Comparative and Contrastive Analysis of Vowel Harmony in Asante and Akuapem Twi Dialects in Ghana
Keywords:
Akuapem, assimilation, ATR, -ATR, comparative, dialects, features, harmonyAbstract
This paper examined the vowel harmony in Akan with particular reference to Asante and Akuapem dialects. The purpose was to compare Akuapem and Asante vowel harmony to see which of the two focuses more or conform to the use of Akan vowel harmony. The study confined itself with secondary data. Other authorities work were reviewed and then put side by side with Akan dialect. In the opinion of Obeng- Gyasi vowels of similar environment share common features with one another. Comparatively, he seems to share similar ideas with others like (Adomako, 2013) and (Agyekum, 2010), (Kpodo, 2015) and (Hayes, 2009). The theory that influenced this investigation was Vowel harmony and Correspondence theory. This theory covers the major issues in the generative analysis of vowel harmony and vowel typology. It account for the most prominent features of vowel harmony system such as root control and affix control, which takes the center stage of Asante and Akuapem dialects in terms of vowel harmony. After thorough comparative analysis of evidential data, it was realized that, with Akuapem dialect when the vowel in the root is +ATR it normally affects the vowel in the prefix causing it to assume similar quality. But Asante deviates from this.
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