ga (and also in Adangme) when the *d_ was followed by a nassal vowel *§[. The nasality of the vowel itself was then lost. There is documentary evidence for this change in Protten's (1764, page C4) spelling of the word for 'hand1, "dinae" ( i . e. *did£), modern Ga n * n e/ the nominal suffix * - d e. It is likely that, like nine, bone contains Roemer (1760, page 49) spells "Labadi", "Labode". This spelling suggests that the second vowel may have been * o . On this basis, it is suggested that the English "Labadi" is a corruption of the eighteenth century Ga form, *]a_ bo -de, of which ]a_ bone of this analysis, the resemblance to "Bonny" appears spurious. is a direct and regular descendant. In the light 4. "Ada" and "Adangme". The etymology of the word "Adangme" (Ga), "Dangme" is derived from J£. (Adangme) has puzzled several people. Both Puplampu (pp. 14-18) and Wilks (pg. 114) suggest that ada, odaa Wilks goes further to suggest that adaqme is from *a]£-b_[. The linguistic evidence is strongly against these derivations. First, there is no evidence for an Adangme change of *]_ to d_. The nasal* vowel might provide the condition for such a change, since j_ in Ga and Adangme does not occur before nasal vowels, except in the position C V. However, the nasal vowel is itself irregular. There is no evidence whatever for an Adangme change df bi to gbe (to qme). Also, the tones are wrong, i . e. We therefore conclude that J£ and adff are not related names. There is also non-linguistic corroboration for the dissociation. Tradition 3 makes a clear distinction between the four original tribes l^.-br but daaame' . ARTICLES 30. of Ada, the Akan and Ewe tribes that joined them near Ada, and the Les of Lskpoyuns , who came ultimately from Sega, near Kpone, and were also Adangme speaking, A more popular etymology is quoted by Pupiampu (pg. 12) In which "Adangme" is derived from Ewe. In Ewe, ada is the name of Ada, the place, and is also a noun meaning 'courage1. Gbe means 'language1. Ada-gbfe means "Ada language" in Ewe, and is in common use with that meaning. Derivation of <3djagnil from adjf-gbfe, with nasalization of gb after a nasal vowel, is linguistically acceptable. As Pupiampu points out, this implies that the Adangmes adopted the Ewe term for their language and derived their ethnic name from that (so djJjrjmej-Jjj "Ada-language people"), and this in turn implies very close association between the two groups. On the other hand, one of the four original Adangme clans of Ada is called da_qnVebfawe . Since these four clans are said to have arrived at Ada as recognizable units (viz. fn. 3) the clans must have formed .before arrival af Ada. Although it cannot be directly proved f it seems likely that they had the same names then as now. There is a strong possibility, therefore, that the n a me dcr^rrife was in existence before the group associated with the name became associated with the place called Ada. if the names "Ada" and "Adangme/Dangme" may be associated at a l l, it is very likely that the latter name was derived before the former was attached to the place that presently bears it. in the present state of linguistic knowledge, the safest position is to regard the word dajgrnib as unanalyzable. The rising final tone Is a characteristic of Ewe nominals, it is likely therefore that the place but not of Ga~Adangme ones, name ad5a is in fact an Ewe word. Th