MODERN GUAN GROUPS OF GHANA

Guans are scattered all over Ghana even to sub-Saharan West Africa. They are not scattered in the sense that they are completely dispersed but then, their settlements is in an amazing pattern that is Western Ghana, Southern Ghana, Northern Ghana, Eastern Ghana. They were initially in clans but we cannot at the moment group them into clans again due to gross linguistic changes that have affected most Guan languages.

They have assimilated lots of vocabularies from surrounding languages depending on where they are and this have changed their languages and even accents depending on their current settlement.

We can group them into 4 language groups and they are :

v  The Ga-Akan related Guans (Southern Guans)

v  Akan-related Guans (Western Guans)

v  Ewe-Akan related Guans (Oti Guans)

v  Northern Guans

Let us learn about the 4 groups. These groupings have a lot to do with their original clan systems.

 

Ga-Akan related Guans : These Guans surround the Ga-Dangme communities and they are mostly found in southern Ghana. They have assimilated Ga-Dangme words just as Ga-Dangme languages have borrowed lots from them. They even have cultural affinities with the Ga people and the Dangme people jjst as with the Akans. They all use the Akan accent in speaking which is specifically called the Vowel-Toned accent. They are the Efutu, Awutu, Larteh, Okere, Anum, Boso and Nkonya.

The Awutu state is seen as a Ga-Dangme vassal state just as Larteh and the people of Ga worship the Akonode goddess, which is a Larteh deity.

 

Akan-related Guans : these are Guans who have lived with Akans for millenia so they have totally inclined themselves as Akans with the exception of Chakosi who do not see themselves as Akans. “Come” in these Guan languages is said as “ba” just as all other Guan languages except Nzema and few others that have the affix “…la”

            Nzema  : Bela [ba-la] – come

                        Anyin : ba – come

                                    Chakosi : bala – come

                                                Ahanta – bala – come

                                                            Brosa – ba – come

They mimic the Akan clan system as well but not perfectly. Their languages are about 50% Guan, 35% Akan and 15% of surrounding languages including European English, European Portuguese, Dutch etc.  Their counting system is just as the Guans have it. Watch these videos on the LEARN GUAN WITH HUNIAH channel for further comprehension.

Anyin Language

Nzema Language

Ewe-Akan Related Guans : These group of Guans could also be called the Oti Guans. They are closely related to each other that is the Buem and the Likpe.

Santrokofi, Akposso, Lolobi, Akpafu, Bowire are Ghana-Togo Mountain Languages spoken in the same area as these Guans. They have amalgamated culturally and linguistically so most at times, the Ghana-Togo (GTM) group claim to be Guans as well but their origins and culture are not of Guan. Also, early linguists who were initially not Ghanaians called the GTMs Guans simply because they mostly say “come” as “ba” without taking into consideration other factors and this has been the trouble till date.

The Buem and Likpe preserve their Guan linguistics a lot but Likpe is more conservative than Buem. They are spoken not far from Nkonya but then, Nkonya would belong to the Ga-Akan Guan group.

Northern Guans : they have a common way of saying eight “aburuwa” and “to collect” as “kɔle” with the exception of Gonja who say “to collect” just as the Akans “sɔ.”

Most of them have the K suffix to denote singularity and an N suffix to denote plurality with the exception of the Atsodes who do otherwise. The Atsodes preserve southern Guan characteristics a lot just as the Dwan, Wiase and Basa languages.

They form a dialect continuum of Guan languages starting from Dwan, Ntsumburun, Gonja, Dompo (now extinct), Nawuri, Krachi, Atsode, Alidjo, Anyanga, Chakosi, Foodo-Semere,

Chakosi belongs to the Akan-related Guan language group but spoken as a dialect continuum from this language group.

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