Dagaare is the language of the Dagaaba people of Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast.

[1] Throughout the regions of native Dagaare speakers the dialect comes from Northern, Central, Western, and Southern areas referring to the language differently.

Burkina Faso refers to Dagaare as Dagara and Birifor to natives in the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire.

[7] BáBá„to go very fast“[7]BàBà„to fix the ground“[7]Ò3.SGkùŋNEG.FUTgáá.come.PERFÒ kùŋ gáá.3.SG NEG.FUT come.PERF„S/he will not go.“ (negative declarative sentence)[7]Ò3.SGkúŋNEG.HORTgáá.come.PERFÒ kúŋ gáá.3.SG NEG.HORT come.PERF„S/he should not go.“ (negative hortative sentence)[7]Source:[5] In Dagaare, personal pronouns do not exhibit gender differences.

ADEFdɔɔmannaCOMPnangwhowa.come.PERFA dɔɔ na nang wa.DEF man COMP who come.PERF„The man who came.“[5]ADEFganebooknaCOMPnangwhichle.fall.PERFA gane na nang le.DEF book COMP which fall.PERF„The book that fell down.“[5]Interrogative pronouns are formed by a root like [bo-] ('what, which') which combines with a suffix.

[8] Possession is expressed by the words toɔr and den in singular and deme in plural, meaning "own", combined with any personal pronoun.

NeɛpersonkangINDEFwa-ɛcome-PERFlá.FOCNeɛ kang wa-ɛ lá.person INDEF come-PERF FOC„Someone has come.“[5]The canonical word order of Dagaare is SVO (subject-verb-object).

BáyúóBayuodàPSTtòngworkláFOCtómɔwork(zààméng).yesterdayBáyúó dà tòng lá tómɔ (zààméng).Bayuo PST work FOC work yesterday„Bayuo worked (yesterday).“[8]DɛrDɛrnyuuridrink.IPFVláFOCaDEFkʊɔwaterwɪɛʊ.quicklyDɛr nyuuri lá a kʊɔ wɪɛʊ.Dɛr drink.IPFV FOC DEF water quickly„Dɛr is drinking the water quickly.“[8]ZeɛmɛZiemadàPSTkɔgive.PFV//dàPSTkorɔgive.IPFVláFOCNaapɔgeNapogdoge.potZeɛmɛ dà kɔ / dà korɔ lá Naapɔge doge.Ziema PST give.PFV / PST give.IPFV FOC Napog pot„Ziema gave / is giving Napog a pot.“[8]The VP in Dagaare consists of a preverbal particle encoding tense, the predicate, and a postverbal particle with a function yet to be fully investigated.

These preverbal particles function like auxiliary verbs in Indo-European languages lexicalizing tense and aspectual features.

BadɛrspiderdàPSTkpi-edie-IPFVlá.FOCBadɛr dà kpi-e lá.spider PST die-IPFV FOC„The spider died.“[5]O3.SGnaFUTngmɛbeatma1.SGlá.FOCO na ngmɛ ma lá.3.SG FUT beat 1.SG FOC„S/he will beat me.“[5]Contrary to Indo-European languages like English, French and Norwegian, Dagaare exhibits the lexicalization of a habitual marker.

While in the Indo-European languages this habitual marker is basically an adverb, in Dagaare it is realized as the preverbal particle mang.

O3.SGmangHABngmeɛ-rɛbeat-IPFVma1.SGláFOCyaga.plentyO mang ngmeɛ-rɛ ma lá yaga.3.SG HAB beat-IPFV 1.SG FOC plenty„S/he is always beating me a lot.“[5]These preverbal particles are difficult to classify as temporal, aspectual, modal and polar, since the relationship between polarity and tense in the Mabia languages is very tight.

[5] An interesting aspect of the Mabia verbal system is that verbs can be classified into pairs of oppositions depending on causativity, transitivity, reversivity and other derivational processes.

The postverbal particle la mainly marks factivity, polarity, affirmation or even emphasis.

In this case the affixal form of the particle -ng is attached to the indirect object pronoun ma.

Ò3.SGdàPSTkogivema1.SGláFOCaDEFgane.bookÒ dà ko ma lá a gane.3.SG PST give 1.SG FOC DEF book„S/he gave me the book.“[5]Ò3.SGdàPSTkogivemang1.SG.FOCaDEFgane.bookÒ dà ko mang a gane.3.SG PST give 1.SG.FOC DEF book„S/he gave me the book.“[5]*Ò3.SGdàPSTkogiveláFOCma1.SGaDEFgane.book*Ò dà ko lá ma a gane.3.SG PST give FOC 1.SG DEF book„*S/he gave me the book.“[5]Lastly, under pragmatic circumstances the particle can occur in certain positions within the clause in order to emphasize the role of particular elements.

BòngwhatláFOCkàSUBRfo2.SGmɛ?build.PFVBòng lá kà fo mɛ?what FOC SUBR 2.SG build.PFV„What did you build?“[9]Lastly, multiple questions are highly marked in Dagaare.