Akan language

Akan
Ákán
Native toGhana
Ethnicity14 million Akan (2021 census)[1]
Native speakers
L1: 8.9 million (2013)[1]
L2: 1 million (no date)[1]
Dialects
Latin
Official status
Official language in
None.
— Government-sponsored language of Ghana
Regulated byAkan Orthography Committee
Language codes
ISO 639-1ak
ISO 639-2aka
ISO 639-3aka
Glottologakan1251  Akanic
akan1250
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Akan (/əˈkæn/[2]) is a group of several closely related languages within the wider Central Tano languages. These languages are the principal native languages of the Akan people of Ghana, spoken over much of the southern half of Ghana.[3] About 80% of Ghana's population can speak an Akan language as a first or second language,[3] and about 44% of Ghanaians are native speakers.[3] There are populations of polyglots in Ghana who speak an Akan language as a third language.[4] They are also spoken in parts of Côte d'Ivoire.[3]

Four dialects have been developed as literary standards with distinct orthographies: Asante, Akuapem, Bono (collectively known as Twi), and Fante.[5][6] Despite being mutually intelligible,[7][8] they were inaccessible in written form to speakers of the other standards until the Akan Orthography Committee (AOC)'s development of a common Akan orthography in 1978, based mainly on Akuapem Twi.[9] This unified orthography is used as the medium of instruction in primary school by speakers of several other Central Tano languages, such as Akyem, Anyi, Sehwi, Fante, Ahanta, and the Guan languages.[10] The Akan Orthography Committee has worked on the creation of a standard orthography.

With the Atlantic slave trade, Akan languages were introduced to the Caribbean and South America, notably in Suriname, spoken by the Ndyuka, and in Jamaica, spoken by the Jamaican Maroons, also known as the Coromantee.[7] The cultures of the descendants of escaped slaves in the interior of Suriname and the Maroons in Jamaica still retain Akan influences, including the Akan naming practice of naming children after the day of the week on which they are born, e.g. Akwasi/Kwasi for a boy or Akosua for a girl born on a Sunday. In Jamaica and Suriname, the Anansi spider stories are still well-known.[7][8]

  1. ^ a b c Akan at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Bauer, Laurie (2007), The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-3160-5
  3. ^ a b c d "Akan (Twi) at Rutgers". Rutgers University. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  4. ^ "Akan Language". Center for International Studies. Ohio University. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Arhin, Kwame; Studies, University of Ghana Institute of African (1979). A Profile of Brong Kyempim: Essays on the Archaeology, History, Language and Politics of the Brong Peoples of Ghana. Afram.
  7. ^ a b c "Akan (Twi) at Rutgers". www.amesall.rutgers.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  8. ^ a b The Brong (Bono) dialect of Akan” by Florence Abena Dolphyne University of Ghana, Legon 1979.
  9. ^ Harries, Patrick; Maxwell, David (2012-07-20). The Spiritual in the Secular: Missionaries and Knowledge about Africa. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4674-3585-7.
  10. ^ "Akan people /Britannica". 18 July 2024.