MyGhana2027.com · Languages of Ghana · Akan
If Ghana has a second national language after English, it is Akan. Nearly half of all Ghanaians are Akan by birth, and millions more speak Twi in the market, on the trotro and on the radio. It is the language of the Golden Stool, of the coastal Fante states, of Ananse stories and of the talking drums. And it was first written down by a German missionary.
Akan is not one uniform language but a cluster of closely related varieties, most of them understandable to each other. It belongs to the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family, in a group called Tano, which it shares with Baoulé and Anyi across the border in Côte d'Ivoire, and more distantly with Nzema.
Spoken in Kumasi and the Ashanti Region, and the variety most Ghanaians mean when they say "Twi". It spread with the power of the Asante Empire and is today the most widely understood Ghanaian language of all.
From the Akuapem ridge above Accra, around Akropong and Aburi. Missionaries chose it for the first Twi Bible, so for a long time it was the "proper" written form of the language.
The language of the Central Region coast: Cape Coast, Elmina, Anomabo, Saltpond, Winneba. Close to Twi, but with its own sounds and spelling, and the language of the old Fante states that dealt with the European forts.
Bono around Techiman and Sunyani, Wassa in the west, Akyem, Kwahu, Agona, Assin, Denkyira and more. Each has its own accent and words, and its speakers will be quick to tell you theirs is the real one.
The Akan peoples grew up in and around the forest belt, where gold and kola drew traders from across West Africa. Their language followed their states, and their states grew on gold.
Around Techiman, the Bono state is remembered as one of the earliest Akan kingdoms, close to the trading town of Begho, where Mande merchants came for gold. Many Akan traditions point back to Bono.
Denkyira, Akwamu, Akyem and others rose in the forest, trading gold with the Europeans on the coast and fighting for control of the routes. Denkyira dominated much of the region in the 17th century.
Osei Tutu and the priest Okomfo Anokye united several states around Kumasi, called down the Golden Stool, and defeated Denkyira at Feyiase. The Asante Empire became one of the great powers of West Africa, and Asante Twi went wherever its armies, traders and officials went.
On the coast, the Fante states traded with the forts at Cape Coast, Elmina and Anomabo, and often fought Asante. In 1868 they formed the Fante Confederacy, with one of the first written African constitutions on the Gold Coast.
For centuries Akan lived in speech, song, drum and proverb. It was written down systematically in the 19th century by Protestant missionaries of the Basel Mission, a Swiss mission that drew many of its workers from southern Germany.
A German missionary from Württemberg, Christaller worked at Akropong and translated the Bible into Akuapem Twi, published in 1871. He followed it with a Twi grammar in 1875 and his great Twi dictionary in 1881, still consulted by scholars today.
On the coast, Methodist missionaries and Fante scholars developed a separate written Fante, with its own Bible and hymn books. That is why Fante and Twi long looked more different on paper than they sound.
In the 1970s a unified Akan spelling was agreed, so that Asante, Akuapem and Fante writers could share one system. It uses letters like ɛ and ɔ for vowels that English does not have.
Read more: how Swiss and German missionaries shaped schools, languages and churches in Ghana: The Basel and Bremen Missions on Ghana-Net.com.
Akan is more than words. It lives in names, in rhythm and in symbols, and most of it is understood far beyond the Akan peoples.
Every Akan child receives a name for the day of the week they were born: Kwame and Ama for Saturday, Kofi and Afua for Friday, Kwasi and Akosua for Sunday. Kofi Annan was born on a Friday; Kwame Nkrumah, on a Saturday. Find yours: Ghanaian names by day of birth.
Because Akan is tonal, the pitch of a word can be imitated on a pair of drums. The atumpan drums of the Asante court "speak" proverbs, praise names and announcements that listeners can understand.
An elder who speaks in proverbs is respected; one who explains them is not needed. Ananse the spider, trickster hero of Akan stories, crossed the Atlantic and survives as "Anansi" in the Caribbean. See our proverbs collection.
Around 46% of Ghanaians are Akan by ethnicity, according to the 2021 census, and Twi is the most widely spoken second language in the country. In Accra, the capital of the Ga, Twi is now heard more often on the street than Ga itself.
Three Akan varieties are among the eleven Ghanaian languages the state sponsors in schools: Asante Twi, Akuapem Twi and Fante.
Twi dominates Ghanaian radio talk shows, Kumawood films and much of Ghanaian music, from highlife to hiplife and Afrobeats.
Akan borrows freely: Portuguese, Dutch and English words from the coast, Hausa and Arabic words from the north. Modern urban Twi mixes in English constantly.
Asante Twi is understood almost everywhere in southern Ghana. For more, see our Twi phrasebook for your trip.
Welcome. You will hear it at the airport, at every hotel and in every home.
Good morning · Good afternoon · Good evening.
How are you?
I'm fine.
Thank you.
Safe journey, go well.
Updated and fact-checked: 13 October 2026. Early dates for Bono and the forest states are approximate and based on oral tradition and archaeology. Census figures are rounded.