Akan vowels: Vowel harmony
Akan pronunciation distinguishes ten vowel qualities. These ten vowels are grouped into two complementary sets, called harmony sets. Each harmony set comprises five vowels.| Harmony set A: | i, e, ð, o, u | +ATR |
| Harmony set B: | ò, ñ, a, õ, ö | -ATR |
The vowels of harmony set A are pronounced with the
tongue root being pushed forward (+ATR [= advanced tongue root position]).
By contrast, vowels of harmony set B are pronounced with the tongue root
in normal, relaxed position (-ATR).
As a corollary of this articulatory gesture, the
tube leading from the back part of the mouth to the larynx is widened when
pronouncing a vowel of set A, and is reduced to normal size when pronouncing
a corresponding vowel of set B. This accounts for the clear quality of
set A vowels against the somewhat hollow quality of set B vowels. At the
same time, vowels of set B tend to be noticeably more open than the corresponding
vowels of set A.
The difference in articulating the two sets of vowels
can be seen by comparing cine-radiographic tracings of corresponding vowels
of the two sets (from Lindau,
1978: 551-552)
It is essential that the learner understands and masters the vowel harmony difference right from the beginning:
One reason for this is what may be called the 'chameleon' effect. With a few exceptions (some of which will be explained later), all Akan words belong either to one or to the other harmony set. That is, all vowels of a given word stem belong either to harmony set A or to harmony set B. Vowels of the two sets do not usually co-occur in the same word.
Prefixes and suffixes which are added to the stem take the 'colour' of the stem. The same prefix when preceding an 'A vowel' takes A quality, when preceding a 'B vowel' takes the quality of the corresponding B vowel. Thus the 3rd person animate singular prefix is o- before the verb stem -di 'eat' but õ- before the verb stem -dò 'be called':
| OÀ-dä müé. | "He eats rice." | ÏÀ-dòà Koàfä. | "He is called Kofi." |
In a similar way, the open front vowel nominal prefix ñ- (which is identical in form to the 3rd person inanimate singular prefix ñ-)is e- before a stem consisting of A vowels but ñ- before a stem consisting of B vowels.
| eà-tuáoá [eàtuáoá] | 'gun' | ñà-toáõá [ñàtöáõá] | 'buttocks' |
For a comprehensive list of examples, see Clements (1985), etc.
In a similar way, the vowel of the 1st person plural yñ- is affected by the harmony set of the following verb stem. Compare:
| Yeà-dä müé. | "We eat rice." | Yñà-dòà Koàfä neá Aé!mámaá. | "We are called Kofi and Amma." |
Vowel harmony in person markers
The examples seen so far all illustrate the effects
of vowel harmony on open vowels (alternations ñ/e
and
õ/o).
Closed
vowels are affected by alternation due to vowel harmony (ò/i,
ö/u) only in the case of certain person
marking prefixes. Those prefixes concerned are the first person singularme-
(mò-/mi-), the second person singularwo-
(wö-/wu-) and the second person pluralmo-
(mö-/mu-):
| Wuá-fìrì hûé? | "Where do you come from?" | Mì-fìrì Kuàmaásòá. |
| Wöá-fòáá deáñáná? | "What do you suck (habitually)?" | Mòà-fòá aànàkaàaá. |
| Muá-fì(rì) hûé? | "Where do you (pl.) come from?" | Yeà-fì(rì) Kuàmaásòá. |
| Möá-fòá deáñáná? | "What do you (pl.) suck?" | Yñà-fòá aànkaàaá. |
Below, the pronunciation of these prefixes is compared with their orthographic representation according to the new orthography (Akan Language Committee 1995):
| Pronunciation | (New) orthography |
| 1. Wuá-fì(rì) hûé? | Wo-fi(ri) he? |
| 2. Mì-fì(rì) Kuàmaásòá. | Me-fi(ri) Kumase. |
| 3. Wöá-fòá deáñáná? | Wo-fe deñn? |
| 4. Mòà-fòá aànkaàaá. | Me-fe ankaa. |
| 5. Woà-fì(rì) hûé? | Wõ-fi(ri) he? |
| 6. Woà-fì(rì) Kuàmaásòá. | Wõ-fi(ri) Kumase. |
| 7. Muá-fì(rì) hûé? | Mo-fi(ri) he? |
| 8. Yeà-fì(rì) Kuàmaásòá. | Yñ-fi(ri) Kumase. |
| 9. Möá-fòá deáñáná? | Mo-fe deñn? |
| 10. Yñà-fòá aànkaàaá. | Yñ-fe ankaa. |
It will be noted that, in the orthography of person prefixes, orthographic 'e' represents phonological /i/(ex. 2)and /ò/(ex. 4),and orthographic /o/ represents phonological /u/(ex. 1, 7) and /ö/ (ex. 3, 9). On the other hand, phonological /e/is represented by orthographic'ñ'(ex. 8), and phonological /o/ by orthographic 'õ'(ex. 5, 6).
By contrast, the older dialect-based orthographies tend to represent for instance phonological /ö/ and /o/in the same way, i.e. by 'o'. As a result, 2nd person singular and 3rd person plural prefixes could both in some cases be written 'wo', which makes their distinction sometimes difficult.
In Table 2 below, the full set of subject prefixes is given. Be careful to remember that the orthography uses the vowel symbol which according to Table 1 serves to represent the B vowel set, that is õ and ñ for the open vowels, and o and e for the closed vowels. The learner has therefore to be careful to pronounce wo as wuá (and not as woá) if the stem, as in di, carries an A vowel, and as wöá, if the stem, as in de, carries a B vowel.
| Subject person markers | Examples | |||
| Person of subject prefix | Orthography | Pronunciation | Orthography | Pronunciation |
| 1st person sg. 'I' | me- | mò- | Mede Kofi. | mòàdòà Koàfä |
| mi- | Medi agorõ. | mìdä aàgoárõá | ||
| 2nd person sg. 'you' | wo- | wö- | Wode Kofi. | wöádòà Koàfä |
| wu- | Wodi mo. | wuádä müé | ||
| 3rd person sg. 'he/she' | õ- | õ- | Ïde Kofi. | õàdòá Koàfä |
| o- | Ïdi mo. | oàdä müé | ||
| 3rd person inanimate 'it' | ñ- | ñ- | Ñte saa. | ñàtòà saàaá |
| e- | Ñfi me. | eàfä meà | ||
| 1st person pl. 'we' | yñ- | yñ- | Yñde Kofi ne Abenaa. | yñàdòà Koàfä neà AÀbeánaáaá |
| ye- | Yñdi mo. | yeàdä müé | ||
| 2nd person pl. 'you' | mo- | mö- | Mode Kofi ne Abenaa. | möádòá Koàfä neà AÀbeánaáaá |
| mu- | Modi mo. | muádä müé | ||
| 3rd person pl. 'they' | wõ- | wõ- | Wõde Kofi ne Abenaa. | wõàdòà Koàfä neà AÀbeánaáaá |
| wo- | Wõdi mo. | woàdä müé | ||
Vowel harmony affecting stem vowels
The chameleon effect is, however not limited to
prefixes and suffixes. Under certain circumstances, the stem of a noun
or a verb may itself take the 'colour' of the following word:
| õbaa bi | obðáð bä | "a certain woman" |
| õbaa no | õbaáa nöá | "the woman" |
| Bra mu! | brðà muá | "Come in!" |
| Bra ha! | braà haá | "Come here!" |
The audible difference between the two forms of õbaáa 'woman' is remarkable: to non-native ears the vowel of -baa in the first case sounds much more like ñ or even e (almost as in English 'bet') whereas in the second example it is a plain a (as in English grass). The adjustment of the vowel quality to the harmony feature of the environment is a highly typical feature of the Akan language which contributes to shape the form of almost every spoken utterance. Without understanding the reason behind the changing pronunciation of words, understanding of the spoken language will be severely hampered. On the other hand, if one gets it right it makes a big difference in 'sounding right' to Akan ears. And with just a little practice it is not too difficult to learn to produce the 'chameleon' effect which, apart from being essential to efficient communication, also adds to the beauty of the language.
In our audio-scriptural approach, it is important to draw attention to a further difficulty which has to do with the orthography. From the following table it can be seen that the orthography only represents seven vowels not ten. What this means is that three of the vowel symbols each represent to different vowels in pronunciation:
- The orthographisymbol 'e' represents both the vowel e which belongs to the A harmony set, and the vowel ò which belongs to the B harmony set.
- The orthographisymbol 'o' represents both the vowel o which belongs to the A harmony set, and the vowel ö which belongs to the B harmony set.
- The orthographisymbol 'a' represents both the vowel ð which belongs to the A harmony set, and the vowel a which belongs to the B harmony set.
It must be said that there are very few sentences in the language whose only difference of pronunciation is that between one of those pairs of vowels which are represented by a single vowel in the orthography. There is therefore some justification for the underrepresentation of the some of the vowel differences in the orthography. Nevertheless it must be stressed again that all the harmony differences are very important for speaking correctly.
The table below shows first the vowel symbols which you find in the standard orthography. Then, on the next lines, it shows you the corresponding vowels as they are pronounced. The third and fourth lines show, respectively, the A harmony set of vowels and the B harmony set of vowels. These are the vowel symbols which will be used whenever it is deemed necessary, in the following lessons and in the lexicon, to give the phonetic transcription in addition to the standard orthography.
The 'chameleon' effect - examples
| Orthography | Pronunciation | Meaning | |
| Set A | Adu | ðduá | name of a male |
| Set B | adõ | adõá | farming activity |
| Set A | Madidi. | mðdädi | I have eaten. |
| Set B | Mate ase. | matò asòá | I have understood. |
| Set A | õbaa bi | obðáð bä | a certain woman |
| Set B | õbaa no | obaáa nöá | the woman |
In the old orthographies, some of the changes due to harmony tend to be represented. For instance, the 3rd person prefix would be written according to its pronunciation in the above two examples
| OÀ-dä müé | "He eats rice." | OÀ-dòà Koàfä | "He is called Kofi." |
The new common Akan orthography which will be followed in this book does no longer imitate the 'chameleon' effect. This means that, for instance, the prefix o-/õ- is always written õ, and the prefix ñ-/e- is always written ñ. In fact, the adjustment to the colour of the stem is made automatically.
| Ï-di mo. | "He eats rice." | Ï-de Kofi. | "He is called Kofi." |
-> Proceed to the pronunciation exercise (Notes on pronunciation 3)