Analysis of Akan compounding by using autosegmental theory

Abstract

Compounding has received a great deal of discussion in Akan Phonology. Akan is a spoken language that includes, Asante, Fante, Akuapem, Bono, Wassa, Buem, Assin and many more dialects. This testifies that Akan has as many as ten dialects spoken in six regions out of ten regions in Ghana, according to Dolphyne (2006: ix) mostly as a mother tongue (L1). Out of these ten dialects three can be classified as the major dialects. Namely: Akuapem Twi, Asante Twi and Fante. These three dialects are classified as major dialects because they have primarily received appreciable amount of research attention over the years and taught in some schools in many parts of the country and they have yielded success in our educational system. Therefore, the analysis highlighted on only Asante Twi. Akan (Twi) words are not deliberately stemming only as we perceive them. The words are reduplicated, compounded and also affixes are added to them and these bring differences in Twi words. The compounding in words by using autosegmental theory is what this paper focused. The autosegmental subjected to some vowels, consonants to be deleted as we compounding the words. The data was collected in document. The analysis pinned out that there is compounding in Akan (Twi) through the use of autosegmental theory.