Guosa
| Guosa | |
|---|---|
| Guosa | |
| Created by | Alex Igbineweka |
| Date | 1965 |
| Setting and usage | intended for use in West Africa |
| Purpose | |
| Sources | a posteriori language, derived primarily from Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo. |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | none |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
Guosa is a constructed language. It was created by Alex Igbineweka in 1965. It was designed to be a combination of the indigenous languages of Nigeria and to serve as a lingua franca to West Africa.[1]
Source languages
[change | change source]Though Guosa draws its vocabulary from at least 118 native West African languages, it gets most of its vocabulary from Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo, either taken directly or made from a combination of words from these languages.[2] English also provides many of the more technical terms, either directly or through one of the African languages said before. Also, some words were produced a priori via sound symbolism, e.g. meeh "sheep", yanmu-yanmu "mosquito", and wuam "eat".
The different parts of speech came from particular languages. Most nouns come from Hausa, while verbs and abstracts come from Igbo or Yoruba. Also, words from all three source languages are often joined together to create a word that looks like all three. For example, the Guosa word méni "what" comes from Hausa menini, Igbo gini, and Yoruba kini, all meaning "what".[3]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Okafor, Judd-Leonard (20 March 2016). "Guosa: The lingua franca to oust English". dailytrust.com.ng.[permanent dead link]
- ↑ Dimgba, Njideka (17 March 2016). "Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba Are The Tripod of Guosa Language – Igbineweka". www.nico.gov.ng.
- ↑ Igbinéwéká, Alexander (31 January 2019). The Complete Dictionary of Guosa Language 2nd Revised Edition. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse. ISBN 978-1-5320-6574-3.