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26-589: The Tchaman are members of the Akan ethnolinguistic group. Their oral history relates that the tribe was originally located to the northeast, near the lands of the Ashanti in Ghana , but that they fled to the south after a great defeat in battle by a neighboring tribe. They are believed to have begun immigrating to their present location in the eighteenth century, and the migration took place in several stages, or waves. In Côte d'Ivoire,

52-569: A common orthography for all of Akan, which is used as the medium of instruction in primary school . The Akan language is recognized for literacy, from at least the lower primary level (primary 1–3). Akan languages are 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 . Akan has been

78-411: A form of vowel harmony with the root of the tongue. Akan has three phonemic tones, high (/H/), mid (/M/), and low (/L/). Initial syllable may only be high or low . 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

104-516: A quarter separate from the main residential area, as are cemeteries, which are traditionally built in a high-ground ato quarter, at a slight remove from the rest of the village. Because of their proximity to both the lagoon and the neighboring ocean, the principle economic activity of the Tchaman/Kyaman people is fishing . Those communities located in more outlying areas of Tchaman/Kyaman land, such as Bingerville and Songon , are also engaged in

130-543: A regular African language of study in the annual Summer Cooperative African Languages Institute (SCALI) program. The Akan language is studied in these universities as a bachelor or masters program. The Akan peoples use a common Akan (Ghana) naming system of giving the first name to a child, based on the day of the week that the child was born. Almost all the tribes and clans in Ghana have a similar custom. Akan Orthography Committee The Akan Orthography Committee ( AOC )

156-462: 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

182-535: Is also spoken across the border in parts of Côte d'Ivoire . Three dialects were developed as literary standards with distinct orthographies : Asante and Akuapem , collectively known as Twi , and Fante . Despite being mutually intelligible , 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 dialect . As

208-478: 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. Akan forms some plural nouns by adding the prefixes 'm' or 'n' to the original word and removing the first sound of the noun. Example include nouns like abofra (child), which forms its plural by removing

234-449: Is the father who is responsible for naming the child. A child is incorporated into its maternal family as it grows. Akan language Akan ( / ə ˈ k æ n / ) is the largest language of Ghana , and the principal native language of the Akan people , spoken over much of the southern half of Ghana. About 80% of Ghana's population speak Akan as a first or second language, and about 44% of Ghanaians are native speakers . Akan

260-673: 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. In history, the Akans who live in Ghana migrated in successive waves between the 11th and 18th centuries. Others inhabit

286-644: The cultivation of produce agriculture , such as plantains , yams , taro and manioc , as well as export products like coffee , cacao , rubber , palm oil , bananas and sweet potatoes . One of the central features of the organization of Tchaman/Kyama (Achan) society is the generations of its inhabitants. For the most part, generation groups are formed by people born within a 15-year span of one another. These co-generationals are considered, for all intents and purposes, siblings, even if they are not biologically related. This system takes into account both genders, and recognizes four generations, which are known by

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312-728: The 'ab' from the word and adding 'mm' to form its plural: mmofra (children). Same goes for aboa (animal) to mmoa (animals), abusua (family) to mmusua (families), abirekyie (goat) to mmirekyie (goats) etc. in the Asante dialect. The nouns which use the 'n' prefix include; adaka (box) to nnaka (boxes), adanko (rabbit) to nnanko (rabbits), aduro (medicine) to nnuro (medicines), atare (dress) to ntare (dresses), odwan (sheep) to nnwan (sheep plural), aduane (food) to nnuane (food plural), kraman (dog) to nkraman (dogs), kanea (light) to nkanea (lights), safoa (key) to nsafoa (keys). Akan can create plural nouns by adding

338-703: The Akans in Ghana makes it an area of research for various disciplines such as folklore, literary studies, linguistics , anthropology and history. Akan is a dialect continuum that is closely related to the Bia languages , the other Central Tano languages spoken by the Akan people . The relationships of the major Akan dialects are as follows: Brong (Bono) Wasa Asante Akuapem Fante Ethnologue reports that Brong and Wasa have limited mutual intelligibility with each other, and so may be considered separate languages, though Dolphyne reports that they are mutually intelligible with at least neighboring dialects of

364-525: The Tchaman are traditionally divided into nine distinct kinship groups, or phratries ( goto in the Tchaman/Kyaman/Gyaman language): Kwè , Bidjan , Yopougon , Nonkwa , Songon , Bodo , Dyapo , Bya and Gnangon . All told, these nine phratries form a community that spans the sixty-three villages in the region. Tchaman villages are, by and large, oriented around a single large thoroughfare. Due to

390-511: 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

416-488: The eastern part of Côte d'Ivoire and parts of Togo . They migrated from the north to occupy the forest and coastal areas in the south in the 13th century. The Akans have a strong oral history tradition of their past and they're also known in the art history world for symbolic artifacts of wood, metal and terracotta. Their cultural ideas are expressed in stories and proverbs and also in designs such as symbols used in carvings and on clothes. The cultural and historic nature of

442-777: The first Akan variety to be used for Bible translation, Akuapem had become the prestige dialect. 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 . The cultures of the descendants of escaped slaves in the interior of Suriname and

468-416: The following names: Blessoué , Gnando , Dougbo and Tchagba . Each generation, in turn, is separated into four smaller sub-groups (in order of seniority): Djehou , Dongba , Agban and Assoukrou . The entire cycle of four generations lasts sixty years. This organizations exists within a system of clans, in which lineage is traced maternally. Despite this, a child is considered to be its father's, and it

494-446: 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 . In 1978 the AOC established

520-438: The predominant Christian faith of the Tchaman, most villages have three houses of worship: a Catholic church , a Protestant church and a Harrist church . Each village, or akubè, is divided into quarters, or akrobu , whose names reflect the slope of the land on which they are built. Quarters built on high ground are called Ato , while those built on lower ground are known as até . School buildings are generally built in

546-412: The rest of Akan. The Akan dialects contain extensive palatalization , vowel harmony , and tone terracing . 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

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572-405: 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

598-565: 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. Akan vowels engage in

624-525: The suffix nom to the original word. Examples include; agya (father) to agyanom (fathers), nana (grandparent/grandchild) to nananom (grandparents/grandchildren), nua (sibling) to nuanom (siblings), yere (wife) to yerenom (wives). Some Akan nouns are the same in both singular and plural. Nouns such as nkyene (salt), ani (eye), sika (money), etc., are written the same in both singular and plural. The letters C, J, Q, V, X and Z are also used, but only in loanwords . The Akan languages have

650-583: 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] . The Akan 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

676-484: Was founded for the promotion of the Akan language and has since created a standard dialect for Akan. A standardized writing and orthographic writing system for Akan was completed by the Akan Orthography Committee (AOC) in 1968. Akan languages started to be written down mainly in religious publications by Danish, German and British missionaries during the 17th and 18th centuries. The unified Akan orthography

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