Akan Teleteaching Course

Unit 2.5: Notes on pronunciation 2 - Akan consonants

Natural consonant classes, their prevocalic distribution, pronunciation and orthography
occur (+) do not occur (-) BEFORE (… vowels)

-Back
+Back
a
p, b
+
+
+
t, d
+
+
+
k, g
-
+
+
ky [tŸ]
 gy [dœ]
+

+
-

-
-

+
tw [tŸŠ]
dw [dœŠ]
+
+
+
kw
-
-
+
f, s
+
+
+
sw*
?
-
+
h
+
+
+
hy [Ÿ]
+
-
-
hw [ŸŠ]
hw
+

+

 

+

n
+
+
+
ny [ó]
+
-
+
nw [ôw]
+
+
+
*is represented as "su" in the orthography

non-back plain consonants
palatalised labialised consonants
palatalised non-labialised consonants
back plain consonants
labialised back consonants
-> Notes on pronunciation 3: Listening exercise. Click on the following numbers (systematic, then random). Listen to each word. Repeat. Identify the initial consonant

-> For linguists only: advanced exercise ("Notes on pronunciation 4")

-> Sound charts

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