Twi

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Twi
Spoken in:	Ghana
Total speakers:	7 million
Language family:	Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Kwa Akan languages Akan Twi
Official status
Official language of:	None. — Government-sponsored languages of Ghana
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	`tw`
ISO 639-2:	`twi`
ISO/FDIS 639-3:	`twi`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

Twi (pronounced 'chwee' [tɕʷi]) specifically Ashanti Twi is a language spoken in Ghana by about 7 million people. It is one of the three dialects of the Akan language, the others being Akuapem Twi and Fante Twi, which in turn belongs to the Kwa language family. Within Ghana, Twi is spoken in the Ashanti Region and in parts of the Eastern, Western, Central, Volta and Brong Ahafo Regions.

There are many divisions of the Twi languages, but they are all mutually intelligible.

1 Phonology
2 About the Twi Language
3 Bibliography
4 See also

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Consonants

Before front vowels, all consonants are palatalized and plosives are affricated to some extent. The allophones of /n/ are quite complex. In the table below, palatalized allophones are shown with the vowel /i/ when they involve more than phonetic palatalization.

In Ashanti, /gu/ followed by a vowel is pronounced as /gʷ/, but in Akuapem it remains /gu/. [tɕʷ], [dʑʷ], [çʷi], [ɲʷ] would be more narrowly transcribed as [tɕ^ɥ], [dʑ^ɥ], [ç^ɥ], [ɲ^ɥ], for they are simultaneously labialized and palatalized. /nh/ is pronounced [ŋŋ̊].

The order of the cells in the table below is /phonemic/, [phonetic], <orthography>. Note that orthographic <dw> is ambiguous; in textbooks, <dw> = /g/ may be distinguished by the diacritic in d̩w. Likewise n̩w for <nw> when it's velar. <nu> is palatalized [ɲʷĩ].

	labial			alveolar			dorsal			labialized
voiceless plosive	/p/	[pʰ]	<p>	/t/	[tʰ, t^çi]	<t, ti>	/k/	[kʰ, tɕʰi~cçʰi]	<k, kyi>	/kʷ/	[kʷ, tɕʷi]	<kw, twi>
voiced plosive	/b/	[b]	'''	/d/	[d]	<d>	/g/	[g, "dʒ", dʑi~ɟʝi]	<g, dw, gyi>	/gʷ/	[gʷ, dʑʷi]	<gw, dwi>
fricative	/f/	[f]	<f>	/s/	[s]	<s>	/h/	[h, çi]	<h, hyi>	/hʷ/	[hʷ, çʷi]	<hw, hwi>
nasal stop	/m/	[m]	<m>	/n/	[n, ŋ, ɲ, ɲĩ]	<n, ngi>				/nʷ/	[ŋŋʷ, ɲʷĩ]	<nw, nu>
geminate nasal				/nn/	[ŋː, ɲːĩ]	<ng, nyi, nnyi>				/nnʷ/	[ɲɲʷĩ]	<nw>
other				/r/	[ɾ, r, ɽ]	<r>				/w/	[w, ɥi]	<w, wi>

[edit] Vowels

Five nasal vowels.

Advanced tongue root ("tense") vowels: /i̘ e̘ a̘ o̘ u̘/ [i e æ~ɑ o u] <i e a o u>

Retracted tongue root ("lax") vowels: /i e a o u/ [ɪ~e ɛ ɑ ɔ ʊ~o] <e ɛ a ɔ o>

The two orthographic e’s and o’s are often not distinguished in pronunciation. The two orthographic a’s are only distinguished in Fante.

[edit] ATR harmony

Harmony rules:

–ATR vowels followed by +ATR non-mid vowels /i a u/ become +ATR. This is reflected in the orthography: e ɛ a ɔ o become i e a o u. (However, this is no longer reflected in orthography in e.g. subject and possessive pronouns, which therefore now have a consistent shape.) This rule takes precedence over the next one.

After –ATR non-high vowels /e a o/, +ATR mid vowels /e o/ become –ATR high vowels /i u/. This involves no change in orthography, for both sets are spelled <e o>, and in many dialects it involves no change in pronunciation either, for these vowels have collapsed together and this harmonic change no longer operates.

[edit] Tones

(in progress) High (H), mid (M), low (L). Initial syllable HIGH or LOW only.

[edit] Tone terracing

HIGH = same level as previous HIGH or MID; MID = lower than previous MID. LOW always at bottom of speaking range, unless a single LOW is between two HIGHs, in which case it is raised but the following HIGH is still lowered. Therefore phonemic HMH and HLH are similar phonetically. LOW is the default tone, which emerges in situations such as reduplicated prefixes.

HIGH is lowered (downstepped) after a LOW. Combination of HIGH & MID lowering after MID, and HIGH lowering after LOW, results in tone terracing.

After the first "prominent" syllable of a clause, usually the first high tone, there is a downstep. This syllable is usually stressed.

[edit] About the Twi Language

Twi is very similiar to Fanti, which is spoken around Cape Coast and Elmina, one of the Akan peoples. The Fanti speak a Twi language, which is part of the Kwa group of the Niger-Congo branch of the Niger-Kordofanian linguistic family.

[edit] Bibliography

J.E. Redden and N. Owusu (1963, 1995). Twi Basic Course. Foreign Service Institute (Hippocrene reprint). ISBN 0-7818-0394-2
Obeng, Samuel Gyasi. (2001). African anthroponymy: An ethnopragmatic and norphophonological study of personal names in Akan and some African societies. LINCOM studies in anthropology 08. Muenchen: LINCOM Europa. ISBN 3-89586-431-5.
F.A. Dolphyne (1996) A Comprehensive Course in Twi (Asante) for the Non-Twi Learner. Ghana University Press, Accra. ISBN 9964-3-0245-2.
William Nketia (2004) Twi für Ghana: Wort für Wort. Reise Know-How Verlag, Bielefeld. ISBN 3-89416-346-1. (In German)