Talk:Central Tano languages

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I cannot find a definitive list for the names of the Akan languages anywhere on the internet - would anyone be able to find a sourced recent reference for them? Gabriel Beecham/Kwekubo 01:18, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Sefwi?
Sefwi has been added, removed, then added again... I am no expert on what constitutes an Akan language. Should it stay (and be formatted correctly) or removed again? --Fjmustak 22:28, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes and no. There are at least two possible meanings for the "Akan language(s)".  There's a narrow sense of the dialect cluster that includes Ashante, Fante, Akuapem, Akyem, etc.  Then there's a broader notion of the languages of the Akan ethnic group, which are closely related but not necessarily mutually intelligible.  In addition to the Twi-Fante cluster, this would include the Guang languages, Anyi, Baule, Nzema, Sehwi/Sefwi, etc.  Ethnologue, following Stewart's classification, calls this broader group the Tano language family.  Actually, Ethnologue makes a three-way distinction:
 * Tano
 * the Akan language proper (Twi+Fante and a few other dialects)
 * the "Akan languages" as a node of the family tree, with divergent dialects like Brong being treated as seperate language from Akan proper
 * Sefwi is a Tano language/dialect, quite close to Anyi and Baule, but not part of Akan proper.--Chris Johnson 03:12, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
 * It would be a good idea to add this explanation to the article. &mdash; mark &#9998; 08:48, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Language list - Akan languages?
Is the list presented here, a list of Kwa-languages or Akan Languages? It's presented in a confusing mannar —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Oyd11 (talk • contribs).


 * As far as I can see, it's a list of the languages in the Akan branch of the Kwa-family, according to the classification used by the Ethnologue. I think these are the languages Stewart (a linguist doing historical-comparative work on these languages) would call Akanoid, and indeed that might be better to avoid the confusion between Akan in the large sense and Akan in the smaller sense (Twi/Asante/etc.). &mdash; mark &#9998; 14:30, 7 May 2006 (UTC)