Akan Newspaper Reader - Dunwoody Press

Akan Newspaper
Reader
Samuel Gyasi Obeng

Akan Newspaper
Reader
Samuel Gyasi Obeng
2008

Akan Newspaper Reader
Copyright © 2008 by McNeil Technologies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the
prior written permission from the copyright owner.
All inquiries should be directed to:
Dunwoody Press
6525 Belcrest Rd., Suite 460
Hyattsville, MD 20782, U.S.A.
ISBN: 978-1-931546-52-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008941271
Printed and bound in the United States of America

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ......................................................................................i
Introduction: Akan Culture and Language
Akan Culture ................................................................................................ iii
The People.................................................................................................... iii
Personhood................................................................................................... iv
Marriage....................................................................................................... iv
Inheritance..................................................................................................... v
Rites of Passage ............................................................................................. v
Religion & the Concept of God....................................................................... v
Political Organization.................................................................................... vi
Social Interaction .......................................................................................... vi
Akan Language ............................................................................................viii
Orthography.................................................................................................. ix
Phonology ..................................................................................................... x
Tone............................................................................................................ xv
Grammatical Sketch ....................................................................................xvii
References.................................................................................................. xxiii
Other Important Sources ..............................................................................xxiv
Selections
1. AyibOne...................................................................................................1
2. Nkran Kuro Dada No, YEbEsiesie HO .....................................................2
3. Kwan A AkanfoO Fa So Bu MmerE ........................................................3
4. YEn KwaeE Ho Dwumadie......................................................................5
5. Oman AhyEnsoO Krataa...........................................................................7
6. EnnsE SE Ghanaman Hwere Ne Kra .......................................................9
7. AwerEhyEm A GhanafoO A WOwO AmannOne Anya.............................11
8. Sika Nti Anaa?......................................................................................13
9. Aman A WoyE YEn AdoeE A YEde YEn Ho Ato WOn So No
Emmoa YEn ..........................................................................................16
10. AdwenemuteE Firi ApOmuden Mu .........................................................19
11. YEn Ne Aman A Atwa YEn Ho Ahyia Ntam AyOnkofa ........................22
12. BO Wo Ho Ban Firi AkorOmfo WerEmfoO Ho .......................................25
13. Eka A YErebO Atua Ni?........................................................................28
14. OnyankopOn AkyE YEn AdeE................................................................31
15. Oman A WOwO ApOmuden No, WOwO Sika..........................................35
16. Nnipa Bi ReyE Apa Aba .......................................................................37
17. AnansesEm Ho MfasoO..........................................................................40
18. Dagbon AtoyerEnkyEm No ....................................................................43
19. Nkyea Ne Akwaaba Ma........................................................................47
20. Obi Nnim A Obi KyerE .........................................................................52

21. Oman Yi Gyina Akono..........................................................................55
22. YEhia GhanafoO Nyinaa Mmoa.............................................................60
23. SEbe Bagyimi-BerE No, Atwam! ...........................................................63
24. Nsuo Ho MfasoO....................................................................................66
25. Ntam .....................................................................................................69
26. Emu AyE Den Nanso, AnidasoO WO HO! ..............................................73
27. Ohaw A Oman Yi Wo Mu No, Emmfiri ApaeE Anaa Nsaguo...............76
28. AkanfoO AsEnnie...................................................................................79
29. YEwO NsEm BO NO PO!.........................................................................82
30. Polisi Adwuma Yi! .................................................................................84
31. YErehwE DeE EbEsie! ...........................................................................88
32. Abaatan DeE Nie ..................................................................................91
33. Amoma (NsEm A WOka De Hoahoa Ahenfo) ........................................95
Translations
1. Haircut (Proverb)............................................................................... 103
2. Old Accra to Be Regenerated........................................................... 103
3. How the Akan Tell Time.................................................................... 103
4. Our Foestry Program ........................................................................ 103
5. National Identity Card....................................................................... 104
6. Ghana Must Not Lose Her Soul........................................................ 104
7. Confidence of Ghanaians Abroad.................................................... 104
8. Is It Because of Money? .................................................................... 104
9. Unhealthy Dependence on Donors................................................. 105
10. A Healthy Mind Comes from a Healthy Body.................................. 105
11. Good Neighborliness........................................................................ 106
12. Protect Yourself from Armed Robbers.............................................. 106
13. Is This the Kind of Debt We Want to Incur? .................................... 107
14. God Has Given Us a Gift (of Language) .......................................... 108
15. A Healthy Nation Makes a Wealthy Nation ..................................... 109
16. Some People Are Giving up.............................................................. 109
17. Importance of Folk Tales................................................................... 110
18. The Dagbon Tragedy........................................................................ 111
19. Greetings and Welcoming................................................................ 112
20. If One Does Not Know, Another Teaches (Him/Her)...................... 113
21. The Nation Is at War (Is on the Battlefront)..................................... 113
22. Support Needed from All Ghanaians............................................... 114
23. Apologies, the Time of Ignorance Is Gone! ..................................... 115
24. The Importance of Water.................................................................. 116
25. Oath-Taking....................................................................................... 116
26. It Is Tough, but There Is Hope.......................................................... 118
27. The Problems We Are Facing as a Country ..................................... 118
28. Akan Native Courts ........................................................................... 119
29. We Have a Lot on Our Hands!......................................................... 120
30. This Police Job!.................................................................................. 120
31. We'll See What Will Happen............................................................. 121
32. This Is for Women Who Are Raising Children.................................. 122
33. Praise Poetry (Words Used to Prase a King)..................................... 123
Glossary...................................................................................................... 129

Acknowledgements
The linkage between Indiana University’s Program in African Languages
and Linguistics and the African Language Research Project of the
University of Maryland, Eastern Shore (UMES), formed the bedrock out of
which the Akan Newspaper Reader grew. During the research leading to
the production of this reader, I paid particular attention to UMES’s aim of
facilitating and improving upon the study of African languages through the
use of real instead of imagined texts.
I would like to thank Mr. Nii Noi Vanderpuye, editor of The Heritage also
called The Weekend Heritage, and The Heritage AkwansosEm, who gave
permission for the use of texts from his newspaper. Without his consent,
this project would have failed. I am also thankful to the other members of
The Heritage’s editorial board, especially Mr. Stephen Owusu, Dr. Gordon
Adika, and Mr. Cofie Ammuako-Annan, and to Mr. Kofi Frempong Barfi,
the columnist whose sharp thinking and crisp writing attracted my attention
to The Heritage newspaper.
I would also want to thank Dr. Seth Ofori (Department of African
Languages and Literatures, University of Wisconsin, Madison), Dr. Tristan
Purvis (Assistant Editor, Issues in Intercultural Communication), and Dr.
David Zorc, Senior Linguist of the Language Research Center, McNeil
Technologies, for helping in various ways. Finally, I would like to express
my sincerest appreciation to Professor Chester M. Hedgepeth, Director of
the UMES African Languages Project, for his encouragement and immense
support. Other people at Professor Hedgepeth’s center also assisted me in a
number of ways. Here I would like to acknowledge with thanks the help of
the following people; Mr. Magdi Elobeid, Dr. Robert Hardy, and Ms.
Terrell Sharone.
i

Introduction: Akan Culture and Language
Akan Culture
The People
The Akan people trace their ancestry to Ancient Ghana and the Oasis of
Djado. They inhabit most of the forest areas of the southern and middle
belts of Ghana and southeastern La Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa. Agona,
Ahanta, Akwamu, Akuapem, Akyem, Asante, Brong, Dankyira, Evalue,
Fante, Awutu, Efutu, Anum Gomua, Kwawu, Nzema, Sefwi, Wassa, and
other minor groups constitute the ethnic Akan group. Traditionally, the
largest and most powerful ethnic groups within the Akan group are the
Asante, the Fante, and the Akyem.
To a great extent, the Akan share a common culture, parts of which they
share with the other ethnic groups of West Africa and other parts which
distinguish them from the other ethnic groups in West Africa. The most
important cultural aspects unique to the Akan peoples are: a common fortytwo-day
calendar, their concept of God, political organization, marriage
systems, and a matrilineal system of inheritance (Obeng, 2003).
In Akan society, there are nine forty-two-day units in the annual calendar.
Unlike Western societies where a year is made up of 365 or 366 days, the
Akan year or annual calendar is made up of 378 days. The forty-second day
of each forty-two day unit is considered a holy day. People born on such
days are given special names such as Adae and Fodwo, among others, to
mark the day.
Obeng (2001) notes that there are six holy days that form the basis of the
Akan calendar: Kuru “exactness”; Kwa “emptiness”; Mono “new, fresh”;
Fo “love, satisfaction, restfulness”; Ngona “good living, good governance”;
and Nkye “passing by.” The holy days can fall on any day of the week.
Thus, there can be K uru-Kwasie “Exactness Sunday”; Kwa-Kwasie
“Empty Sunday”; and FO-DwoO “Love/Satisfaction/Restfulness Monday,”
among others.
On Akan anthroponymy, Obeng (2001) notes that every Akan has a dayname
referred to as their kra-din ‘soul-name.’ The day on which one was
born is called kra-da ‘soul-day’ and throughout one’s life it is a day on
which one’s soul rejoices, is cautious, and can be pacified or even cursed.
In the past, a person who died on his soul-day was believed never to be able
to reincarnate. Every attempt was therefore made to prevent sick people
from dying on their soul-days. On some occasions, for example if a
Monday-born died on a Monday, the death was concealed and announced
the following day to prevent people from associating the death with
mystery. Except for Yaw (Thursday-born), all the male Akan day-names
iii

are derived from the holy day Kwa ‘emptiness’ and on gods associated with
each day. Table 1 below shows Akan day names.
Table 1. Akan Day Names
Akan Days English Gloss Male Name Female
Name
iv
Akan God
Kwasiada Sunday Kwasi Akosua Awusi
Dwoada Monday Kwadwo Adwoa Adwo
Benada Tuesday Kwabena Abenaa Bena
Wukuada Wednesday Kwaku Akua Aku
Yawoada Thursday Yaw Yaa/Aba Yaw
Fiada Friday Kofi Afia Afi
Memeneda Saturday Kwame Ama Amen
Personhood
Akan society is viewed as collectivist, described by the phrase “people are
because the society is.” Individuals are situated in the society and exist only
because the society exists. From a social theoretic point of view,
collectivism supersedes individualism. An individual is made up of three
entities: honam/mogya ‘the body’/‘blood,’ Okra ‘the soul,’ and
sunsum/homhom ‘the spirit.’ An individual’s body is connected with one’s
mother, the soul with the father, and the spirit with God and the ancestors.
These three entities are equally important in an individual’s life and
sickness could be triggered by and/or targeted at any or all of the entities.
Akan medical practice is thus holistic (Obeng, 2003). All three entities,
body, soul, and spirit, are treated.
Marriage
Marriage and courtship in Akan society may or may not be arranged.
Whether they are arranged or not, marriage is considered a union between
the bride’s and the groom’s extended families, not just between the bride
and the groom. A woman does not take her husband’s name but maintains
her own (maiden) name. Also, women maintain their own property and
strive toward financial independence. The proverb Obarima nyE sumyE na
Obaa de ne ti asum no ‘A man is not a pillow upon which a woman must
rest her head’ illustrates the above claim (Obeng, 2003). Besides proverbs
and aphorisms, there are songs in the language that caution women against
financial dependency on men. A woman who relies solely on the generosity
of her husband, hoping that after his death the jointly acquired property will
be hers, may realize that her services were in vain. Such fruitless labor is

eferred to as kEntEn hunu soa ‘carrying empty basket,’ that is, ‘laboring in
vain.’
Children born in a marriage belong to the woman’s abusua ‘blood lineage’
and the father’s ntOn ‘spirit-lineage.’ The relationship with one’s father is
via the father’s spirit and children adopt their father’s taboos (including
food, oaths, religious affiliations).
Polygamy is allowed but must, in theory, be backed by sound financial
standing and appropriate compensation for the first wife or wives. Divorce
is permitted and occurs after counselling by elders has failed. Divorce may
be caused by adultery (traditionally on the part of the woman, but these
days also on the part of the husband), domestic violence, impotence,
barrenness, disrespect toward the in-laws, criminal conduct, and financial
crises, among other reasons. An incomplete and/or half-hearted
performance of the rites of marriage may also result in the annulment of a
marriage because it is a sign of lack of love and respect for the woman.
Inheritance
A matrilineal system of inheritance is followed. Children have the right to
inherit their maternal uncles’ or aunts’ property, but not their father’s or
paternal uncles’ and aunts’ properties. Fathers may, however, give part of
their property to their children during their lifetimes. A father who leaves
no property for his children is labeled kwaseampani ‘good-for-nothing’ or
ObofoO ‘mean and uncaring.’ In modern Akan society, there are laws
(intestate succession laws) that directly contradict traditional laws on
succession. This has been the source of many instances of litigation.
Rites of Passage
Rites on birth, puberty, and death are highly cherished and religiously
performed. Life is celebrated in death, given the society’s belief in the
afterlife and the role the ancestors play in the daily lives of the living.
Belief in reincarnation, the punishment of the wicked, and the disgrace that
faces the ill-behaved act as social control measures for the living and
prohibit acts considered antisocial and/or anti-cultural.
Religion & the Concept of God
The Akan believe in God’s existence via the maxim Obi nkyerE akwadaa
Nyame ‘No one tells/teaches the child about God’s existence.’ In other
words, even children know that God exists. God is known by names
connected to his many attributes: Amansu ‘Giver of water,’ Amaowia
‘Giver of sun,’ Ototrobonsu ‘The Big whale,’ Onyankopon ‘Big friend,’
Onyame ‘Satisfying,’ Mframa ‘Wind,’ Ahuabobrim ‘Fearsome,’ and
Twereduampon ‘Lean-on-a-tree-do-not-fall,’ or ‘Dependable.’ God is also
called Ananse-Kokroko ‘the Big-Spider,’ for, like a spider, God is capable
v

of tasks and acts not easily understood by an ordinary mortal. He is to be
feared and revered.
God is viewed as male but possesses feminine or motherly characteristics.
His name, Kwame, suggests he is seen as a male person born on Saturday;
however, he viewed as Baatan pa ‘Excellent Mother.’ His son, Kwaku
Ananse (the Akan folk hero), manifests humanity’s many emotional
characteristics (love, hate, hope) and weaknesses(greed, murder, slander,
and lying). Seen as a trickster in Akan philosophy and folklore, Kwaku
Ananse embodies humanity’s successes and failures. Through Kwaku
Ananse, God imparts all forms of knowledge to the people. It was Ananse
who taught the people how to weave the traditional costume, the kente
cloth. He also educated and continues to educate the people about how to
engage in a just and/or an impartial arbitration, punish the wicked, and
reward the just.
Besides the Akan traditional religion (Ancestral Worship), Islam,
Christianity, and other religions are also practiced by the Akan. It is also
common to see people practice more than one religion.
Political Organization
Each town is governed by a male and a female chief in conjunction with
appointed elders and a war group headed by war-chiefs. The masses
contribute to the running of the community through their sub-leaders, and
at public fora and special festivals they are able to voice their views in an
uninhibited manner. On most occasions, although speech is free (because
the Big Spider, God, did not sell it but gave it freely), specific restrictions
are placed on certain kinds of speech and sanctions are imposed on
improper verbalization of taboo words and expressions.
Social Interaction
The Akan, like most other peoples, place a high premium on pragmatic
competence in all communicative situations. Obeng (1999) notes that in
ordinary conversations among equals, any speaker who overly dominates
the floor may be shunned. It is common to hear people say of such a person
Okasa a, Omma obi nka bi ‘When he speaks, he does not give others the
chance to also speak.’ An interactant who persistently interrupts others may
be reprimanded in public, which acts as a deterrent to others. If a person
exhibits such behavior before the elders, he or she may be labeled Gyae
ma menka ‘Stop-so-that-I’ll-speak;’ that is, a ‘know-it-all.’ Such behavior,
if not checked, may result in the exclusion of the person from formal or
semi-formal interactional situations. Self-correction and especially
correcton of others’ speech is greatly valued as seen in the Akan adage Obi
nnim a, obi kyerE ‘If someone does not know, another should teach
him/her.’ However, if one makes it a habit to either initiate or undertake
correction of others, one may be labeled boastful or a know-it-all.
vi

Politeness and indirectness are two of the most important discursive
phenomena in Akan social interaction. The spoken word is perceived as
having the power to make or break an individual, so politeness, avoidance,
and various forms of indirectness are employed to mitigate inherent risks in
the art of speaking. Studies on politeness such as those done by Brown and
Levinson (1978: 21ff.); Leech (1983: 145); Nwoye (1989); Obeng (1996,
1997b, 1999a, 1999d, 2003) and Yankah (1995) have all noted the role that
indirectness plays in polite behavior crossculturally. Leech (1983), for
example, discusses the use of euphemism, hyperbole, and other figures of
speech as politeness strategies. As in other cultures such as the Zulu (see de
Kadt, 1998), in Akan culture, politeness plays a significant role in facework.
In Akan society, an expression or utterance is said to be polite if, in
the words of Yankah (1995: 54), it is “suffused with terms of politeness or
courteous addressives.” Politeness is socially prescribed and polite speech
is used to express either solidarity or deference. In formal speech, a stylistic
marker of politeness is for one's speech to be suffused with apologetic
formulae and disclaimers. Such apologetic formulae are used to warn other
interactants of an imminent (apparent or real) profanity, verbal taboo, or
proverb, as well as to disclaim “any possible impression of irrelevant or
offensive intent in the use of language” (cf. Yankah, 1995: 56)). Terms of
respect may be suffixed to requests, to expressions of thanks or gratitude,
as well as to greetings, in order to signal politeness. Such polite addressives
soften the face-effect of a locution. For example, the expression Fa ma me,
aberaw ‘Give it to me with due respect to your social class’ is a polite
request (Yankah, 1995:56). Obeng (1999a) calls for Akan politeness to be
looked at from the point of view of the interactional participants, their
immediate social groups, and the entire Akan ethnic group.
In Akan culture, polite speech finds expression in the use of apologetic
expressions and, more especially, through various indirection strategies,
such as proverbs, euphemisms, metaphors, and other figurative expressions.
Where one cannot help but be direct, an apologetic expression like sEbe
‘excuse me, please’ or mesrE meka ‘I beg to say’ is used as a preface to
non-euphemistic talk about taboo topics (Obeng, 1994). Obeng identified
proverbs, metaphors, innuendoes, euphemisms, circumlocution (which
involves skirting the topic of the discourse and therefore diverting attention
to other issues), riddles, tales, and hyperboles as some of the strategies
through which verbal indirection, and hence politeness, finds expression. In
Akan, off-record indirectness such as circumlocution are regarded as an
acceptable communicative strategy, especially when the subject matter of
the interaction is considered face-threatening. It is, for example, impolite to
ask for a favor (in kind or cash) directly. Such requests have to be done
indirectly through circumlocution since an offer is preferable to a request
and because, more importantly, a refusal could lead to face loss on the part
of the requester and/or requestee.
vii

Other verbal indirection strategies include triadic communication involving
the use of intermediaries. Here, face-threatening messages are routed
through proxies and pseudo-addressees like orators, dogs (Obeng, 1999c),
and children, among others (Obeng, 1995; Schottman, 1995; Yankah,
1995). Evasion, a communicational strategy in which a speaker, in
answering a question, ignores the unknown variable presupposed by the
question, is also an indirect strategy. Other strategies include innuendoes
(which require the target referent to be aware of its subliminal frame of
interpretation—i.e., its pragmatic import), pronoun mismatching (Obeng,
1997c), onomasiology (through anthroponymy, toponymy and autonymy
(Obeng, 2000b, 2001, 2002)), and graffiti (Obeng 2000a).
Verbal indirection is also employed to embellish speakers’ utterances, to
draw other interactants' attention to relevant issues, to persuade them, to
minimize social and/or communicational tension, and to settle personal
scores. Properly managed indirectness provides the interlocutors with
several benefits including defense and rapport (Tannen, 1996). Indirection
plays a significant role in conversational management as well as in the
maintenance of face and in politeness.
Akan Language
Akan, also called Twi-Fante, belongs to the Tano group of languages of the
Central Comoe branch, a sub-division of the Kwa sub-group that belongs to
the Niger-Congo language family. Related languages include Anyi
(Aowin), Sehwi, Nzema, Ahanta, Efutu/Awutu, Anum, Kyerepong, and
Larteh. Akan has over 10 million speakers.
It must be made clear at this juncture that not all the minor ethnic groups
listed under the “Akan people” speak an Akan language. The Nzema, for
example, speak Nzema, and the Awutu, Efutu, and Anum speak Guang,
which is not an Akan language. Dolphyne’s (1965; 1988) view that
speakers of Akan dialects are only a subgroup of the Akan people is
correct.
Of all the dialects of the Akan language, only Akwapim, Asante/Akyem,
and Fante have achieved literary status. Each of the three major dialects has
a written form that reflects its peculiarities so that it is not easy for an
Asante speaker to read a text in Fante and vice-versa (Dolphyne, 1988: 20;
Obeng, 1997a). A unified standard orthography has been devised by the
Language Teaching Center, the Linguistics Department (University of
Ghana), and the Bureau of Ghanaian Languages under the auspices of the
Akan Language Committee.
Minor linguistic differences (such as palatalization and labialization, quite
predominant in Fante) differentiate these dialects. Vocalic length
differences and a few lexical differences also occur in some of the dialects
(Schachter & Fromkin, 1968; Dolphyne, 1988). However, these dialects
could be said to be mutually intelligible in their spoken modes.
viii

The name Akan as used in this newsreader is thus just a general label
representing all the dialects mentioned above. This means that unlike RP
English (a variant of Standard English) that is purported to be spoken by
some British people, Standard Akan is not spoken by anybody (Obeng,
1997a). The dialects of Akan are the spoken language.
Orthography
Three orthographies (Akuapem, Asante and Fante) exist in Akan. In this
reader, the Asante orthography is used. The orthographic notations are: a b
d e E f g h i k l m n o O p r s t u w y. Some of the vowel alphabets have
two pronunciations. Besides the above symbols, there are the following
diagraphs: hy, hw, tw, dw, ng, ny, nw, ky, gy, and mw. Table 2 below
shows the orthographic notations, close pronunciation guide, and example
words in English and Akan.
Orthographic
Symbol
Pronunciation:
Phonetic / Rough
Guide
[a]
[œ]
English Word (or
sound sequence)
ix
Example in Akan
a
father
fa ‘take’
a
man
ani ‘eye’
b [b] bee bra ‘come’
d
[d]
day
da ‘sleep’
dw
[dÛÁ] / [dZw],
‘jw’
[jw]
dware ‘bathe’
e
[e]
day
efie ‘home’
e
[I]
bit
se ‘sharpen’
E [E] head Edan ‘house’
f [f] fee fa ‘take’
g
[g]
go
gu ‘to broadcast
gy
[dÛ] / [dZ], ‘j’ judge
(seeds)’
gyae ‘stop’
h [h] he Eha ‘here’
hw [ÇÁ] / [hw],
‘shw’
hw hwE ‘look’
hy [Ç] / [S], ‘sh’ shirt hyE ‘wear’
i [i] beat si ‘wash’
k [k] key Eka ‘debt
kw [kw] quick Kwasi (proper
name)
ky [tÇ] / [tS] church kyE ‘share’
l [l] lady lore ‘vehicle’
m [m] meat ma ‘give’
mw [mw] mw- mwia
/mia‘squeeze’
n [n] no nim ‘know’

ng [N] / ‘ng’ singer maangoo ‘mango’
nw [nÁ] / [w], nyw- nwiinwii
‘nyw’
‘hesitate’
ny [] / ‘ny’ onion Onyame ‘God’
o
[o]
doe
owuo ‘death’
o
[U]
foot
fo ‘climb’
O [O] more dO ‘love’
p [p] pay papa ‘good’
r [r] read bra ‘come’
s [s] see sa ‘dance’
sw [sw] sweat soE [swIE] ‘carry’
t [t] tea tu ‘uproot’
tw [tÇÁ] / [tSw], chew Twi (name of
‘chw’
Akan dialect)
u [u] to wu ‘die’
w [Á] / [w] we ware ‘marry’
y [y] yes yadeE ‘disease’
Only [m] (all the dialects), [N] (Ak), [n] (Fa), and [r] (Fa) occur in wordfinal
positions in the dialects in parenthesis. There are no voiced fricatives
in Akan. Only plosives and affricates have voiced and voiceless
counterparts. The velar, glottal, pre-palatal, and palatal consonants have
labialized and non-labialized counterparts. All nasals, trills, laterals, and
approximants are voiced. No verb, noun, or adjective stem begins with [r]
or [N]. Only Fante has prenasalized consonant sequences.
Other Dialects Fante
[mm] [mb]
[nn] [nd]
[] [dÛ]
[NN] [Ng]
Other Dialects Fante English
[mmofra] [mbofra]children
[nna] [nda] don’t sleep
[a] [dÛa] don’t leave behind
[NNU] [NgU] palm oil
Phonology
Sound System
Vowel sounds
Akan has ten vowel sounds described below.
[i] Unrounded, high, advanced, front vowel.
x

[I] Unrounded, between high and mid, unadvanced, front vowel.
[e] Unrounded, mid, advanced, front vowel.
[E] Unrounded, mid, unadvanced, front vowel.
[œ] Unrounded, between mid and low advanced central vowel.
[a] Unrounded, low, unadvanced, central vowel.
[O] Rounded mid, unadvanced, back vowel.
[o] Rounded, mid, unadvanced, back vowel.
[U] Rounded, between mid and high, unadvanced, back vowel.
[u] Rounded, high, advanced, back vowel.
Advanced vowels are produced with the root of the tongue pushed high up
in the mouth. Unadvanced vowels are produced with a retracted tongue root
position. These vowels occur in words such as:
si [si] wash
se [sI] sharpen
esie [esie] a hill
sE [sE] resemble
kari [kœri] weigh
sika [sikœ] money (Gomua, Fante)
sa [sa] dance (v.)
sO [sO] join
so
dialect)
[so] (question particle found only in the Akuapem
so [sU] on top of, to bear fruit
su [su] go bad (usually of cocoyam)
Apart from [œ], all the vowels are contrastive and are hence different
phonemes. [œ] is an allophone of [a] that occurs before [i] and [u]. For
example, daabi [dææbi] ‘no’ and patu [pætu] ‘pretend.’
Nasalization is also phonemic in Akan. Akan phonemic nasalized vowels
are [ i& ], [ I& ],
[ a& ], [ U& ], and [ u& ]
fi [fi] go out
fi [fi&] dirt
se [sI] sharpen
se [sI&] teeth
fa [fa] take
fa [fa‡] half
so [sU] bear fruit
so [sU‡] be big
ku [ku] scrape or pluck fur from an animal
ku [ku‡] kill
xi

In Akan, all front and central vowels are produced with unrounded lips,
whereas all back vowels are produced with rounded lips. The high and low
vowels have oral and nasalised counterparts, whereas all the mid vowels
are oral.
The vowels [E], [e], [œ], [a], [o], and [O] may occur as word-initial vowels
in the Akuapem and Asante dialects (Dolphyne, 1988), including Edan
‘house,’ esie ‘hill,’ ani [œni] ‘eye,’ aso [asU] ‘ear,’ owuo ‘death,’ OwO
‘snake.’ In Asante, [e] or [E] are placed before a word whose root begins
with a nasal consonant, such as Empa ‘bed.’ The vowels [i], [I], [E], [e],
[a], [o], and [O] occur as word-initial vowels in Fante. Apart from [œ], all
vowels can occur in syllable final as well as word-final positions in all the
dialects. An exception to the above rule is found in Gomua where [œ]
occurs in word-final position of few words like sika [sikœ] ‘money.’
Consonant Sounds
Plosives: The plosive sounds in Akan are: [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [kw], [g],
and [gw]. These sounds occur in words like papa ‘goodness,’ bra ‘come,’
tu ‘fly,’ da ‘sleep,’ ka ‘bite,’ kwa ‘just,’ gidigidi ‘tussle,’ and gware
‘bathe.’
Affricates: Akan has six affricate sounds. These plosives/sounds are stops
produced with audible friction. The Akan affricates are ts [ts], dz [dz], ky
[tÇ], gy [dÛ], tw [tÇÁ], and dw [dÛÁ]. [ts] and [dz] occur in Fante words like
tsew ‘to pluck’ and dzi ‘to eat.’ [dÛ], [tÇÁ], and [dÛÁ] occur in words such
as gye [dÛI] ‘to receive,’ Twi [tÇÁi] (name of several Akan dialects), and
dwen [dÛÁIn] ‘to think.’ [tÇÁ] occurs before front and back vowels and is,
on the whole, in complementary distribution with the labialized back
consonants [kw], [gu], and [hu], which occur only before [a].
Fricatives: The fricatives in Akan are all voiceless. They include f [f], s [s],
sw [sw], hy [Ç], hw [ÇÁ], and h [h]: fa ‘take,’ si ‘alight,’ sane [sianI]
‘untie,’ sweE ‘bring down load from one’s head or someone else’s head,’
hyE [ÇE] ‘wear,’ hwE [ÇÁE] ‘look,’ ho [hU] ‘smoke (fish/animal),’ and hwa
‘to burn the fur of an animal.’
Nasals: The nasals in Akan are [m], [n], [], [Á], [N], and [Nw]. [m]
occurs in a word like ma ‘give,’ [n] in nana ‘grandparent,’ [] in nyame
[amI] ‘god,’ [Á] in nwono ‘weave,’ [N] in ngo [NNU] ‘palm oil,’ and [Nw]
in Enwa [ENwa] ‘snail.’
Approximants: The approximants in Akan are [w] as in ware [warI]
‘marry,’ [Á] as in we [ÁI] ‘chew,’ and [j] as in yE [jE] ‘make.’
Trill: The alveolar trill, [r], occurs in words such as abofra [abofra] ‘child’
and Okra [Okra] ‘cat.’ The alveolar trill can be substituted with the alveolar
lateral [l]. Thus, instead of saying [abofra] one can say [abofla]
xii

In Akuapem and Asante, labial and alveolar consonants occur before all
vowels (front, central, back). In Fante, [b] and [p] are palatalized before
front vowels as in pE [pE] ‘to like’ and bEn [bEn] ‘to be near.’ Moreover,
before front vowels, [ts] replaces [t] and [dz] replaces [d]. [t] and [d] occur
only before back vowels and the central vowel [a]. [n] does not occur
before front vowels in Fante.
The non-labialized palatal consonants [Ç] and [tÇ] occur mainly before
front vowels. They are in complementary distribution (they occur in
different phonetic environments) with non-labialized back consonants
(velar and glottal consonants) [k], [g], [N], and [h], which occur mainly
before back vowels and [a]. All consonants, except [r] and [N], occur in the
stem-initial position. Nasals occur before other consonants, where they are
homorganic with the following consonant (i.e., they have the same place of
articulation as the following consonant). The semivowels [j] and [w] occur
before oral vowels only.
Syllable Structure
Tone plays a significant role in syllabification because every syllable
carries its own tone.
Akan has three main syllable types: C, V, and CV. The syllabic consonant
is mostly syllabic nasal and carries its own tone, for example, nkwa [NŸ-kWa!]
‘life,’ mpa [mŸ-pa!] ‘bed,’ pam [pa!-m!] ‘sew.’ The CV syllable type is by far
the most common syllable structure in Akan. Examples of words with CV
structure are fa ‘take,’ sa ‘dance,’ ware [waŸrIŸ] [waŸ-rIŸ] ‘get married.’ The V
syllable structure, like C, has its own tone. It may occur in isolation or in
combination with other sounds for example, a ‘who, which, where,’ tie
[tiŸeŸ][ti - e] ‘to listen,’ and kae [kaŸIŸ] [ka-ŸI] ‘to remember.’
Vowel Harmony
Vowel harmony (VH) is a type of assimilation which takes place when
vowels of a particular class share certain features with other vowels of the
same class elsewhere in a word or phrase. Akan has ATR/+ATR harmony
and /+round harmony. In a ATR/+ATR harmony situation, the sounds
may or may not be contiguous, but they are often in the same word. For
example, a +ATR vowel in a second syllable may require a +ATR vowel in
the first syllable. Akan vowels fall into two groups:: +ATR and ATR.
+ATR vowels are [i], [e], [œ], [o], and [u], and ATR vowels are [I], [E],
[a], [O], and [U]. During the production of the +ATR vowels, the tongue is
pushed a little further forward in the mouth. However, during the
production of ATR vowels the tongue is retracted a little further back in
the mouth. In any Akan word of two or more syllables, only vowels from
one group occur. Examples of words with +ATR are Kofi [kofi] (name of a
male person born on Friday), efie [efie] ‘house,’ owuo [owuo] ‘death,’ ani
[œni] ‘eye,’ and Adu [œdu] (proper name). Example of words with –ATR
xiii

vowels include kOfe [kOfI] ‘go and throw out,’ adeE [adIE] ‘thing),’ EtoO
[EtUO] ‘buttocks or at the back of,’ and Nyame [amI] ‘God.’ Vowels of
verbal affixes (e.g., pronominal prefixes, aspect, and tense markers) may
agree with an adjacent vowel of the verb in either [+ATR] or [ATR]. For
example, the first person pronoun, {mI-}, on the table below, has two
phonetic realizations, [mI] and [mi], because of -/+ATR harmony (in all the
dialects of Akan).
Othographic Phonemic Phonetic
Representation Representation Representation Glossing
Medi kwadu MIdi kwadu [midi kWa`du] I eat bananas.
Mede Ama MIdI Ama [mIdI ama] I’m called Ama.
Also, the past tense marker is either [-I] or [-i] because of –/+ATR
harmony: e.g., bu [bu] ‘to break’ becomes bui [buui] ‘broke’; fa [fa] ‘to
take,’ faeE [faI] ~ [faÜI] ~ [faÜjE] ‘took’; to [tU] ‘to throw,’ toe, toeE [tUI]
~ [tU ÜjE] ‘threw.’ The vowel of the future marker, {bE-} is [be-] when a
following verbal vowel is [+ATR] and [bE-] when the verbal vowel is
[ATR], e.g., Obedi ‘S/he will eat’ and ObEkO ‘S/he will go.’
[/+round] harmony applies in the Fante and Asante dialects of Akan. In
the Asante dialect of Akan, vowels of nominal suffixes harmonize with
those of the nominal stem by being advanced or unadvanced, rounded or
unrounded, for example, ekuo [ekuo] ‘group, association,’ owuo [owuo]
‘death,’ EkoO [EkUO] ‘buffalo,’ EpoO [EpUO] ‘bale of cloth,’ etwie [etÇÁie]
‘tiger,’ aseE [asIE] ‘under, beneath.’ In the Fante dialect of Akan, the first
person pronoun {mI-} has realizations such as [mu] and [mU] because of
rounding harmony. The table below shows these realizations in Fante.
Othographic Phonemic Phonetic
Representation Representation Representation Glossing
muwu (Fante) mIwu [muwu] I die.
mowo (Fante) mIwU [mUwU] I give birth.
Exceptions to the Vowel Harmony Rule
1. The progressive affix in Akuapem.
2. Palatal and palatalized consonants followed by [a] can be preceded by an
advanced vowel.
3. Labialized consonants followed by [a] may be preceded by an advanced
vowel.
4. Those that are a property of the word (i.e., those that cannot be explained
by phonological processes).
xiv

Tone
Tone refers to the linguistic function of pitch at the word level, that is, pitch
variations that affect the meanings of words. It is a phonological feature
which refers to the overall classifications of pitches of the voice. Tones are
usually classified in terms of pitch range and movement into high, mid, or
low; and rising, falling, or level. Other sequences may be falling-rising and
rising-falling.
The study of the phonetic properties of tone is called tonetics and
contrastive tones are called tonemes or tonal phonemes.
Akan is a tone language which means that word meanings and grammatical
units like tense and aspect are dependent on pitch level. The syllable is the
tone bearing unit in Akan. Pitch heights help to distinguish the exponents
of one word from those of another. Pitch height may even be the only
differentiating feature between two or more words whose composition in
terms of vowels and consonants are the same.
papa
[pa!pa!] ‘good’
[paŸpaŸ] ‘fan’
[paŸpa!]
OdO
‘father’
[OŸdO!] ‘love’
[OŸdOŸ]
nam
‘he loves’
[na!m!] ‘meat or fish’
[naŸmŸ]
agyei/Agyei
‘sharp’
[œ!dÛe!iŸ] (interjection denoting pain)
[œŸdeŸi!] (proper name)
In Akan there are high and low tones. The high tone (HT) is said at a
relatively high pitch of the voice and the low tone (LT) at a relatively low
pitch.
HT kO [kO!] ‘go’
da [da!] ‘sleep’
tu [tu!] ‘to uproot’
to [tU!] ‘to throw’
LT te [tIŸ] ‘to speak or to understand a language’
da [daŸ] ‘be at a place’
nam [naŸmŸ] ‘walk or stroll’
nyinsEn [iŸnŸsEŸi) Ÿ] ‘be pregnant’
xv

Pitch Features of Akan Tones
There are four pitch features to Akan tones—upsweep, upstep, downdrift,
and downstep.
Upsweep: A sequence of successive high tones that may be realized as high
rising.
nIŸaŸ wU! bE! ka! tÇI!rE! wU! jO!N!kU! nU!nU! ‘That’s what you’ll tell your friend /
It’s surprising you’re telling your friend this.’
Upstep: Involves raising the pitch of a low-toned syllable. This usually
happens when a low tone is followed by a high tone. The step up in pitch
height is relatively high when the low tone is utterance initial and is
immediately followed by a high tone.
paŸpa! koŸfi! ! ‘Mr. Kofi’
aŸwo! diŸdi!‘Awo eats’
Downdrift: The steady drop in the pitch heights of high tones preceded by
low tones (Dolphyne, 1988). The drop in pitch height is gradual, especially
in longer utterances. In a downdrift situation, the pitch height of an initial
low tone may be higher than that of an utterance final high tone. The high
tone whose pitch height is lowered is termed a downstepped high tone.
Downstepping: A high tone that has been lowered in pitch height. There are
two types—automatic and non-automatic.
Automatic Downstep. A high tone whose pitch height is brought
down by a preceding low tone. Automatic downstepped high tones are
therefore found in downdrift situations. Automatic downsteps are
phonologically conditioned and thus predictable.
kwœŸsi! paŸpa! pEŸ nŸtOŸkwa! ‘Kwasi’s father likes fighting’ (is
pugnacious)
___________________
___________________
OŸbŸra! yEŸ OŸkU! ‘Life is war’
____________
____________
Non-automatic Downstep. There are three types of non-automatic
downstepping.
(a) Lexical Non-automatic Downstep: Cannot be explained
phonologically and is therefore treated as an intergal part of the
xvi

asic structure of the word. Marked by placing an exclamation
mark before the downstepped high tone.
OŸbO!fU! ‘messenger’
wu!!ra! ‘rubbish/garbage’
aŸpE mi! koŸfi!!da!n!
Kofi house Kofi’s house
(c) Tone Spreading: The pitch of a high tone may spread to a
following low tone.
koŸfi! mŸpa! --------> koŸfi! m!!pa!
kofi bed Kofi’s bed
œŸdÛa! nŸsu!o! -------> œŸŸdÛœ!
n

apataa ‘fish’ mpataa ‘fish’
Suffixes:
afE ‘colleague’ mfE-foO ‘colleagues’
Reduplication:
akuo ‘group’ akuo-akuo ‘groups’
EpO ‘knot’ apOapO ‘knots’
Zero morpheme (these include parts of the human body and mass nouns):
aso ‘ear’ aso ‘ears’
ani ‘eye’ ani ‘eyes’
anwea ‘sand’ anwea ‘sand (pl.).’
Kinship nouns form their plural by adding the suffix –nom.
onua ‘sibling’ anua-nom ‘siblings’
wOfa ‘uncle’ wOfa-nom ‘uncles’
Pluralization may also be marked syntactically. Basically, Akan lacks any
considerable concordial system that is based on noun class membership.
However, a distinction between human and non-human nouns when using
the numerals two to nine indicates that there may have been such a system
in proto-Akan. For example, mmofra baanu ‘two children’ is correct, but
akokO baanu ‘two fowls’ is incorrect.
Akan nouns have obligatory root and optional affixes. The nominal prefix
is either a vowel, a syllabic homorganic nasal, or both, e.g., O-hene ‘chief,’
o-wu ‘death,’ a-daka ‘box,’ en-suo ‘water,’ Em-paboa ‘shoes/sandals,’ aNkaa
‘orange.’ The noun suffix is usually a vowel but may also be a
consonant followed by a vowel, e.g., ade-E ‘thing,’ nyO-eE ‘doing,’ Ewo-O
‘honey,’ anua-nom ‘sibling.’
Akan verbs also have an obligatory root and optional affixes. There are
three verbal affixes—subject prefixes, tense/aspect affixes and negative
prefixes. The subject-concord prefixes as well as the pronouns are indicated
below.
o-su ‘s/he cries’
o-su-iE ‘s/he cried’
O-a-n-su or wa-n-su ‘s/he did not cry’
ObEsu ‘s/he will cry’
Oresu ‘s/he is crying’
OrebEsu ‘s/he is about to cry’
Oasu or wasu ‘s/he has cried’
na wasu ‘s/he had cried’
xviii

Pronoun System
First Person
Singular Plural
Subject Object Genitive Subject Object Genitive
me, m- ‘I’ me ‘me’ Me, m' ‘my’ yEn, yE- ‘we’ yEn ‘us’ yEn ‘our’
hEn (Fa) hEn (Fa) hEn (Fa)
Second Person
Singular Plural
Subject Object Genitive Subject Object Genitive
wo, w-
‘you’
wo ‘you’ wo, w'-
‘your’
mo ‘you’
hom (Fa)
xix
mo ‘you’
hom (Fa)
Third Person Animate
Singular Plural
mo ‘your’
hom (Fa)
Subject Object Genitive Subject Object Genitive
Ono, O-
‘he\she’
no
‘him/her’
ne, n'-
‘his\her’
wOn, w-
‘they’
hOn (Fa)
wOn
‘them’
hOn (Fa)
wOn ‘their’
hOn (Fa)
Third Person Inanimate
Singular Plural
Subject Object Genitive Subject Object Genitive
Eno, E-, e-
‘it’
no ‘it’ ne, n' ‘its’ e-, E- ‘they’ – ‘them’ wOn ‘their’
Third Person Indefinite
Singular Plural
Subject Object Genitive Subject Object Genitive
obi
‘someone’
Tense and Aspect
obi
‘someone’
obi
‘someone’s’
ebinom
‘someone’
ebinom
‘someone’
ebinom
‘someone’s’
Tense and aspectual markers are indicated by affixes. The past tense
marker is a vowel. It may be realized phonetically as either [i] or [I]: Ofae
[OfaI] ‘s/he took it’ and odii [odii] ‘s/he ate it.’ The Asante dialect also uses
yE /jE/: OfaayE ‘s/he took it.’ In all dialects, when the verb is followed by
an object or a complement, the final sound of the verb is prolonged, e.g.,
Ofaa nsuo no ‘s/he took the water’; Otee ankaa no ‘s/he plucked the
orange’; OdOmm ekuo no ‘s/he joined the group.’ The future tense is
indicated by bE- or E-: mEfa ‘I’ll take it’; ObEfa ‘s/he will take it.’ The
perfect aspect, however, is indicated by a-: Oafa or wafa ‘s/he has taken it.’

Compound Words
Compound words in Akan undergo phonological processes such as
homorganic nasal assimilation, vowel harmony, changes in basic tonal
systems, loss of final vowel/syllable, and nasalization of voiced plosives.
Ohene \OhInI\ ‘chief’ + fie /fie/ ‘house’ —> ahimfie \ahiμfie\ ‘palace’
In the above example, the final vowel of \OhInI\ is deleted; /n/, which is
alveolar, changes to a labiodental \μ\, which is homorganic (has the same
place of articulation) with \f\; and the ATR /I/ vowel changes to +ATR /i/:
fa ‘take it,’ Emfa ‘don’t take it.’
Basic Syntax
Word order
The basic word order in Akan is SVO.
Kofi dO Ama
‘Kofi loves Ama.’
Ohia yE adammO
‘Poverty is insanity.’
Obra yE Oko
‘Life is war.’
However, Akan basic word order may, during focusing, be changed from
SVO through the use of emphatic markers.
OdO na Kofi wO
love FOC Kofi has
‘Kofi has love.’ or ‘It’s love Kofi has.’
In Akan adverbial elements may either precede or follow the verb: NtEm
na Kofi dae or Kofi daa ntEm ‘Kofi slept early.’
Negation
Negation is marked by a homorganic nasal that is usually said with a low
tone.
Affirmative Negative
Ofa ‘S/he takes it.’ Omfa ‘S/he does not take it.’
Orefa ‘S/he is taking it.’ Oremfa ‘S/he is not taking it.’
wafa ‘S/he has taken it.’ OmfaeE ‘S/he has not taken
it.’
fa ‘Take it.’ Emfa ‘Don’t take it’.
The negative marker n precedes the verb root but follows the subject.
xx

Kofi mpE basabasa
kofi NEG-like trouble
‘Kofi doesn’t like trouble.’
Kofi ntO ntoma
kofi NEG-buy cloth
‘Kofi doesn’t buy cloth.’
Serial Verb Constructions
Serial verbs (also called agglutinations, verbal juxtapositions, splitting
verbs, coverbs, verbids, and modifying verbs) often include the roles of
prepositions, case markers, adverbials, comparatives, and conjunctions
(Wingered, 1977: 452; Winkler & Obeng, 2000). Examples of sentences
with serial verb constructions are presented below.
Manner Adverbial:
OyEE ntEm wuraa dan mu
he-be fast enter room in
‘He entered the room quickly.’
Benefactive Case Marking (‘for’):
Osoaa nnoOma maa me
he-carried load give me
‘He carried the load for me.’
In some types of serial verb constructions, each of the verbs retains its
lexical meaning. The meaning of the complex sentence is the sum of the
simple meanings.
Kofi wuraa dan mu dae
Kofi entered room in slept
‘Kofi went into the room and slept.’
Kofi yEE papa nyaa amane
Kofi did good got trouble
‘Kofi did good but had trouble in the end.’
OtOO fam dae
he-laid down slept
‘He laid down and slept.’
Onoaa aduane diiE
he-cooked food ate
‘He cooked the yam and ate it.’
In some serial verb constructions, one of the verbs in the construction
modifies the meaning of the other, usually losing part of its verbal status in
the process. Such serial verb constructions are called modifying serial verb
constructions.
xxi

Allative Case Marking (‘to’):
Kofi tuu mmirika kOO dwam
Kofi ran went market
‘Kofi ran to the market.’
In the above sentence, kOO modifies tuu mmirika.
A serial verb construction may be classified as complex if it involves the
decomposition into serial components of a concept which, in nonserializing
languages, is usually rendered by a simple lexical item.
Allative case marking (‘to’):
Kofi somaa Ama kOO dwam
Kofi sent Ama went market
‘Kofi sent Kofi to the market’.
The concept of somaa and kOO are rendered by the verb sent in English.
xxii

References
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some
Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dolyphyne, Florence A. 1965. Phonetics an Phonology of the Verbal Piece
in the Asante Dialect of Twi. Phd Thesis. University of London.
___. 1988. The Akan (Twi-Fante) Language: Its Sound System and Tonal
Structure. Ghana Universities Press, Accra.
de Kadt, Elizabeth, 1998. The concept of face and its applicability to the
Zulu language. Journal of Pragmatics. 29:173-191.
Leech, Geoffrey. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longmans.
Nwoye, Onuigbo. 1992. Linguistic politeness and socio-cultural variation
of the notion of face. Journal of Pragmatics. 18:309-328.
Obeng, Samuel Gyasi. 1994. Verbal indirection in Akan informal
discourse. Journal of Pragmatics. 21:37-65.
___. 1995. Getting the chief of my village to play his drums at my father’s
funeral: Language, law, and diplomacy among the Akan of Ghana. In
Chester Hedgebeth (Ed.), Proceedings of the First International African
Language Project Conference, 155–169. Princess Anne: University of
Maryland Eastern Shore.
___. 1996. The proverb as a mitigating and politeness strategy in Akan
discourse. Anthropological Linguistics. 38(3):521 549.
___. 1997a. An analysis of the linguistic situation in Ghana. African
Languages and Cultures 10.63-81.
___. 1997b. Communicational strategies: Persuasion and politeness in
Akan judicial discourse. Text. 17(1):25-51.
___. 1997c. Indirectness in pronominal usage in Akan discourse. Journal of
Language and Social Psychology. 16(2):201-221.
___. 1997d. Language and politics: Verbal indirection in political
discourse. Discourse and Society. 8(1):49-83.
___. 1999a. Apologies in Akan discourse. Journal of Pragmatics.
31(5):709-734.
___. 1999b. Grammatical pragmatics: Power in Akan judicial discourse.
Pragmatics. 9(2):199-229.
___. 1999c. In future if I buy a dog, I'll call it ‘Okyeman-is-ungrateful’:
Indirect response to potentially difficult communicative situations. The
xxiii

case of some Akan dog names. International Journal of the Sociology of
Language. 140:25-45.
___. 1999d. Requests in Akan discourse. Anthropological Linguistics.
41(2):230-251.
___. 2000a. Speaking the unspeakable: Discursive strategies to express
language attitudes in Legon (Ghana) graffiti. Research on Language and
Social Interaction. 33(3):291-319.
___. 2000b. Vowel harmony and tone in Akan toponyms. Papers in General
Linguistics. 30(2):.
___. 2001. African Anthroponymy: An Ethnopragmatic and
Morphophonological Study of Personal Names in Akan and Some
African Societies. Munich: Lincom Europa.
___. 2002. ‘No condition is permanent’: Textuality, contextuality, and
intertextuality in some Ghanaian English autonyms. In Felix K. Ameka
and E. Kweku Osam (Eds.) New Directions in Ghanaian Linguistics.
Accra: Black Mask, Ltd.
___. 2003. Language in African Social Interaction: Indirectness in Akan
Communication. New York: Nova Science Publishers Inc.
Schachter, Paul, and Victoria Fromkin. 1968. A phonology of Akan:
Akuapem, Asante, and Fante. Working Papers in Phonetics, 9. Los
Angeles: UCLA Department of Linguistics.
Tannen, Deborah. 1996. Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue, and
Imagery in Conversational Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Winkler, Elizabeth Grace, and Samuel Gyasi Obeng. 2000. West
Africanisms in Limonese Creole English. World Englishes. 19(2),156-
171.
Yankah, Kwesi. 1995. Speaking for the Chief: Okyeame and the Politics of
Akan Royal Oratory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Other Important Sources
Akrofi, Clement A. 1943. Twi Kasa Mmara [Twi Grammar]. London:
Longman.
Balmer, William T. And Grant, F.C.F. 1929. A Grammar of the Fante-Akan
Language. London: Atlantis Press.
Berry, Jack. 1957. English, Twi, Asante, Fante Dictionary. London:
McMillan.
xxiv

Boahen, Adu. 1966. Theorigin of the Akan. Ghana Notes and Queries. 9:3-
10.
Christaller, Johannes G. 1875. A Grammar of the Asante and Fante
Language Called Tshi (Chwee, Twi). Basel: Basel Evangelical Society.
Christaller, Johannes G. 1933 [1881]. A Dictionary of the Asante and Fante
Language called Tshi (Twi). Basel: Basel Evangelical Society.
Dakubu, Mary E. Kropp (Ed.). 1988. The Languages of Ghana. London:
Kegan Paul International (IAI)
Welmers, William E. 1946. A descriptive grammar of Fante. Language.
22(Suppl. 3).
xxv

Selections

AyibOne
SE woankasa wo tiri ho a, yEyi wo ayibOne.
Vocabulary
a if; then
ayibOne bad haircut
ayi haircut
bOne bad
ho self
sE ~ a if ; if ~ then (sE and a are
conditional markers. In some
cases, sE can be omitted without
changing the meaning of the
clause. Thus, we can have
woankasa wo tiri ho a ‘If you
do not complain about your
haircut…’)
tiri head
1
Selection 1
wo your
woankasa if do not talk
wo you
a- perfect marker
n- not
kasa speak; talk; complain
yeyi we cut (hair)
yE- we (yE is a subject prefix
used colloquially to mean ‘they’
speaker-inclusive or ‘they’
speaker-exclusive.)
yi cut (hair)

Selection 2
Nkran Kuro Dada No, YEbEsiesie HO
Owura OkasamafoO, mepE sE meka biribi kakra fa Nkran kuropOn yi
ho. Aban bEhwE aboa Nkran KuropOn Badwa (AMA) no ma wOasiesie
kuro yi ama ayE krabEhwE wO Abibirem AtOeE Mantam ha. Aban yi ne
UNESCO ayE apam a wOnam so bEsiesie Nkran kuropOn yi. Yei bEma
Nkran kuro dada no abEyE krabEhwE na EbEma nnwuma nso aba hO.
(The Heritage May 9, 2003)
Vocabulary
aban government
abibirem Africa (lit. black
continent)
a- nominalizing prefix
bibire black; dark
m- in (m is a reduced form of
the postposition mu ‘in, inside’)
atOeE west
a- nominalizing prefix
tO set; end
-eE nominalizing suffix
badwa assembly, meeting
ba come
dwa meeting place
bEhwE will ensure (lit. ‘will see’)
bE- will
hwE see
biribi something
dada old
fa about
kakra little
krabEhwE extremely beautiful;
second to none (lit. ‘bid farewell
to come and observe’)
kra bid farewell
bE- will
2
hwE see
kuro town
kuropOn capital city (big town)
kuro town
pOn big
mantam sub-region
“O‘man country; region
ntam sub; part of
meka I say
me I
ka say
mepE I like/want
me I
pE like/want
Nkran Accra (Ghana’s capital)
nnwuma work (sg. adwuma)
OkasamafoO speaker
Owura Mr.; sir
siesie improve; modernize, clean
sE to
yE apam enter into an agreement;
sign a pact
yE do; enter into
apam agreement; treaty

3
Selection 3
Kwan A AkanfoO Fa So Bu MmerE
AkanfoO wO akwan ahodoO bebree a wOnam so bu wOn mmerE wO
asetena mu. SE yEfa da baako si hO a, AkanfoO wO ne nkyekyEmu
nnan. Yeinom ne, AnOpa, AwiaberE, AnwummerE ne Anadwo. Yei akyi
no, yEwO mmerE ahodoO pOtee wO hO.
AkanfoO MmerE AhodoO AborOfo DeE
AnOpatutuutu 4-5 a.m.
AnOpa 5-7 a.m.
AnOpawia 7 a.m. and over
PerEmtoberE 12 noon
OwigyinaeE 12-1 p.m. and over
BetwaberO 2-4 p.m. and over
AnwummerE 4-7 p.m. and over
Odasuom 10-12 p.m.
Anadwo KomkOn 12 p.m. – 2 a.m.
Ahemadakye 3-4 a.m.
(The Heritage March 26, 2002.)
Vocabulary
ahemadakye dawn (3-4 a.m.)
ahodoO kinds
akwan ways; means
a- plural marker
kwan way; mean
anadwo kOnkOn deep night (12
a.m.-2 a.m.)
anadwo night
kOnkOn deep (reduplicated root)
anOpa morning (5-7 a.m.)
anOpatutuutu dawn (4-5 a.m.)
anOpa morning
tutuutu very early (a reduplicated
form of tutu ‘early’)
anOpawia mid-morning (7 a.m.
and later)
anOpa morning
awia sun
anwummerE evening (4-7 p.m.
and later)
asetena life (lit. ‘living under the
world’)
ase under; beneath (the world)
tena live
awiaberE afternoon
awia sun
berE time
baako one
bebree many
bEtwaberE 2-4 p.m. and later (lit.
‘time for tapping/collecting
palm wine’)
bEtwa palm wine tapping
(a)bE oil palm tree
berE time
da day
nkyekyEmu division
n- nominalizing affix
kyE divide (kyekyE means to
divide into several parts)
mu in
nan four
Odasuom pitch darkness (10:00
p.m. to 12 a.m.)
owigyinaeE period of scorching /
intense sun (12-1 p.m. and later)
owia sun
gyina stand; stop

Selection 3
-eE nominal suffix
perEmtoberE 12 noon (The
British colonial government
used to fire a cannon at 12 noon)
perEm cannon
to shoot; fire
berE time
pOtee particular
a wOnam so bu wOn mmerE
through which or upon which
they tell their time
4
a wOnam so through which;
upon which (lit. ‘which they
step on’)
bu calculate
wOn their
mmerE time(s)
yei akyi no besides this
yei this
akyi back; besides
no one
yeinom these; these things
yei this
-nom plural marker

5
Selection 4
YEn KwaeE Ho Dwumadie
Dwumadie ahodoO a yEredi de abO yEn kwaeE ho ban no, yEamia mu
yie. Afe a Etwaa mu no, yEduaa nnua nko ara ‘Pol’ mpem dunson
(seventeen thousand hectares) de kaa Ghana kwaeE ho. Yei maa nnipa
mpem aduOson nsia (76,000) nyaa adwuma yOeE wO yEn nkuraase.
YEbEkO so adua akOsi sE yEn kwaeE a wOasEe no nyinaa no bEsane
afefE.
(The Heritage March 28, 2003)
Vocabulary
ahodoO kinds; types
akOsi sE until
akOsi up till
sE when (normally when is
berE)
ban fence; wall
bEsane afefE will grow/sprout
again
bE- will
sane again
fefE shoot tendrils (the
unreduplicated form is fE)
bEsane will again
bO ban preserve; guard (lit. ‘to
build wall/fence’)
bO make
ban fence
de kaa ~ ho more (in addition to
it)
de with (it)
ka add
-a past tense
ho self (it)
dua plant; grow
dunson seventeen (lit. ‘ten
seven’)
du ten
nson seven
dwumadie works; initiatives;
programs
dwuma work
di do
-e nominalizing suffix
fefE sprout; shoot tendrils
kO so continue
kO go
so on
kwaeE forest
mia tighten
mpem aduOson nsia seventy-six
thousand
mpem thousands (sg. apem ‘a
thousand’)
a- nominalizng affix
du ten
son seven (also written as nson)
nsia six
mpem thousands (sg. apem)
nko ara only; as many as
nkuraase villages (sg. akuraase)
nnua trees (sg. dua)
nyaa adwuma yOeE got jobs (lit.
‘got jobs to do’)
nya get
-a past tense
adwuma work
yO do
-eE past tense
nyinaa all
pol pole (hectare)
sane again
sEe spoil; destroy (asEe ‘has
spoiled; been spoiled,
destroyed’)
yEamia mu yie we have doubled
our efforts
yE- we (full form is yEn)
mia tighten

Selection 4
mu in, inside
yie well, appropriately
yEredi we are working on
6
yE- we (full form is yEn)
re- progressive aspect
di work on