Twi-Fante language

Originally, the language was known by local names rather than a single unifying term. Inland Akan groups referred to it as 'Twi' (/tʃwiː, twiː, tʃiː/; Akan: [tɕᶣi]), while coastal Akan groups referred to it as 'Fante'. After independence, the national language commission adopted 'Akan', a name that had been used for all the languages spoken by the Akan people, which includes the Bia languages in addition to Twi-Fante, as a unitary name for Twi-Fante specifically. The broader scope was renamed Central Tano to avoid ambiguity. However, many sources still refer to all the languages spoken by the Akan people as 'Akan'.

The largest Akan migration was to Ghana in successive waves between the 11th and 18th centuries. Smaller numbers migrated to the eastern part of Côte d'Ivoire and parts of Togo. Within Ghana, the Akan expanded from the north to occupy the southern forest and coastal areas during the 13th century. The Akans have a strong oral history tradition of their past and are also known in for symbolic artifacts of wood, metal and terracotta. Their cultural ideas are expressed in stories and proverbs as well as in designs such as symbols used in carvings and on clothes. The rich Akan culture and history in Ghana are areas of research for many disciplines, such as folklore, literary studies, linguistics, anthropology, and history.

Twi-Fante is a dialect continuum that is closely related to the Bia languages and the other Akan languages that are spoken by the Akan people. The relationships of the major Twi-Fante dialects are as follows:

Brong and Wasa have limited mutual intelligibility with each other, and so are separate languages by that standard. Neighboring Brong and Asante are mutually intelligible, though geographically more distant Brong and Fante are less so. Indeed, 'a Fante-speaker will be right in looking on Bron [Bono] as a different language.'

The Twi-Fante dialects contain extensive palatalization, vowel harmony, and tone terracing.

Consonants

Before front vowels, all Asante consonants are palatalized (or labio-palatalized), and the stops are to some extent affricated. The allophones of /n/ are quite complex. In the table below, palatalized allophones which involve more than minor phonetic palatalization are specified, in the context of the vowel /i/. These sounds do occur before other vowels, such as /a/, though in most cases not commonly.

In Asante, /ɡu/ followed by a vowel is pronounced /ɡʷ/, but in Akuapem it remains /ɡu/. The sequence /nh/ is pronounced [ŋŋ̊].

A word final /k/ can be heard as a glottal stop [ʔ]. There is also a nasalization of /h/ and of /j w/ as [h̃] and [j̃ w̃], when occurring before nasal vowels.

The transcriptions in the tables below are in the order /phonemic/, [phonetic]. Note that orthographic ⟨dw⟩ is ambiguous; in textbooks, ⟨dw⟩ = /ɡ/ may be distinguished from /dw/ with a diacritic: d̩w. Likewise, velar ⟨nw⟩ (ŋw) may be transcribed n̩w. Orthographic ⟨nu⟩ is palatalized [ɲᶣ].

Vowels

The Twi-Fante dialects have fourteen to fifteen vowels: four to five "tense" vowels (advanced tongue root; +ATR or −RTR), five "lax" vowels (retracted tongue root, +RTR or −ATR), which are not entirely contrastively represented by the seven-vowel orthography, and five nasal vowels, which are not represented at all. All fourteen were distinguished in the Gold Coast alphabet of the colonial era. A tongue-root distinction in orthographic a is only found in some subdialects of Fante, but not in the literary form; in Asante and Akuapem there are harmonic allophones of /a/, but neither is ATR. The two vowels written e (/e/ and /i̙/) and o (/o/ and /u̙/) are often not distinguished in pronunciation.

Tongue root harmony

Twi-Fante vowels engage in a form of vowel harmony with the root of the tongue.

1. +RTR vowels followed by the −RTR non-mid vowels /i a u/ become −RTR. This is generally reflected in the orthography: That is, orthographic e ɛ a ɔ o become i e a o u. However, it is no longer reflected in the case of subject and possessive pronouns, giving them a consistent spelling. This rule takes precedence over the next one.
2. After the +RTR non-high vowels /e̙ a̙ o̙/, −RTR mid vowels /e o/ become +RTR high vowels /i̙ u̙/. This is not reflected in the orthography, for both sets of vowels are spelled ⟨e o⟩, and in many dialects this rule does not apply, for these vowels have merged.

Tones

Twi-Fante has three phonemic tones, high (/H/), mid (/M/), and low (/L/). Initial syllable may only be high or low.

Tone terracing

The phonetic pitch of the three tones depends on their environment, often being lowered after other tones, producing a steady decline known as tone terracing.

/H/ tones have the same pitch as a preceding /H/ or /M/ tone within the same tonic phrase, whereas /M/ tones have a lower pitch. That is, the sequences /HH/ and /MH/ have a level pitch, whereas the sequences /HM/ and /MM/ have a falling pitch. /H/ is lowered (downstepped) after a /L/.

/L/ is the default tone, which emerges in situations such as reduplicated prefixes. It is always at bottom of the speaker's pitch range, except in the sequence /HLH/, in which case it is raised in pitch but the final /H/ is still lowered. Thus /HMH/ and /HLH/ are pronounced with distinct but very similar pitches.

After the first "prominent" syllable of a clause, usually the first high tone, there is a downstep. This syllable is usually stressed.

Formation of plural nouns

Twi-Fante historically employed a noun class system similar to that of Bantu languages. Although this system is now largely defunct, remnants of it persist in modern Twi-Fante plural formation, particularly through prefixes and suffixes. The current pluralisation system blends fossilised class prefixes with newer morphological strategies, especially for human nouns. Notably, human nouns have preserved more elements of the old system than non-human nouns and can employ multiple plural-marking strategies simultaneously.

Modern Twi-Fante employs several strategies for plural formation, representing a transition from its historical purely prefixal system to a mixed system using both prefixes and suffixes. These strategies vary based on semantic categories, with human nouns showing particularly complex patterns.

Prefixal plural formation

Many Twi-Fante nouns form their plurals through the addition or replacement of nasal prefixes (m-, n-), reflecting remnants of the old noun class system.

In this process, the original class prefix (typically a-) is replaced by a homorganic nasal prefix that assimilates to the initial consonant of the root word. For example, initial ab- becomes mm- and ad- becomes nn- in plural forms.

Suffixal plural formation

A relatively newer morphological development involves using plural suffixes, primarily for human and agentive nouns, shifting from its historical prefix-based system. Human nouns demonstrate the most complex plural marking, which frequently includes both old prefixal and new suffixal methods..

With -nom

This suffix is used primarily for kinship and social role terms.

With -fo

This suffix is used with profession- or agent-based nouns.

In some cases, both a prefix and a suffix are used for pluralisation, especially with human nouns (e.g., onua → enuanom). This double marking is a special development in the Twi-Fante plural system, where human nouns have developed a more complex marking pattern compared to non-human nouns, by incorporating new morphological methods in addition to preserving aspects of the previous class system.

Invariant nouns

Certain Twi-Fante nouns remain unchanged in the plural, representing another way the historical noun class system has been simplified. While human nouns have developed complex plural marking strategies, these invariant nouns, including mass nouns and inherently plural items, have moved in the opposite direction by eliminating plural marking entirely.

Historical noun classes

Twi-Fante originally featured a more extensive system of noun classes marked by singular/plural prefixes. These may be reconstructed as follows:

Over time, this class system has undergone morphological decay. Modern Twi-Fante lacks productive class agreement between nouns and adjectives or verbs, and many prefixes have become fossilised elements perceived as part of the noun stem.

The letters C, J, Q, V, X and Z are also used, but only in loanwords.

The Akan languages have a rich literature in proverbs, folktales, and traditional drama, as well as a new literature in dramas, short stories, and novels. This literature began to be documented in written form in the late 1800s. Later, Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia collected a number of proverbs and folktales, including Funeral Dirges of the Akan People (1969), Folk Songs of Ghana (1963), and Akan Poetry (1958). Some of the important authors in the language are A. A. Opoku (dramatist), E. J. Osew (dramatist), K. E. Owusu (novelist), and R. A. Tabi (dramatist and novelist). The Bureau of Ghana Languages has been unable to continue printing novels in the language, and the following are out of print: Obreguo, Okrabiri, Afrakoma, Obeede, Fia Tsatsala, and Ku Di Fo Nanawu.

Primary

In 1978 the AOC established a unified "Akan" orthography for Twi-Fante, which is used as the medium of instruction in primary school. Literacy in Twi-Fante is counted toward general literacy, from at least the lower primary level (primary 1-3).

University

Twi-Fante is studied at several major universities in the United States, including Ohio University, Ohio State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harvard University, Boston University, Indiana University, University of Michigan, and The University of Florida. Twi-Fante has been a regular African language of study in the annual Summer Cooperative African Languages Institute (SCALI) program. The Twi-Fante language is studied in these universities as a bachelor or masters program.

Common phrases

Placenames

The Akan people use a common naming system of giving the first name to a child, based on the day of the week that the child was born. Most of the nations in Ghana have a similar custom, which extends to neighboring countries.