Fante (language)
| Fante | ||
|---|---|---|
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Spoken in |
 Ghana
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| speaker | 1.9 million | |
| Linguistic classification |
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Fante (also Fanti , Fannti , Odschi and Fante-Twi , mostly pronounced as Mfantse in self-designation ) is the language of the Fante and is mainly spoken in the " Central Region " of Ghana .
Fante belongs to the group of Akan languages . As the language of commerce in Ghana, it enjoys a high level of social prestige, many members of neighboring minor languages such as B. Ahanta speak Fante as a second language. In a gradual process, many speakers of these less important and prestigious minor languages switch to Fante as their main language.
All Akan languages are written in the Latin script, with the addition of phonetic letters contained in the African alphabet . The languages were already written down in colonial times.
The language knows counting processes, but no mathematical relationships. The traditional names are derived from it (e.g. Kofi = born on a Friday), for some terms there are loan words , for example from the English computer and but .
Famous fan speakers
- Kofi Annan , former UN Secretary-General
- Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford , writer
- John Dramani Mahama , former President of Ghana
- Quobna Ottobah Cugoano , writer
- Ayi Kwei Armah , writer
- Peter Turkson , Cardinal to the Curia
Web links
- ethnologue.com: Akan - A language of Ghana