| 释义 |
Kwa|kwɑː|
Also Kwo, Qua.
[Native name.]
A branch of a Niger-Congo language family, including Akan, Ewe, Ibo, and Yoruba. Also applied to a native speaker of one of the languages in this family. Also attrib. or as adj.
1857H. Goldie Princ. Efik Gram. p. viii, If we take Creek Town..as a centre, and describe a circle of one hundred miles radius, we shall either include or touch upon the tribes of Usahadet..Efut..Aqua (Qua), [etc.]. 1883R. N. Cust Sk. Mod. Lang. Afr. xi. 238 Kwa or Qua. Is different from the Efik and is spoken to the South of that Language... It is stated that the Efik are immigrants from the Interior, and that the Qua are the indigenous inhabitants. 1919[see Ibibio n. and a.]. 1930A. Werner Struct. & Relationship Afr. Lang. ii. 33 Along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea—say from Cape Mount to the Niger mouth—we have what Westermann calls the Kwa group. 1955[see Fanti n. and a.]. 1970P. Oliver Savannah Syncopators 39 The Kwa group [of tribes] which stretches from Liberia east to Ibo territory in Nigeria. Ibid. 42 The Kwa-speaking peoples of the coastal rain forest. 1971A. Kirk-Greene in J. Spencer Eng. Lang. W. Afr. 128 The Kwa group of languages, of which Yoruba is one. |