David Adu-Amankwah - Tie Ma Mense Wo: Basic Vocabulary for Asante-Twi Learners

Tie Ma Mense Wo Basic Vocabulary for Asante-Twi Learners David Adu-Amankwah, Ph.D. Indiana University, African Languages Program, GA Building East, Room 3074, Bloomington, IN 47405 USA Tel: (317) 501-6969 Fax: (317) 347-8922 Copyright 2016 by David Adu-Amankwah, Ph.D. Library of Congress Control Number: 2016911559 ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-5245-2544-6 Softcover 978-1-5245-2543-9 eBook 978-1-5245-2542-2 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner. Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only. Rev. date: 11/30/2016 Xlibris 1-888-795-4274 www.Xlibris.com 746414 CONTENTS Part 1
ASANTE-TWI ENGLISH Part 2
ENGLISH ASANTE-TWI To my beloved grand-childrenMaame Durowaa, Uncle Dave (Jnr.), Nana Amma, Ohenewaa, and Prof. date: 11/30/2016 Xlibris 1-888-795-4274 www.Xlibris.com 746414 CONTENTS Part 1
ASANTE-TWI ENGLISH Part 2
ENGLISH ASANTE-TWI To my beloved grand-childrenMaame Durowaa, Uncle Dave (Jnr.), Nana Amma, Ohenewaa, and Prof.

Kwaku Amankwaa-Pam! David Adu-Amankwah (known by his students as Uncle Dave) is an Akan, born in Sunyani, Ghana. After receiving his elementary and secondary education at Afrisipa and Kumasi respectively, he attended University of Ghana, where he earned a B.A. (Hons.) degree in linguistics. While serving as teaching and research assistant at the Department of Linguistics after his initial graduation, he studied for his M. Phil. degree.

Soon after submitting his dissertation to the University Graduate School, he got a scholarship to study for his Ph.D. at Indiana University, USA. After earning his Ph.D. degree and teaching at the University of Florida, Gainesville, for a year, he enrolled in the M.Ed. program at the Indiana University School of Education. After graduation, he joined the African Studies Program of Indiana University as faculty.

His research interests have been in language, folklore, and culture, with special reference to the Akan ethnic group. He has taught local and foreign languages both at home and abroad, and published several journal articles, encyclopedia entries, and books (including Asante-Twi learners reference grammar (2003), Wo nso ka bi: Basic Akan grammar and practice (2013), and Understanding your writing test in English: Titbits for school candidates (2015)). He has also served as examiner/evaluator (English and Akan languages) for local and foreign examination boards with great interest. He is Esthers husband, and father of Ivy, Kate, Emelia, and Chris Adu-Amankwah. The main goal of Tie Ma Mense Wo: Basic Vocabulary for Asante-Twi Learners is to provide beginners of Akan (Asante-Twi) with the basic words and expressions that they are required to master by the end of the course. The provision of exhaustive meanings and use of individual entries is practically beyond the scope of the compilation, but some vital points of explanation have been carefully added to facilitate comprehension.

Also, some useful items such as parts of the human body, cardinal numbers, and days of the week, which are usually taught in formal lessons, have not been included in the present word list. The entire list is divided into two main partsPart 1: Asante-Twi-English words and expressions, and Part 2: English-Asante-Twi words and expressions. The listed items are in alphabetical order (from a to y ), with the letters that do not begin Asante-Twi words left out. Please note that the Akan (Asante-Twi) alphabet is not identical to that of English. Where necessary, the parts of speech of items are provided in square brackets [ ] right after them. The abbreviations [ob.] i.e., obi somebody [sb.] and [bb.] i.e., biribi something [sth.] have been introduced in some expressions for clarity of usage.

Items enclosed in curly square brackets [ ] are meant to be read in Asante-Twi and those in clear square brackets [ ] are to be considered as references or explanatory notes. Also, a bracket ( ) around individual items means that the items are optional. For example: (s ) t da (bi) a sometimes means that this expression may be used with or without s and/or bi . In regular speech some of the nouns listed may be heard with or without prefixes. Such nominal prefixes are enclosed in round brackets, at the beginning of the items. For example, gun is entered as (e)tuo and rat as (o)kusie .

This means that these two entries may be heard with or without an initial e or o respectively. The user does not have to give up, therefore, if at the first attempt the item being searched for is not found listed under the initial vowel or nasal. The search may re-start with the next letter of the item. Though references on items that may be used interchangeably have been provided, users are encouraged to see their instructors (or reliable native speakers) for further guidance, if they have trouble with this. Furthermore, experience has shown that plural formation in Asante-Twi can be troublesome to learners. To reduce the severity of this problem, an attempt has been made to provide the plural forms of most of the listed nouns that are likely to pose problems to beginners.

The plural form of an item may be identical to the singular form, and such items have inv. [i.e., invariant] written after them. Finally, further explanations are marked Note under some of the items, and these notes are to be read carefully and questions, if any, directed to instructors or reliable native speakers (or even to the author). The expression Mepa wo kyw, sn na yka ? Excuse me, how do we say ? should be helpful in asking how to express something in Asante-Twi. The decision to compile this word list was greatly influenced by my students (especially those who have been in my classes from 2008 to date). I, therefore, direct my first batch of thanks to these students, some of whom have already made or are currently making effective use of their Asante-Twi in Ghana.

I am also grateful to Prof. Samuel Obeng, Former Director of the African Studies Program at Indiana University, Bloomington, for his valuable suggestions and ideas for improvement on the work. Finally, I must thank Esther, my dear wife, and Chris, our beloved son, for remaining patient as I stayed awake and kept the lights on to work on the compilation. Glory to the Lord of lords! da-a (April 18, 2016) The following abbreviations have been used in the word list: adj. adjective [ nkyerkyermu [nky.] ] adv. auxiliary comp. complement( izer) conj. conjunction [ nkabomde [ nkab.] ] def. definite article det. determiner [eg., the, a, my, etc.] excl. exclamation fem. feminine gender fig. figurativ e(ly) indef. indefinite article interj. interjection [ nteamude [ ntmd .] ] intf. intensifier inv. invariant (the item takes the same form in the plural or it is inherently plural. invariant (the item takes the same form in the plural or it is inherently plural.

Note that inv. or pl. plus a form enclosed in inverted commas indicates that the item is a noun [ edin ]) masc. masculine gender n. noun [ edin [ed .] ] obj. person pl. plural [ dodo kabea [dk.] ] poss. possessive [ dede [ d .] ] pro. pronoun [ dinnsiananmu [dns.] ] psp. post-position rel. pro. relative pronoun sb. somebody [ obi [ob.] ] sing. singular spec. specific/specifier sth. something [ biribi [bb .] ] subj. subject [ yfo [ y.] ] v. verb [ adey/adey [ad .] ] v. st. stative verb v. +tr. transitive verb v. - tr. intransitive verb Part 1
ASANTE-TWI
ENGLISH A, a a ... [relative pro./that-complementizer] that, who(m), which, etc. [relative pro./that-complementizer] that, who(m), which, etc.

E.g., Nwoma a rekan no y k k The book that he/she is reading is red. Note: The Asante-Twi relative pronoun a is never deleted. aane yes aba [pl. mma ] seed abaa [pl. mmaa ] stick abaawa [pl. mmaayaa / mmaayewa ] lady, (young) girl abak sm [inv.] history abarimaa/abarimawaa [pl. mmarimaa / mmarimawaa ] boy aberewa [pl. mmerewa(fo ) ] old woman b aberewa to become an old woman. mmerewa(fo ) ] old woman b aberewa to become an old woman.