Difference between revisions of "Typological Features Template for Akan"

A. Oral Vowels: In orthography there are 7 main vowels: i e ɛ a ɔ o u. These are the vowels one will find in any written Akan text, as examplified below.

Example 1:

But because Akan has the phonological feature Advanced Tongue Root (ATR), it is known to have 9 or 10 vowels; [e,ɔ,a,o,ɛ i,u,I, æ,ʊ ] depending on the dialect. These vowels divide into two sets, one + ATR and the other - ATR. This is further explained under vowel harmnoy.

B. Nasalised Vowels: Nasalisation is an important phonological feature in Akan. It can for example bring changes in meaning. There are five nasalised vowels and they are marked in transcription by placing (~), which is normally called the tilde, above the vowel.

These are the five nasalised vowels: i~ I~ ã , õ , ũ

Example 2:
          Fante      Asante      Akuapem      English
          hũ - hu    hũ - hu     hũw - huw   see - blow (air) 
                                                
                                                (Dolphyne 1988:4)

NB: In most cases the difference between Fante and Asante is tone.

NB: Vowels [o, ɛ, ɔ, o] are only nasalised in the Fante dialects

C. Long Vowels: Vowels in Akan can either be long or short. The length of the vowel can determine the meaning difference of some words in the language. In orthography, long vowels are represented by doubling them.

 Examples 3:
           Akan   English    Akan     English
           da      sleep     daa      everyday
           sa      dance     saa      exactly 
           kɔ      go        kɔɔ      red

The harmony of vowels is defined as the restriction on the occurance of certain vowels in the same word. As already mentioned above, in the production of Akan vowels, the position of the tongue determines whether a vowel has the feature "advanced tongue root" or "retracted tongue root", +ATR and -ATR respectively. The + Advanced Tongue root vowels are produced by pushing the root of the tongue forward and it is the opposite for the production of the unadvanced tongue root vowels. The root of the tongue is retracted or pushed backward.

           Set A(+ATR) [i, e, æ, o, u]

           Set B(-ATR) [I, ɛ, a, ɔ, ʊ]

It is known that this feature places the restriction on the occurrance of vowels from set A and set B. Most Akan words have vowels from either set A or B.

Example 4:
           +ATR      English      -ATR      English
           /koko/   'chest'      /kɔkɔ(w)/   'red'
           /Kun(u)/ 'husband'    /kʊn/       'neck' 

           /efie/    'home'      /ɛfIɛ/      'vomit'
          */adi/     'has eaten' /ædI/       'thing' 

So the vowels can be paired as belwo; those on the left +ATR and on the right -ATR. The front vowels are produced with the front, the central, the center of the tongue and the back, the back part of the tongue.

           Front    Central  Back
            i/i      æ/a     o/ɔ
            e/ɛ              ʊ/u

The asterisk(*) placed on the last example under 'Example 4' is because the occurance of vowel /æ/

The table below shows an overview of the vowels in the language.

Orthography         Phonetic Symbols         Set A         Set B     
      i                   i                      i
      e                   I                                   I
      ɛ                   e                      e                 
                          ɛ                                   ɛ

      a                   æ                      æ
                          a                                   a
     
     
      ɔ                   ɔ                                   ɔ
      o                   o                      o
      u                   ʊ                                   ʊ
                          u                      u