Twi

This article is about the tradialects. For other uses, see Twi (disambiguation).
Twi
Asante Twi
Native to Ashanti
Ethnicity Asante people, Akuapem
Native speakers
 9 million[1][2] (2015)[1][2][3]
Dialects
Asante (Ashanti)
Official status
Official language in
 Ashanti City-State and the Ashanti City-State capital Kumasi
Regulated by Akan Orthography Committee
Language codes
ISO 639-1 tw (Twi)
ISO 639-2 twi
ISO 639-3 twi
Glottolog akua1239[4]
asan1239[5]
Not to be confused with Tiwi language.

Twi (pronounced [tɕɥi]) or Asante Twi, is spoken by over 9 million ethnic Ashanti people as a first language and second language.[1][2] Twi (or Asante Twi) is a common name for two former literary dialects of the Akan language, Asante (Ashanti) and Akuapem, which are mutually intelligible. There are about 9 million Twi speakers, mainly in Ashanti.[1][2] Akuapem Twi was the first Akan dialect to be used for Bible translation, and became the prestige dialect as a result.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Asante » Asante Twi (Less Commonly Taught Languages)". University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. University of Michigan.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Asante » Asante Twi". ofm-tv.com.
  3. ↑ Akan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  4. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Akuapem". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  5. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Asante". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  6. ↑ Ager, Simon. "Omniglot". Retrieved 11 January 2015.

Due to the flexibility and simple grammar, twi has become the predominant language of communication in Ghana.it is the language of commerce in Ghana. .the media firms are now switching to the use of twi as a means of broadcast.

There are even arguments as to whether Ghana should adopt twi as its official language .


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, May 04, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.