Akan languages

Akan languages are the languages ​​of the Akans proper. Distributed in central and southern Ghana . The number of speakers is about 8 million people (estimate, 1995 ).

Akan languages ​​belong to the central group of the branch of the tano languages ​​kwa . They consist of the language abron (-wasa) (about 1 million speakers, central Ghana) and a dialect cluster of chvi-fanti , behind which the name of the Akan language has recently been established. This language consists of dialect groups of fanti (Mfantse, over 5 million people, the coast of Ghana) and Twi ( Twi , about 1.8 million people, between Abron and Fanti), often also considered as separate languages. Under the name of chvi, dialects are combined: aquapim (actually chvi), ashanti (asante), achem, denchira, aquamu and others.

Earlier, the term “Akan” was used in the scientific literature and in a broader sense - to refer to the branch of the tano (volta-comoe) in the framework of the linguistic community kva, which is now preserved in the name of the Akan peoples. On the other hand, the term “Akan” was also used to refer to the community of “chvi”, and “chvi”, on the contrary, to refer to the entire cluster of chvi-fanti.

Akanic languages ​​are characterized by the vowel harmony prevalent among West African languages ​​in height of the so-called cross type: vowels are divided into 2 series - high and low rise, and at least one of the low vowels has a higher rise than the lowest vowel of the high series. Consonantism is characterized by the absence of labio-velar consonants and the presence of prepalatal ky, gy, hy with ruined pairs tw, dw, hw. In Akan languages, 2 even tones are presented, having grammatical and lexical meaning. Akan languages ​​are a type of language with a step-lowering tone, that is, syllables with a high tone, depending on the place in the syntagm, consistently lower their tone by one step compared to the previous high tone. Names have the categories of singular and plural (expressed by changing the name prefix). The remnants of the system of noun classification have been preserved, but the system of coordination for noun classes has been lost. The syntax of Akan languages ​​(as well as for some other qua languages) is characterized by the phenomenon of serialization : a number of verbs in a sentence follow one after another in the same temporal form, with the subject and object indicated only in the first verb.