Extract from:
Knut J. Olawsky, Problems of Dagbani orthography. Unpublished ms.. Düsseldorf, 1995/1996.
Table 1: Problems of Dagbani orthography - overview
1. Vowels 1.1 Vowel elision 1.1.1 In compounds (nominal phrases) 1.1.1.1 Noun + noun 1.1.1.1.1 Nouns ending in long vowel 1.1.1.1.2 Nouns ending in vowel sequence 1.1.1.1.3 Nouns ending in nasal consonant 1.1.1.1.4 Nouns with class suffix 1.1.1.2 Noun + adjective 1.1.1.2.1 Adjectives ending in long vowel 1.1.1.2.2 Adjectives ending in vowel sequence 1.1.1.2.3 Adjectives ending in nasal consonant 1.1.1.2.4 Adjectives with class suffix 1.1.1.3 Noun + determiner 1.1.1.3.1 Article /maa/ or /la/ 1.1.1.3.2 Demonstrative /N/ 1.1.2 Before pronouns 1.1.3 In nominalizations 1.1.4 Imperatives 1.1.5 Exceptions 1.1.5.1 /hal/ and /kul/ 1.1.5.2 Time indication /kurgu/ + /a/ 1.2 Long vowels 1.2.1 In numerals 1.2.2 Imperfective form of certain verbs 1.2.3 Perfective form of CVV-i verbs 1.2.4 Insertion of /i/ before /ee/ 1.2.5 In plural forms of certain nouns 1.2.6 Long vowel to avoid ambiguities 1.3 Vowel change 1.3.1 At end of phrase 1.3.1.1 Imperfective form 1.3.2 Consistency in sg. and pl. forms 1.3.3 Consistency in verb forms 1.4 Alternations 1.4.1 Distribution of <e> and <â> 1.4.1.1 <iâ> and <â> 1.4.1.2 <-iâêu> vs. <-iaêu> 1.4.2 Distribution of <o> and <ô> 1.4.3 <ôå> <âå> and <aå> 1.5 /«/ - <i> 1.5.1 Insertion of <i> after consonants 1.5.1.1 After /n/, /m/ 1.5.1.2 After /l/ 1.5.1.3 After /r/ 1.5.1.4 After /Ä/ 1.5.1.5 After /b/ 1.5.1.6 After /h/ 1.6 /«/ - <u> 1.7 /u/ vs. /o/ 1.8 Nominalizer /bu/ - /bo/ in compounds 1.9 Ideophones 2. Consonants 2.1 Assimilation 2.1.1 Nasalization (/n/) before pron. /ya/ 2.1.2 /-åa/ vs. /-åga/ as nominal suffixes 2.1.3 Labialization before /p/, /b/, /m/ 2.1.3.1 Pronouns 2.1.3.2 Infinitive prefix 2.1.3.3 Word-internal 2.1.4 Velarization before /k/, /g/, /N/, /kp/, /gb/, /Nm/ 2.1.4.1 Pronouns 2.1.4.2 Infinitive prefix 2.1.4.3 Word-internal 2.1.5 Palatalization of nasal consonants 2.1.5.1 Pronouns 2.1.5.2 Infinitive prefix 2.1.5.3 Word-internal 2.2 Clusters 2.2.1 /l/ + /n/ 2.2.2 Initial clusters 2.3 The status of consonants in the syllable 2.3.1 Which consonants can be syllable-final? 2.3.2 Which consonants can be word-final? 2.4 /z/ and [Z] 2.5 /s/ and [S] (<sh>) 2.6 Distribution of <g> and <ê> 2.7 Ideophones 3. Separate writing 3.1 Compounds 3.1.1 Nouns + nouns 3.1.2 Nouns + adjectives 3.1.3 Nouns + quantifying pronouns /so/, /shEli/, ... 3.1.4 /zaÄa/ 3.2 Imperatives 3.3 Pronouns 3.3.1 Distinction of emph. plural pron. from pron. + future marker /ni/ 3.4 Preverbal elements 3.5 Postverbal elements 3.5.1 Direction marker /na/ 3.5.2 Verbal marker /mi/ 3.5.3 Aspect marker /-di/ or /-ri/, /-da/ or /-ra/, /-ya/, /-gi/ 3.5.4 Object marker /la/ 3.5.4.1 After /-di/ or /-ri/ 3.5.4.2 Directly after verbs 3.5.5 Discontinued forms 3.6 Location marker /ni/ 3.7 Reduplications 3.7.1 Verbs 3.7.2 Adverbs 3.7.3 Other categories 3.7.4 Elements between duplicated words 3.8 Interrogative <bô> 3.9 Plural marker /nima/ 3.10 Derivations 3.10.1 Sex indicators <-lôêu, -nyaå, -laa, -saa, -dibga> 3.11 /-kam/ 3.11.1 After nouns 3.11.2 After pronouns 3.12 Quantifiers and numerals after nouns 3.13 Intensifiers after verbs 4. Punctuation and Capital letters 4.1 Comma 4.1.1 With subordinative/quota tive /ni/ 4.1.2 With direct speech 4.2 Capital letters 4.2.1 Names 4.2.1.1 Persons 4.2.1.2 Places 4.2.1.3 Deities 4.2.1.4 Titles 4.3 Hyphen 4.3.1 Between /n-/ and verbs 4.3.2 Titles 4.3.3 <nti> vs. <n-ti> 4.3.4 Possessive /da-/ + vowel 4.3.5 Numerals 4.3.6 Deictic verbs <m-bala> vs. <mbala> 4.4 Apostrophe 5. Loans 5.1 Vowels 5.1.1 Final /e/ 5.1.2 Words in <ia> / <iya> 5.1.3 Final /a/ 5.2 Consonants 5.2.1 <s> vs. <sh> 5.3 Adaptation of orthographic regularities for loans 5.3.1 Consonant clusters 5.3.2 Diphthongs