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Akan has 31 graphemes including 9 diagraphs comprising 24 consonants and 7 vowels (Phonemes). owever

there are 3 e!tra graphemes which are variants o" some vowels due to the phenomenon o" tongue root

advancement with the vowels technicall# known as Advance Tongue Root  (A$% )

  Consonants

Notes on the chart.

Voiced plosives (stops) /b/ and /d/ become nasals /m/ and /n/ respectively, when preceded by

those nasals, though they are still written as “mb” and “nd”. /h/ and /ɕ/ are in complementary distribution; the former occurs before oral front vowels and

the latter before other vowels. n the !ante dialect, /n/ becomes / ɲ/ before the front vowels and the central vowel /a/.

"abiali#ed velar and palatal nasal /$ ʷ/ and / ɲʷ/ are in complementary distribution% the former

occurs before the central vowel /a/ and the latter everywhere else. &alatal sounds still receives much debate among scholars as to whether they are phonemes

or phonetic sounds. 'he commonest claim about palatals is that before front vowels, allconsonants are palatali#ed.

 'he glottal stop is not considered as an an consonant, according to *olphyne (+--%-01).

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 'he status of the alveolar lateral /l/ is not clear. t is more or less a loaned segment than a

native. t alternates with the alveolar glide /r/ and sometimes the alveolar stop /d/.

Vowels

Akan has the "ollowing & 'asic vowel units i e o u a and each has vowel *ualit# (A$% variant) associated

with it as "ollows.

igh "ront vowels (i Ⅰ

)+id "ront vowels (e / ɛ)

,ow central vowels (- a)

+id 'ack vowels (o 2ɔ)

igh 'ack vowels (u    3)

Vowel Harmony (ATR Harmony)

Akan vowels engage in a "orm o" vowel harmon# with the root o" the tongue.

1. A$% vowels "ollowed '# the /A$% non0mid vowels 'ecome /A$%. $his is generall# re"lectedi   a    u in the orthograph# $hat is orthographic e a oɛ ɔ  'ecome i e a o u. owever it is no longer re"lected inthe case o" su'ect and possessive pronouns giving them a consistent spelling. $his rule takes

 precedence over the ne!t one.

2. A"ter the A$% non0high vowels e - o /A$% mid vowels Ⅰ 3  'ecome A$% high vowels i u. $his

is an e!ception and not re"lected in the orthograph# "or 'oth sets o" vowels are spelled 4e o5 and inman# dialects this rule does not appl# "or these vowels have merged.

Tones

Akan is a 2 tone language high () denoted with () and low (,) with (). 5nitial s#lla'le ma# onl# 'e high or

low. 6.g. a. pp 8goodness

 '. p:p: 8"an;c. p:p 8"ather

Akan Syllable structure

Akan is among the languages that mostl# pre"er open s#lla'les to closed ones. $his is ver# prominent in its

ver's in particular which have