Afrihili is a constructed language designed in 1970 by Ghanaian historian K. A. Kumi Attobrah to be used as a lingua franca in all of Africa. The name of the language is a combination of Africa and Swahili. The author, a native of Akrokerri in Ghana, originally conceived of the idea in 1967 while on a sea voyage from Dover to Calais. His intention was that "it would promote unity and understanding among the different peoples of the continent, reduce costs in printing due to translations and promote trade". It is meant to be easy for Africans to learn.
The language uses the Latin alphabet with the addition of two vowel letters, and, which have their values in Ghanaian languages and the IPA, and. Foreign names are spelled out phonetically rather than in the original orthography, so for example 'Hastings' is spelled Hestins. There are two digraphs, and, which have their English and Swahili values, and. J and y also have their English and Swahili values, and. Ng is not a digraph, but pronounced as in English finger,. There is no tone. Stress is on the second-last vowel. Exclamation marks come at the beginning of a clause, which ends in a comma or period as normal; question marks come at the end.
Grammar
The grammar is similar to Swahili, but in addition there is the 'vowel triangle', which is central to Afrihili inflection: a / \ u e ɛ / \ ɔ __ o __ i Many grammatical processes are accomplished by exchanging a vowel with its directional opposite on the triangle: a for o, u for i, e for ɔ, and vice versa. For example, a verb can be made into an adjective by changing its final vowel in this manner: from pinu 'to determine' comes the adjective pini 'determinate'. Ɛ does not participate in these swaps, but is used in other situations. All nouns, and only nouns and adjectives modifying nouns, begin with a vowel. In the singular this will be different from the final vowel of the word; the plural is formed by making it the same as the final vowel. For example, omulenzi 'boy' becomes imulenzi 'boys'; similarly, oluga is 'language' and aluga 'languages'. Nouns are derived from verbs or adjectives by prefixing the opposite of the final vowel, according to the triangle above. So, from pinu 'to determine' comes the noun ipinu 'determination'. If all the vowels in the verb or adjective are the same, as in mono 'to disgrace' and kana 'one', then the neutral vowels ɛ- is used: ɛmono 'a disgrace', ɛkana 'unity'. Verbal nouns are formed from the infinitive in -de, and so always begin with ɔ- : soma 'reads', somade 'to read', ɔsomade yɛ papa 'reading is good'. In the opposite direction, nouns drop their initial vowels to form verbs, and with the appropriate change in final vowel, adjectives. So, from etogo 'a house' comes togo 'to house', and from umeme 'electricity' comes memɔ 'electric'. Participles are formed with mɛ-, further derived as nouns or adjectives : mɛpini 'determinative', ɛmɛwako 'driver'. Verb phrases are formed with tense prefixes, with the subject pronouns written together with the verb. Objects, however, are written separately after the verb: From jira 'to wait for', mingijira lε 'I would have waited for him '. Pronouns include mi 'I', nɛ 'me and you', nɛu 'us and you', nu 'we', wu 'you ' ku 'you ', lɛ 'he', ta 'she', yo 'it', fu 'they'. For possession, pronouns are prefixed on a noun, dropping their vowel: l'arafi 'his letter', w'agoji 'your money'. Tense prefixes include li-, ta-, lii-, taa-, yɛɛ-, re-, ri-, ngi-, nge-, and a perfect in lo-. Simple present is not marked. U- forms relative clauses. So, from du 'eat', lɛdu 'he eats', nɛtadu 'you & I will eat', fulidu 'they ate', miyɛɛdu ɛn zinga 'I eat in the morning ', miliidu ɛn zinga 'I would eat / used to eat in the morning', miredu 'I am eating', nuridu 'we were eating ', kama kungiwa, kungidu 'if y'all would come, you'd eat', ni omuntu lodu 'the man has eaten'. 'This' and 'that' are ki and ka, which are pluralized with the suffix-nga, giving kinga 'these' and kanga 'those'. They may occur before a noun, or afterward by copying the final syllable: Some suffixes are full syllables, as -wiinchoative : sana 'drink', sanawi 'get drunk'; furaha 'happy', furahawi 'be happy'. However, most have an echo vowel, identical to the final vowel of the root, as in -bw- : bona 'see', bonabwa 'be seen'; or -t- '-able': bonata 'visible', dutu 'edible'. 'Of' is either a suffix -n or a particle pe, with opposite word order. Nun kisi or kisi pe nu 'some of us', imulenzin kisi or kisi pen imulenzi 'some of the boys'. When an adjective or numeral follows a noun, it takes the initial vowel of the noun as grammatical agreement, as well as the suffix -n:
Sample phrases
Text
The following text, from a 1971 newsletter, was clipped on its left margin. Missing words are in brackets.
