Back Akan Afrikaans अकन भाषा ANP اللغة الأكانية Arabic الاكانيه ARZ Llingua Akán AST Akan dili Azerbaijani اکانی دیلی AZB Akaneg Breton Àkan Catalan Akanština Czech
| Akan | |
|---|---|
| Ákán | |
| Native to | Ghana |
| Ethnicity | 14 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 by | Akan Orthography Committee |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ak |
| ISO 639-2 | aka |
| ISO 639-3 | aka – inclusive codeIndividual codes: abr – Abronwss – Wasa |
| Glottolog | akan1251 Akanic |
_LOC_88692692.jpg) A map of Ghana's ethno-linguistic areas. Akan areas (light green) extend west about halfway into Côte d'Ivoire. | |
Akan (/əˈkæn/[2]) is the largest language of Ghana, and the principal native language of the Akan people, spoken over much of the southern half of Ghana.[3] About 80% of Ghana's population speak Akan as a first or second language,[3] and about 44% of Ghanaians are native speakers.[3][4] Akan is also spoken across the border in parts of Côte d'Ivoire.[3]
Three dialects were developed as literary standards with distinct orthographies: Asante and Akuapem, 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 dialect.[9] As the first Akan variety to be used for Bible translation, Akuapem had become the prestige dialect.[10]
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]
- ^ a b c Akan at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
Abron at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
Wasa at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
- ^ Bauer, Laurie (2007), The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-3160-5
- ^ a b c d "Akan (Twi) at Rutgers". Rutgers University. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
- ^ "Akan Language". Center for International Studies. Ohio University. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:3was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ 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.
- ^ a b c "Akan (Twi) at Rutgers". www.amesall.rutgers.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
- ^ a b The Brong (Bono) dialect of Akan” by Florence Abena Dolphyne University of Ghana, Legon 1979.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Ager, Simon. "Omniglot". Retrieved 11 January 2015.
