| Akan | |
|---|---|
| Central Tano | |
| Geographic distribution | Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire |
| Ethnicity | Akan |
| Linguistic classification | Niger–Congo? |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | cent2262 |
The Akan or Central Tano languages are a pair of dialect clusters of the Atlantic–Congo family (perhaps in a theorised Kwa branch)[1] spoken in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire by the Akan people.
Akan is commonly called "Central Tano" to disambiguate it from the Twi-Fante language, which has commonly been called "Akan" since a unified Twi-Fante orthography was introduced.
Internal classification
There are two or three languages, each with dialects that are sometimes treated as languages themselves:[2][3]
- Twi-Fante (primarily in Ghana and East-central Ivory coast (Bono))
- core (Asante Twi, Akuapem Twi and Fante)
- Bono–Wasa
- Bia (primarily in Ivory Coast and Western Ghana)
All have written forms in the Latin script.
References
- Ameka, Felix K.; Dakubu, Mary Esther Kropp (2008). Aspect and Modality in Kwa Languages. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-90-272-0567-4., p. 4
- Stewart, John M. 1989. Kwa. In Bendor-Samuel, John (ed.), The Niger-Congo Languages, 216-245. University Press of America & SIL. p. 225.
- Dolphyne, Florence Abena (1986) The languages of the Akan peoples. Research review. Vol. 2 No. 1, Pages 1-22 University of Ghana. p. 15.