Student
1: |
Did
you notice that Akan is a tone language? |
Student
2: |
Yeah,
I like that. You know, when I started College, I did some Chinese, and
Chinese is like that. You take a word, you pronounce it with a certain
melody, it means, say, mother, and you change the melody and it
means horse. First, I almost never got it right. When I wanted to
say: May I introduce you to my mother - the teacher used to say
to me something like: What you just said was: May I introduce you to
my horse. Then I thought I had got the difference, and I wanted to
say I like horses. I insisted a bit because I wanted to make it
quite clear that it was horses I liked, not mother.But then
she chided me, saying that I better be careful, because if you say in the
wrong place what you just said, they will put you into prison or worse!
What have I said, I asked? You just said I like hemp. So we all
had a good laugh. But after a while, we got it right most of the time and
it was a lot of fun. Hearing the difference was more difficult than pronouncing
it. |
Student
3: |
Well,
if Akan is like this, I'm sure I won't be able to make it. I just don't
have the musical ear for fancies like this. |
Student
2: |
A
friend of mine who speaks Chinese fluently says she doesn't have a musical
ear at all. It seems it doesn't have anything to do with being musical
or not. |
Student
4: |
I've
read about some experiments comparing the way music and language are treated
in the human brain. They say that speech melodies, that is the tones of
words and sentences, are processed in the left hemisphere of the human
brain, exactly like words themselves and normal sounds of language, but
that the part of the brain which deals with real music is in the right
hemisphere. |
Student
5: |
Thank
you. To me, this sounds as if this whole tone business is something for
specialists. What I am interested in, is just to learn to get along alright
in Ghana, and I don't think I need to worry about tone for that. By the
way, I have noticed that tone is never written in Akan books, and that
tells me that it is much less important than the other stuff, consonants
and vowels, which are written. |
Student
1: |
Yeah,
I don't think it can be that important. It's best to concentrate on the
words and the sentences. If you get the words right, you can make yourself
understood, the tones the Ghanaian people know by themselves. And Akan
is not Chinese, after all! |
Teacher: |
(joining
the group) You are right. It is not so easy in Akan to find many groups
of words like the Chinese words for 'mother', 'horse' and 'hemp' which
differ just by their tonal melody. Still, if you want to learn Akan you
also need to to produce the right melody if you are going to sound right.
You MUST learn on which syllable or vowel to put a high tone, and on which
to put a low tone. Putting the wrong tone at the wrong place is just as
offensive to Akan ears as mixing up the consonants or missing the vowel
harmony. Perhaps it is even worse because tones in language cannot be identified
by how they sound but only by comparing them with preceding or following
tones. E.g. High tone refers to a tone which is higher than some of the
surrounding tones, Low tone means that this tone is consistently lower
than some surrounding tones. And by the way, there are a number of cases
where you have the same thing in Akan as you have in Chinese.
Listen to this:
Now, listen again, and this time try to hear and
describe what is particular about each of the papa words. 1. goodness,
2. father, 3. fan, 4. palm branch, 5. festival papa. Note that they
have two syllables, each of them. So let us listen first if the two syllables
are the same, or if the first is higher than the second, or the second
higher than the first.
Results:
|
1. syllable |
2. syllable |
1. papa |
same |
2.
papa |
lower |
higher |
3.
papa |
same |
4.
pæpæ |
lower |
higher |
5.
papa |
higher |
lower |
Now let us hear the same series of words again, and
in the same order, but this time, let us try to hear them together with
nie (x nie means "This is a X").
For each word we will determine whether the last tone of
pa is higher, or equal in height, or lower
than
nie.
Just for fun, let us practise a bit. First, we will
change the order and just listen
to them. Try to find out what our Ghanaian friend is saying in each case.
And now, try yourself to say: "It is a fan …" After
each item listen for control how it's pronounced. Then repeat it again. |
Student
5: |
I
can see that one should be aware of it if one learns Akan. But I think
the context will always tell my dialogue partner what I mean even if I
miss the tone, isn't it? For instance, she will know that I am talking
about my family, and will understand that when I say papa
I am talking about my father, and not about a fan, in whichever way I put
the tones. |
Student
2: |
No,
from what I know from Chinese… |
Teacher: |
Let's
leave Chinese aside. Akan is not Chinese. It is quite different from Chinese,
even as a tone language. But take a few other examples where you can immediately
see that things are not so simple:
|
Student
2: |
You
see, that is what my Chinese friend told me. There are situations where
you really can get it totally wrong if you miss the tones, and context
does not always help. It's like that in Akan, too. |
Teacher: |
(to
a Ghanaian friend). Can you tell us something about money. Money matters,
doesn't it, in Ghana, too. |
Ghanaian
friend: |
(to
another Ghanaian). Well, you ask me for money. |
Another
Ghanaian: |
(Begging
voice). Mepa
wo kyñw, ma me sika! |
Student
1: |
No
problem, he is asking him for money. |
Student
3: |
You
just have to look at his face, and at his gestures. You can't miss it,
even if you miss the tones, you see! |
Ghanaian
friend: |
(to
students). I could say several things. Listen carefully! (To the
other Ghanaian):
-
Mema
wo sika. "I give you money."
-
Memma
wo sika. "I don't give you money."
-
Mñma
wo sika. "I'll give you money."
-
Memma
wo sika. "I won't give you money."
-
Memma
wo sika. "I should give you money." (-> optative)
-
Memaa
wo sika. "I gave you money."
What did I tell him? |
Student
3: |
Well,
I think, you promised to give him money. |
Student
4: |
No,
I think, you refused. |
Student
5: |
He
said different things. But in the last example, I heard the
ma a bit longer, so I think, he said he
had given him money before. |
Teacher: |
(to
Student 5) Very good. You got that one correct. The past tense you
can hear very clearly, because it's not just a matter of the tone, but
also, the vowel is pronounced longer. Listen again:
|
Student
2: |
Now
I am confused. You said mema
wo sika is present, but then you said "all
the time". But assuming he is giving him money right now, and tells me
that he is doing it. Isn't that different again? |
Teacher: |
Oh,
sorry, you're right! This would be meema
wo sika. This is quite correct but hardly
anyone would say it, because then you would simply give him the money,
and you might say gye!
which means "take it!" But someone else observing the scene, he would say:
''ma
no sika, and if he tells his wife the story
afterwards he would say… |
Student
5: |
Ïmaa
no sika. |
Teacher: |
Exactly!
Because he looks back and tells her what happened in the past. And if he
wants to critise the person who gave the money to that guy, because he
thinks it is a habit, he may say: Ïma
no sika. So we have three cases:
|
Student
3: |
(defiantly)
So, where is the tone?
Part 2
to be continued in unit 5 |