Twi

For other uses, see TWI (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Tiwi language.

Twi (/tʃwiː, twiː, tʃiː/;^[1][2] Twi: [tɕᶣi]) is the common name of the Akan literary language of Asante and Akuapem.^[3] Effectively, it is a synonym for 'Akan' that is not used by the Fante people. It is not a linguistic grouping, but more of a common name used by inland Akans as Akuapem Twi is more closely related to the Fante dialects than it is to Asante Twi. Aside from the Fante, other Akan groups such as the Nzema, Ahanta, Chakossi, Sefwi, and Baoulé, all classified under the Akan Bia languages, do not use Twi as the name of their idioms. ^[4] Twi generally subsumes the following Akan tongues: Ahafo, Akuapem, Akyem, Asante, Assin, Bono, Denkyira and Kwawu, which have about 4.4 million speakers in southern and central Ghana.^[5][6][7]

Twi
Pronunciation	[tɕᶣi]
Native to	Ghana
Region	Ashanti Region
Ethnicity	Asante Akuapem Bono
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Kwa Potou–Tano Tano Central Tano Akan Twi
Standard forms	Asante Akuapem
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Regulated by	Akan Orthography Committee
Language codes
ISO 639-1	tw
ISO 639-2	twi
ISO 639-3	twi (see [aka] for Ethnologue description)
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