Akan
Niger-Congo family · Tano branch · Africa
Akan is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Position of Polar Question Particles, WALS codes Akan as “Question particle in either of two positions”, a value held by 26 of the 884 languages coded, Indonesian and Malagasy among them.
On Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase, WALS codes Akan as “More than one adposition type with none dominant”, a value held by 58 of the 1,184 languages coded, Koromfe and Doyayo among them.
Contrast Akan with Nkore-Kiga or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Akan, rarest first.
- Coding of Nominal PluralityMorphological plural with no method primary60 of 1,066
- Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyPredominantly prefixing58 of 969
- The Morphological ImperativeSecond singular43 of 548
Inside the Niger-Congo family
Akan matches the most frequent Niger-Congo value on 34 of the 55 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (62%). Among the 27 Niger-Congo languages profiled here, that rate ranks 22nd from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Akan; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Akan for 55 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 49 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Akan shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 13
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Lateral Consonants | No laterals | 95 of 567 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately low | 101 of 564 |
| Tone | Simple tone system | 132 of 527 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Large vowel inventory (7-14) | 184 of 564 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 189 of 567 |
| Consonant Inventories | Average | 201 of 563 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | /p t k b d g/ | 255 of 567 |
| Syllable Structure | Moderately complex syllable structure | 274 of 486 |
| Glottalized Consonants | No glottalized consonants | 409 of 567 |
| Presence of Uncommon Consonants | None | 449 of 567 |
| Uvular Consonants | No uvulars | 470 of 567 |
| Absence of Common Consonants | All present | 503 of 567 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Reduplication | Productive full and partial reduplication | 278 of 368 |
Nouns and pronouns 5
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Definite Articles | Demonstrative word used as marker of definiteness | 69 of 620 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | Possessive prefixes | 255 of 902 |
| Distributive Numerals | Marked by reduplication | 85 of 251 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | 379 of 1,031 |
| The Associative Plural | Associative plural marker also used for additive plurals | 104 of 236 |
Noun phrases 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical | 103 of 234 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 9
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect prefixes | 153 of 1,131 |
| The Prohibitive | Normal imperative + normal negative | 113 of 496 |
| The Perfect | Other perfect | 80 of 222 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Other | 91 of 240 |
| The Past Tense | No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction | 88 of 222 |
| Perfective/Imperfective Aspect | Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction | 101 of 222 |
| The Future Tense | Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction | 110 of 222 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | No overlap | 105 of 207 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
Word order 9
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | More than one type of adverbial subordinators with none dominant | 93 of 659 |
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg) | 192 of 481 |
| Order of Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem) | 562 of 1,225 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object follows verb (VO) | 705 of 1,518 |
| Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral follows noun (NNum) | 608 of 1,154 |
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Genitive-noun (GenN) | 685 of 1,249 |
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 879 of 1,367 |
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 615 of 902 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Predicative Possession | Topic Possessive | 48 of 240 |
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Double-object construction | 84 of 378 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have mixed encoding | 103 of 386 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative affix | 395 of 1,157 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is impossible | 211 of 386 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Different | 269 of 386 |
Complex sentences 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose Clauses | Balanced/deranked | 30 of 170 |
| Reason Clauses | Balanced/deranked | 37 of 169 |
| 'When' Clauses | Balanced/deranked | 39 of 174 |
| Utterance Complement Clauses | Balanced | 114 of 143 |