Understanding the Akan Language & Providing Professional Akan Interpreters and Translators
Global Interpreting understands the importance of working in the Akan language. For over 10 years, Global Interpreting has worked with the Akan language as well as hundreds of other from around the word. We are a one stop full language service provider. Offering Over the Phone, Video Remote, Face to Face, Transcription, Document and Website Translation in 175 languages including American Sign Language (ASL) nation and worldwide.
Akan, or Twi-Fante, is the principal native language of Ghana, spoken over much of the southern half of that country, by about 40% of the population, and to a lesser extent across the border in eastern Côte d'Ivoire. Three dialects have been developed as literary standards with distinct orthographies, Asante, Akuapem (together called Twi), and Fante, which despite being mutually intelligible were inaccessible in written form to speakers of the other standards. In 1978 the Akan Orthography Committee established a common orthography for all of Akan, which is used as the medium of instruction in primary school by speakers of several other Akan languages such as Anyi, Sefwi, Ahanta (but not Nzema), as well as the Guang languages.
The language came to the Caribbean and South America, notably in Suriname spoken by the Ndyuka and in Jamaica by the Jamaican Maroons known as Kromanti, with the slaves. The descendants of escaped slaves in the interior of Suriname and the Maroons in Jamaica still use a form of this language, including Akan naming convention, in which children are named after the day of the week on which they are born, e.g. Akwasi (for a boy) or Akosua (girl) born on a Sunday.
The Akan people speak the Akan languages (i.e. Central Tano), of which Akan proper is just one. Akan proper (Twi-Fante) consists of the following dialects: Asante, Akuapem, Akyem, Agona, Kwahu, Wassa, Fante and Brong.
The Bureau of Ghana Languages has compiled a unified orthography of 20,000 words.
Akan, or Twi-Fante, is the principal native language of Ghana, spoken over much of the southern half of that country, by about 40% of the population, and to a lesser extent across the border in eastern Côte d'Ivoire. Three dialects have been developed as literary standards with distinct orthographies, Asante, Akuapem (together called Twi), and Fante, which despite being mutually intelligible were inaccessible in written form to speakers of the other standards. In 1978 the Akan Orthography Committee established a common orthography for all of Akan, which is used as the medium of instruction in primary school by speakers of several other Akan languages such as Anyi, Sefwi, Ahanta (but not Nzema), as well as the Guang languages.
The language came to the Caribbean and South America, notably in Suriname spoken by the Ndyuka and in Jamaica by the Jamaican Maroons known as Kromanti, with the slaves. The descendants of escaped slaves in the interior of Suriname and the Maroons in Jamaica still use a form of this language, including Akan naming convention, in which children are named after the day of the week on which they are born, e.g. Akwasi (for a boy) or Akosua (girl) born on a Sunday.
The Akan people speak the Akan languages (i.e. Central Tano), of which Akan proper is just one. Akan proper (Twi-Fante) consists of the following dialects: Asante, Akuapem, Akyem, Agona, Kwahu, Wassa, Fante and Brong.
The Bureau of Ghana Languages has compiled a unified orthography of 20,000 words.
Who are You Going to Trust with Vital Akan Language Needs?
The Akan language is an important language worldwide. It is vital to understand the general nature and specific idiosyncrasies of Akan. For over 10 years Global Interpreting has provided outstanding Akan translators, over the phone, face to face and conference interpreters nation and worldwide.