Typological Features Template for Akan (Twi)
Revision as of 13:12, 23 November 2009 by Dorothee Beermann (Talk | contribs)
by Joana Portia
Antwi-Danso, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana.
| Feature | Description |
| Phonological Features | In this field I describe the phonological inventory of Twi. |
| Vowel inventory | In this field I describe the vowels of Twi. See below:
Twi has ten vowels.They are /i, ι, e, ε, a, æ, ɔ, o, υ, u/Seven of them are written,//i, e, ε, a, ɔ, o, u/ but three /ι, æ, υ/ are not written. These three are normally represented by other vowel sounds autographically. |
| Vowel harmony | In this field I describe rule based assimilations involving vowels in Twi.
Vowel harmony is one of the major processes in Twi, especially in Akuapem Twi. Most often in this dialect, the vowels in a particular lexical item type in affixes agree with the vowel type in the base. Where the vowel in the base is a plus ATR, or an advanced vowel, the sounds in the affexes must also be +ATR. If on the other hand, the base has a minus ATR or unadvanced vowels, all the affixes must also be minus ATR vowel type. Verbs inflect for tense and aspect. bu (break) has a +ATR vowel type.
æ-bu - has broken (Perfect)
rι-bu - is breaking (Continues)
be-bu - will break (Future)
bu-i - broke (Past)
bu - break (Habitual)
It must be noted that with continues,the aspect marker which is unadvanced, does not change even at the environment of an advanced vowel. ka (say) has a -ATR vowel type.
a-ka - has said (Perfect)
rι-ka - is saying (Continues)
bε-ka - will say (Future)
ka-ι - said (Past)
ka - say (Habitual)
Also, when there is a verbal with a nominal prefix there is an agreement between them. di (eat) +ATR
mi-/wu-/o-/ ye-/ mu-/ wo-di
mi-/ wu-/ o-/ ye-/ mu-/ wo-di-i
mι-/wυ-/ɔ-/ yε-/ mυ-/ wɔ- rι-di
me-di/ wu-/o-/ye-/mu-/wo-be-di
m-/wυ-/ w-/ yε-/ mυ-/ wɔ-æ-di
gyina (stand)
mi-/wu-/o-/ye-/mu-/wo-gyina
mi-/wu-/o-/ye-/mu-/wo-gyina-ι
mι-/wυ-/ɔ-/yε-/mυ-/wɔ-rι-gyina
me-/ wu-/ o-/ ye-/mu-/wo-be-gyina
m-/wυ-/w-/yε-/mυ-/wɔ-æ-gyina
mi-/wu-/o-/ye-/mu-/wo-gyina
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| Consonant inventory | In this field you describe the consonants of [your language] |
| Tone | In this field you indicate if [your language] is a tone language and which tones are used; does [your language] have lexical tone? |
| Syllable Structure | In this field you indicate the basic syllable structures of [your language]. |
| Morpho-syntactic Features | In the following fields I describe some of the basic morpho-syntactic parameters of Twi |
| morphological classification (1) | Twi is mildly inflectional. There is a noun prefix and some verbal inflection indicating tense and aspect as well as negation. |
| morphological classification (2) | In Twi the subject and the verb do not agree.But there is some agreement with the nominal head in noun phrases. See below. |
| Nominal Phrases | In the following fields I describe some of the morpho-syntactic properties of nominal constituents |
| syntactic structure | In this field you describe the linear order of elements in the noun phrase |
| nominal modification | In this field you indicate the basic types of nominal modification (adjectives, relative clauses, adpositions...) |
| nominal specification | In this field you indicate the basic types of specification. Does [your language] have determiners, demonstratives (deixis), numerals, quantifiers. Are there affixes expressing reference, deixis. Are there nouns or other elements expression a portion of a noun that the co-occur with? |
| possession | In this field you describe how possession is expressed (for example, syntactically or by use of prepositions, through juxtaposition or morphologically) Does [your language] feature possessive pronouns? |
| pronominal system | In this field you indicate if [your language] has free pronoun forms? Are pronouns marked for their grammatical function (object versus subject pronouns)? Does your language have bound pronouns (affixes) or pronoun doubling? Are reflexives expressed by pronouns? |
| Verbal Phrases | In the following fields serve for the description of some of the basic morpho-syntactic properties of verbal constituents |
| word order | In this field you indicate the basic word order of your language (SOV, SOV ...) |
| TAM | In this field you indicate which tense and/or aspects are morphologically or tonally marked; does [your language] make use of periphrastic tense or aspect constructions? |
| infinitival forms | In this field you indicate if [your language] makes use of an infinitive marker? How many infinitival forms does your language have? |
| verbal constructions | In this field you indicate if [your language] has ditransitive constructions, serial verb constructions or complex verb forms composed of several verbs. Does your language have so called light verbs, perhaps only used to indicate a certain tense or aspect? |
| Adpositions | In this field you indicate if [your language[ makes use of prepositions or postpositions. Does your language have spatial nouns? Does your language use adpositions or particles to indicate grammatical relations between the verb and a nominal argument? |
| Complementation | In this field you describe complementation strategies. Does [your language] make use of complementizers? |
| Special Properties of [your language] | In this field you should mention properties of [your language] which did not fit into any of the other categories mentioned in this template |