SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This grammar of the Lalami dialect of Buam is the first attempt to describe the morphology and syntax of any of the 14 Togo-Remnant languages in detail; in it, I have tried to describe the major structures and many of the minor structures of the languageswhich occur in informal or semi-formal speech. The phonetics and most of the phonology are described in taxonomic terms; the vowel harmony system and the syntax and morphology, however, are described in a slightly modified "Aspects" model of transformational-generative grammar. Of special interest to the non-specialist are my discussions of vowel harmony, of the noun class system, and of the verbal aspect system and serial verb constructions.