Difference between revisions of "Typological Features Template for Akan"

A. Oral Vowels

Akan has 9 or 10 oral vowels, depending on the dialect: [e,ɔ,a,o,ɛ i,u,ɪ,æ,ʊ ]. In some dialects [æ] is not used, and is replaced by [a].

In the orthography, the letters e and o represent two contrastive vowels each: e represents both [e] and [ɪ], and o represents both [o] and [ʊ].

For example 1:

         Akan   Ph.Trans  English    Akan       Ph.Trans       English
         te(w)  /tɪ(w)/   'tear'     kɛsi       /kɛsɪ/          'big'
         fie    /fie/     'home'     esiw/esie  /(esiw)(esie)/ 'anthill'
         to(w)  /tʊw/     'throw'     horo       /hʊhʊ/         'wash'
         obi    /obi/     'someone'  ako        /ako/          'parrot'
                                                               

NB"Ph.Trans" refers to phonetic transcription.

As can be seen from example 1 above, the vowel e in orthography represents vowels /ɪ/ and /e/, and the vowel o represents /o/, and/ʊ/. So in any written Akan text, you will find these 7 vowel letters: i e ɛ a ɔ o u, as in the Akan sentence below.

Example 2:

The two different sets of Akan vowels based on ATR is discussed under "Vowel Harmony" below.

NB: It can also be mentioned here that the vowels carry tone(s); (as examplified above), which will be discussed later under "Tone"

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: ἶ, ĩ, ã, ẽ, ῦ, and ũ

Example 3:
          Fante      Asante      Akuapem      English
          hũ - hu    hũ - hu     hũw - huw   see - blow (air) 
                                                
                                                (Dolphyne 1988:4)        

As a result of assimilation, a neighbouring nasal sound can give its nasalitiy quality to a vowel; as in this word:

            nkwa:  /ŋ̃kʷã/ - 'life'

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 4:
           Akan   English    Akan     English
           da      sleep     daa      everyday
           sa      dance     saa      exactly 
           kɔ      go        kɔɔ      red

D. Diphthongs

As indicated above, the occurrence of identical vowels in an Akan word is considered as long vowels. There are also occurrence of sequences of nonidentical vowels. These are produced when the tongue glides from one articulation to another.

 Example 5:

As can be seen in example 5, the verb 'dae' has the vowels [a] and and [ɪ] articulated by the tongue gliding from the central part of the mouth to the middle front part.

E. Disyllabic Vowel Combinations

The harmony of vowels is defined as the restriction on the occurence of certain vowels in the same word. 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. 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) [ɪ, ɛ, a, ɔ, ʊ]

This feature places restrictions on the occurrence of vowels from set A and set B. Most Akan words have vowels from either set A or B.

Example 6:
           +ATR      English      -ATR      English
           /koko/   'chest'      /kɔkɔ(w)/   'red'
           /Kun(u)/ 'husband'    /kʊn/       'neck' 

           /efie/    'home'      /ɛfɪɛ/      'vomit'
          */adi/     'has eaten' /ædɪ/       'thing' 

So the vowels can be paired as below; 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/ɪ      æ/a     o/ɔ
            e/ɛ              ʊ/u

Harmony Exceptions: The asterisk (*) placed on the last example under 'Example 6' is because of the occurrence of vowel /a/. In dialects that do not have /æ/, /a/ can occur in words with both Advanced or Unadvanced vowels.

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

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

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

In summary, these are the vowels and their names in Akan:

           i       Advanced High Front vowel
           ɪ       Unadvanced High Front vowel
           e       Advanced Mid Front vowel
           ɛ       Unadvanced Mid Front vowel
           æ       Advanced Low Central vowel
           a       Undvanced Low Central vowel
           o       Adavnced Mid Back vowel
           ɔ       Unadvanced Mid Back vowel
           u       Advanced High Back vowel
           ʊ       Unadvanced High Back vowel