THE LARTEH LANGUAGE AND ITS EFFECT ON CONTEMPORARY GUAN LANGUAGES

•           IMPORTANT WORDS TO NOTE

1.      Awutu– The main language spoken by the people of Awutu-Bireku, Akotsi, Badwiase etc.

2.      Efutu – The language spoken by the brothers of the Awutus. They are Ojobi, Senya-Bireku,

Winneba, Kweikrom and more

3.      Gua – The language spoken by the people of Anum-Boso

4.      Larteh – The Language spoken by the people of Larteh

5.      Anufor – The Language spoken by the Chakosi people

6. Kyipon - the language spoken mainly by the people of Abiriw, parts of Akropong and Tutu,  Dawu. Awukugua, Adukrom, Apirede, Aseseeso, Akuni, Abonsen and some communities around Koforidua.

 

Larteh is a Ga-Akan Related Guan language spoken in the Eastern Region of Ghana. It is most closely related to Awutu, Gua and Kyripon which are all members of the Ga-Akan Related Guan languages. Efutu and Nkonya are also Ga-Akan Related Guan languages but a bit distant in terms of close relations to Larteh.

Indeed, Larteh may refer to a specific community but it goes beyond that. Most Guan people assert to the fact that they migrated from Larteh-Akuapem and settled at different places. And that is all what we are going to consider in this article.

Larteh is the name of the community and the language as well. It would interest you to know the Kyripons who are popularly called Mentemente call their language Larteh unless they are asked to specify, before they sometimes mention their variant of the language as Kyripon.

Ntsumburuns who are presently in the Oti Region as well as the Bono-East Region, also believe to be speaking a variant of Larteh. As well, the Nawuri and Akyodes, also believe to be speaking variants of Larteh and in their cultures, all these traits are very evident. So how is this possible? Let us look back at the Guan history courtesy LEARN GUAN WITH HUNIAH – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VsLcvpL-rk

And KNOW GHANA BETTER written by Huniah Tetteh

In summary, the Guans settled somewhere around Bole (Know Ghana Better, Huniah Tetteh, pg.55, 2021) and gradually moved to the Bono-Manso areas and with time they got to southern Ghana. There were lots of unrest that got them to migrate to the north of Ghana but not all of the Guans migrated. Guan tribes like the Krachi, Akyode, Ntsumburun, Semere, Anyanga, Nawuri, Nkonya, Anum-Boso migrated far from the Larteh settlements. The Ga people would later join the Guans and they lived in peace.

As most Guan tribes migrated way north, their languages began to diverge as well as the accents. Till date, it is hard to tell which of the Guan accent is original because the southern Guans although far apart from each other maintain an accent that is shared with Akan languages but the northern Guans who are also close to each other maintain an accent that is not closely related to Akan. But then, we have Kete-Krachi and Dwan languages that have an accent that looks partially Akan but not so close to the southern Guan accents. So perhaps, the accent of the southern Guans could be perceived as original.

One very convincing reason why the southern accent could be original rests with the Nkami-Guan language and the Chakosi language. Chakosi developed from Old Anyin. Several languages such as Nzema, Sanvi, Moronu, Sefwi, Brosa and the like all developed from Old Anyin and its sister language, Ahanta. All these languages maintain the Akan accent but Chakosi, due to its close proximity to the Northern Guan languages have also adapted to the Northern Guan accent with a mix of Gur accent.

Nkami, as I have earlier stated, is another example. Nkami is a Guan language which was talked about by R.K Asante, in an article he published in the year 2017 as well as in the book KNOW GHANA BETTER. These Guans are found at Amankwarkrom and they are closely related to the Nkonya. In fact, they are Nkonya who may have settled at the other end of the Volta Lake but as fate would have it, got them under a different region and rulership thus, they are presently under the Kwahu Traditional Area. Now, interestingly, although Nkonya has lost part of its Akan accent, Nkami has not lost much of that.

That tells us that the Northern Guan languages are so close to each other that is why they were able to evolve together over time but with the case of the southern Guan communities, they are miles away from each other yet their original accents are still preserved and they all have the same accent from Anum-Nzema. And they have no contact with the northern Guan languages.

Now, back to the main topic. We can list over 20 Guan languages and group them into four categories due to geographic distribution and the extent to which their languages have been influenced.

    - The Ga-Akan Guan Language

§  The Akan-Related Guan Languages

·         The Ewe-Akan Guan Languages

¨      The Northern Guan Languages

All these four groups revolve around the Larteh Language and only a few of them generally claim to not have been influenced that much by the Larteh language. Among the Ga-Akan Guan Languages, Efutu, Nkonya and Nkami although had been influenced by the Old Larteh state, seems to not have been influenced that much. This is simply because Efutu developed from the Awutu language called Owutu, and it was the Awutus that speak a language closely related to Larteh and not the Efutus directly.

Nkami language possibly developed from Nkonya, and Nkonya also developed from Gua   [Know Ghana Better written by Huniah Tetteh, 2021] thus, Nkonya may not have direct link to Larteh but to Gua rather. Now, the tricky part here is, Anum-Boso call their language Gua also spelt as Gua. Gua appears to be a blend of Larteh and Kyripon. Most Gua speakers understand Kyripon much better than they would understand Larteh. Also, Guan speakers understand Nkonya at a very good level with little or no effort but Kyripon speakers may struggle to understand Nkonya.

With the Ewe-Akan Guan languages, they do not claim direct ancestry from Larteh but believed they and the ancient Guans lived together at Bono-Manso as one people until the great war separated all of them. Among the Akan Related Guans which include Nzema, Anyin, Chakosi, Ahanta, Bawule and the like, it is Anyin and Ahanta that have lots of Guan vocabularies in their language. Nzema has been greatly influenced by Akan but the Anyins have less trouble understanding Larteh without translations.

Most Anyins and Chakosis are quick to believe and agree to the fact that they were Guans who might have lost their ancestry over time but some Nzemas are rather quick to disagree without taking into fact that their language developed from Anyin which has been Akanised over time. In the case of Chakosi, they are much closer to the Gonjas, Akyodes and Semere and once with the Nkonya in the Oti Region thus, they mostly believe in the bond rather than the separation.

The Larteh Language at the moment is currently endangered as it is gradually being replaced by Twi. The entire Larteh-Akuapem and Okere-Akuapem communities are at the moment trilingual in Akan, Guan and English right from birth. They pick up other languages when they migrate to the cities.

Most Lartehs that are out of the Larteh township can barely hold a 30-minute conversation without codeswitching to Akan. At Larteh itself, most of the folks use Akan as their medium of communication and that is endangering the language.

While talking about Larteh, let us look at the Larteh’s at the coast of Ghana popularly known as Awutus and Efutus. The Efutu and Awutu as earlier explained speak the same variant of Larteh but Efutu had been greatly influenced by Fante, especially the Mankessim and Gomoa variants whereas Owutu has resisted Akanisation thus, Owutu till date looks almost the same as Larteh with just minor variations.

Gua is a variant of Larteh as we had established. Let us not forget that Kyripon is also a variant of Larteh but Kyripon could have evolved from Larteh and perhaps the Efutus adopted some few words in the course of development. Now, Anum and Boso people could have migrated during the time Kyripon was developing from Larteh. So, although Gua looks like a blend of Larteh and Kyripon, it is more related to Larteh than to Kyripon. Gua language brought about the Nkonya language which makes Nkonya a sister language to Larteh.

The Larteh Language according to Mr. Yane Wuresah Mathew from Kwame-Danso was once the centre of Guan culture and language of reference. It was the basis of reference for all Guan languages and the Larteh community was the epitome of Guan civilization but, at the moment, according to Mr. Yane Wuresah, they do not know what is happening to the Larteh Language.

To talk of Kwame Danso, they speak the Dwan Language. Dwan is spoken in an enclave of Guan languages and it is together with Basa, Wiase, Ntsumburun forming a dialect continuum of closely related languages but Dwan is a minor Guan language spoken by just the Kwame-Danso community. This has thus, helped it to conserve vocabulary that are from Larteh although it could be seen as a Northern Guan Language.

Personally, at Kwame-Danso, I realized the language still maintains its Guan accent whereas the other Northern Guans have lost it.

So, what would be the point of writing this article ? I am writing this article to appeal to all well-meaning Larteh people that, the Larteh Language has a place in history and modern Guan language and culture. Thus, there is the need for all Larteh people to help revive their language so as to ginger the Guan speakers to revive their languages.

IMPORTANT GLOSSARY IN LARTEH IN RELATION TO SOME GUAN LANGUAGES

LARTEH	OWUTU	EKERE	DWAN	ANYIN	NTSUMBURUN	ENGLISH
Bɛ	Ba	bɛ	Bā	Ba	Ba	Come
Nfe	Ɛye	To	Nfee	Wa	Nfe	Here
Nyɛ/yɛ	Yɔ	Nye/wɔ	Nɛi/yɛ	Hɔ	Narɛ/Yɔ	Go
Nfanɛ	Ntina	Tanɛ	Nuu	Dɔnha	Nfa	There
Sisɛ	Oshani	Sisɛ	Esā	Sonha	Sisɛ	Human
Gyi	Di	Gyi	Gyi	Didi	Gyi	Eat
Bɔ mo nte	Bɔ mo ja	Bɔ mo ndɛ	Bɔ nten	Yɛ ndɛ	Wa-menaŋ	Hurry up
Ntsu	Ntsu	Ntsu	Ntsu	Nzue	Ntsu	Water
Kyina se	Kyina ase	Kyina se	Kyina se	Tana se	Kyina	Sit down
Kyi	Nke	Kyi	Kayi	Kyinha	Kake	Day
De	Dee	De	Dele	La	Di	Sleep
Onyinɛ	Ohi	Enyi	Kanyinsɛɛ Ɔnyini	Benzuwa	Ɔnyɛri	Boy
Afa	Afa	Afa	dɛ	Fɛ	Kɔni	Sweet
Ɔkɛ	Ɔke	Akyi	Ɔkā	Ɛhima	Nyani	Tomorrow
Buferɛ	Bulufɔ	Brufe	Nburī	Bie Embienhi	Mburufo	Urine
Bie	Bia	Bie	Bie	Bia	Gyie	Bath

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Know Ghana Better written by Huniah Tetteh published in the year 2021.The Premier Edition

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