Madí—also known as Jamamadí after one of its dialects, and also Kapaná or Kanamanti (Canamanti)—is an Arawan language spoken by about 1,000 Jamamadi, Banawá, and Jarawara people scattered over Amazonas, Brazil.
Ewe is a Niger–Congo language spoken in Togo and southeastern Ghana by approximately 4.5 million people as a first language and a million or so more as a second language. Ewe is part of a cluster of related languages commonly called Gbe; the other major Gbe language is Fon of Benin. Like many African languages, Ewe is tonal.
The Gbe languages form a cluster of about twenty related languages stretching across the area between eastern Ghana and western Nigeria. The total number of speakers of Gbe languages is between four and eight million. The most widely spoken Gbe language is Ewe, followed by Fon. The Gbe languages were traditionally placed in the Kwa branch of the Niger–Congo languages, but more recently have been classified as Volta–Niger languages. They include five major dialect clusters: Ewe, Fon, Aja, Gen (Mina), and Phla–Pherá.
The Mfantsefo or Fante are an Akan people. The Fante subgroup is mainly gathered in the central coastal region of Ghana, with some also in Ivory Coast. Originally, "Fante" referred to "the half that left" and initially settled at Mankessim. The states that made up the Fante were Kurantsi, Abura, Anyan, Ekumfi, Nkusukum, Ajumako and Gomoa.
Nafaanra is a Senufo language spoken in northwest Ghana, along the border with Ivory Coast, east of Bondoukou. It is spoken by approximately 61,000 people. Its speakers call themselves Nafana, but others call them Banda or Mfantera. Like other Senufo languages, Nafaanra is a tonal language. It is somewhat of an outlier in the Senufo language group, with the geographically-closest relatives, the Southern Senufo Tagwana–Djimini languages, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) to the west, on the other side of Comoé National Park.
The Ligbi tribe speaks the Mande language spoken in Ghana in the north-west corner of the Brong-Ahafo Region. Ligbi is spoken by approximately 10,000 speakers. It is fairly closely related to Jula, Vai and Kono. A small population of Ligbi speakers is reported to live in Ivory Coast. Ligbi is also known as Wela (Hwela) or Numu. The latter of these refers to a subsection of the Ligbi people; Numu is Dyula for 'blacksmith'.
Dakota, also referred to as Dakhota, is a Siouan language spoken by the Dakota people of the Sioux tribes. Dakota is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the Lakota language. It is critically endangered, with only around 290 fluent speakers left out of an ethnic population of almost 20,000.
Akan is a Central Tano language and the principal native language of the Akan people of Ghana, spoken over much of the southern half of Ghana by 80% of the population and in Côte d'Ivoire by 41% of the population.
The Akan is a meta-ethnicity living in the southern regions of present-day Ghana, formerly known as the Gold Coast. Akans who migrated from Ghana also make up a plurality of the ethnic population in Ivory Coast. The Akan language is a group of dialects within the Central Tano branch of the Potou–Tano subfamily of the Niger–Congo family.
The Akan people of Ghana frequently name their children after the day of the week they were born and the order in which they were born. These "day names" have further meanings concerning the soul and character of the person. Middle names have considerably more variety and can refer to their birth order, twin status, or an ancestor's middle name.
Fante, also known as Fanti, Fantse, or Mfantse, is one of the three principal members of the Akan dialect continuum, along with Asante and Akuapem, the latter two collectively known as Twi, with which it is mutually intelligible. It is spoken in the central and southern regions of Ghana, as well as in settlements in other regions in western Ghana.
Ghana is a multilingual country in which about eighty languages are spoken. Of these, English, which was inherited from the colonial era, is the official language and lingua franca. Of the languages indigenous to Ghana, Akan is the most widely spoken.
Articles related to Ghana include:
Pohnpeian, is a Micronesian language spoken as the indigenous language of the island of Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands. Pohnpeian has approximately 30,000 (estimated) native speakers living in Pohnpei and its outlying atolls and islands with another 10,000-15,000 (estimated) living off island in parts of the US mainland, Hawaii and Guam. It is the second-most widely spoken native language of the Federated States of Micronesia.
The Nukak language is a language of uncertain classification, perhaps part of the small Nadahup (Makú) language family. It is mutually intelligible with Kakwa.
Twi, also known as Akan Kasa, is a dialect of the Akan language spoken in southern and central Ghana by several million people, mainly of the Akan people, the largest of the seventeen major ethnic groups in Ghana. Twi has about 9 million native speakers, mainly from the Ashanti Region, and about 17–18 million speakers in total, including second-language speakers; about 29% of the Ghanaian population speaks Twi as a first or second language.
The Gold Coast alphabet also Gold Coast language was a Latin alphabet used to write the Akan language during the Gold Coast era, now Ghana. It differed from the current Akan alphabet in several ways, of which the most fundamental was in vowel notation.
Akuapem, also known as Akuapim, Akwapem Twi, and Akwapi, is one of the three principal members of the Akan dialect continuum, along with Asante, with which it is collectively known as Twi, and Fante, with which it is mutually intelligible. There are 626,000 speakers of Akuapem, mainly concentrated in Ghana and southeastern Cote D'Ivoire. It is the historical literary and prestige dialect of Akan, having been chosen as the basis of the Akan translation of the Bible.
Johann Gottlieb Christaller was a German missionary, clergyman, ethnolinguist, translator and philologist who served with the Basel Mission. He was devoted to the study of the Twi language in what was then the Gold Coast, now Ghana. He was instrumental, together with African colleagues, Akan linguists, David Asante, Theophilus Opoku, Jonathan Palmer Bekoe, and Paul Keteku in the translation of the Bible into the Akuapem dialect of Twi. Christaller was also the first editor of the Christian Messenger, the official news publication of the Basel Mission, serving from 1883 to 1895. He is recognised in some circles as the "founder of scientific linguistic research in West Africa".
Wasa, also known as Wassa and Wasaw, is the common language of the Wasa people and a dialect of the Akan dialect continuum. Wasa is partially intelligible with the three principal Akan dialects of Fante, Asante, and Akuapem, the latter two collectively known as Twi, although it is most similar to the Abron dialect. It is spoken by 273,000 in southwestern Ghana, mainly in the Wasa Amenfi West and Wasa Amenfi East districts. Its dialects include Amenfi and Fianse.
