Negation Patterns in the Kwa Language Group

There is extensive literature written on negation but only recently have studies begun to expand outside of the scope of Indo-European languages. Linguists are finding that certain patterns thought to be cross-linguistic are largely unattested outside this most heavily studied language family. The intent of this thesis is to survey the negation strategies in a collection of Kwa (Niger-Congo) languages to contribute to the literature on negation. Commonly cited patterns such as Jespersen’s cycle (Jespersen 1917) are almost entirely unattested in Kwa. There is a consistent pattern of marking negation in Akan, Ewe, and the North Guang languages involving the use of a preverbal nasal morpheme. Interestingly three South Guang languages utilize instead a verbal prefix bÉ-. The Ga-Dangme languages stand out in their use of verbal suffixes rather than prefixes. The Ghana-Togo Mountain subgroup of the Kwa language group also does not rely on preverbal nasal negation marking.