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The Kwa languages, often specified as New Kwa, are a proposed but as-yet-undemonstrated family of languages spoken in the south-eastern part of Ivory Coast, across southern Ghana, and in central Togo. The name was introduced 1885 by Gottlob Krause and derives from the word for 'people' (''Kwa'') in many of these languages, as illustrated by Akan names. ==Languages== See the box at right for a current classification. The various clusters of languages included in Kwa are at best distantly related, and it has not been demonstrated that they are closer to each other than to neighboring Niger–Congo languages.〔: "except at the lower levels of classification such as the Tano, Potou–Tano, and Ewe-Fon (Gbe) groups, genetic relationships among these languages are quite distant. It has never been adequately demonstrated using the comparative method that Akan, Ga, Ewe, and the Togo Mountain languages are more closely related to one another than to any other languages."〕 Stewart〔1989, slightly revised in Blench & Williamson 2000:29〕 distinguished the following major branches, which historical-comparative analysis supports as valid groups: *Potou–Tano (including Akan) *Ga–Dangme *Na-Togo *() Gbe (inclusion doubtful, as they show more features of Kwa the closer one moves to Akan) The Lagoon languages of southern Ivory Coast are not particularly close to any of these, nor to each other, so they are left ungrouped: *Avikam–Alladian *Attié *Abé *Adjukru *Abidji *() Ega An Esuma language, extinct ca. 1800, remains unclassified. Since Stewart, Ega has been tentatively removed, the Gbe languages reassigned to Volta–Niger, and Apro added. Some of the Na-Togo and Ka-Togo languages have been placed into separate branches of Kwa.〔Williamson & Blench 2000:29〕 See the infobox at right for the resulting branches. Ethnologue divides the Kwa languages into two broad geographical groupings: Nyo and Left bank, but this is not a genealogical classification. The Nyo group collapses Stewart's Potou–Tano and Ga–Dangme branches and also includes the ungrouped languages of southern Ivory Coast, while the Ka/Na-Togo and Gbe languages are called ''Left bank'' because they are spoken to the east of the Volta River. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「kwa languages」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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