Twi

Twi
Twi
Pronunciation	[tɕᶣi]
Native to	Ghana
Region	Ashanti Region
Ethnicity	Asante; Akuapem; Bono;
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Kwa Potou–Tano Tano Central Tano Akan Twi; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Asante; Akuapem;
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Official language in	Ashanti Region
Recognised minority; language in	Ghana
Regulated by	Akan Orthography Committee
Language codes
ISO 639-1	tw
ISO 639-2	twi
ISO 639-3	twi (see [aka] for Ethnologue description)
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Twi ([tɕᶣi]) is the common name of the Akan literary dialects of Asante and Akuapem.^[1] Effectively, it is a synonym for 'Akan' that is not used by the Fante people. It is not a linguistic grouping, as Akuapem Twi is more closely related to Fante dialect than it is to Asante Twi.^[2] Twi generally subsumes the following Akan dialects: Ahafo, Akuapem, Akyem, Asante, Asen, Bono, Dankyira and Kwawu, which have about 4.4 million speakers in southern and central Ghana.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Etymology

The name "Twi" is derived from the name of a Bono king, Nana Baffuor Twi.^[6]

References

^ Arhin, Kwame; Studies, University of Ghana Institute of African (1979). A Profile of Brong Kyempim: Essays on the Archaeology, History, Language and Politics of the Brong Peoples of Ghana. Afram.
^ Dolphyne, Florence Abena (1986) The languages of the Akan peoples. Research review. Vol. 2 No. 1, Pages 1-22[1] University of Ghana.
^ Akan at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^ African 671, University of Wisconsin-Madison Students in. "About Akan (Twi)". UW Press Journals.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ Boaheng, Isaac (2021). "An Akan (Bono-Twi) Mother-Tongue Commentary on the Second Letter of John". Journal of Mother Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics and Theology.
^ The Akan of Ghana: Their Ancient Beliefs. Faber & Faber. 1958.

External links

Akan at Ethnologue (22nd ed., 2019)
Language resources at LangMedia (Five College Center for World Languages)
Akan basic course
Bibliography of structural properties of the Twi language at WALS Online (The World Atlas of Language Structures)
Akuapem Twi to English Parallel Text Dataset

[1] Arhin, Kwame; Studies, University of Ghana Institute of African (1979). A Profile of Brong Kyempim: Essays on the Archaeology, History, Language and Politics of the Brong Peoples of Ghana. Afram.

[2] Dolphyne, Florence Abena (1986) The languages of the Akan peoples. Research review. Vol. 2 No. 1, Pages 1-22[1] University of Ghana.

[e27-3] Akan at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)

[4] African 671, University of Wisconsin-Madison Students in. "About Akan (Twi)". UW Press Journals.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[5] Boaheng, Isaac (2021). "An Akan (Bono-Twi) Mother-Tongue Commentary on the Second Letter of John". Journal of Mother Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics and Theology.

[6] The Akan of Ghana: Their Ancient Beliefs. Faber & Faber. 1958.

[1]

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