Akanic languages

The former Secretary of the United Nations, Kofi Annan was undoubtedly the best-known akan speaker. His name "Kofi" means "child born on Friday."

Akan or Akanic is a group of dialectal varieties related to a greater or lesser degree of intelligibility, belonging to the Potou-tan group of Kwa languages (Niger- South-Central Congo). It is spoken mainly in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. It is made up of a group of similar dialects that can be understood from one another. Because the different Akanic varieties can differ markedly from one another, sometimes they speak of Akanic languages.

Ghana's educational institutions compiled a list of 20,000 words with unified spelling. There are also adinkra symbols, ancient ornamental ideograms.

This language reached South America, particularly Suriname, with the slave trade. The descendants of slaves who fled to the interior of Suriname still use a form of Akan; this includes the custom of naming children after the day of the week they are born, for example, Kwasi for a boy and Kwasiba for a girl born on a Sunday.

Today, the Akanic variety Twi is one of the main languages promoted by the Ghanaian government.

Variedeties of Akanic

Various Akanic ethnic groups speak different varieties. Even ethnic groups that absorbed Akanic populations now speak variants of Akan. One of the most important dialect blocks within Akanic is Twi-Fante. The main varieties of akanic are:

• Twi asante (Ashanti)
• Twi akuapem (Akwapem)
• Akyem
• Agona (often considered part of the fante)
• Kwahu
• Wassa
• Fante (fanti or mfantse: anomabo, abura, gomua), spoken on the eastern coast of Ghana.
• Brong, spoken in the west of central Ghana and along the border with Ivory Coast.

World distribution of speakers of Asian languages.