Tune your ears to Akan

The task:

Listen to a series of 8 very short sentences.
Each sentence consists of three to four syllables.
Each syllable is a word of its own and has its own meaning.
The last two syllables always have the same meaning: "... know that place."
You are requested to tell the difference between the 8 sentences, just from hearing.

What you need to know

1^st step: know the meaning of the words

If you know the following four Akan words, you will know what each syllable means:

The accent on the vowel signifies that the syllable is pronounced on a high tone.
Words or syllables without accent are pronounced on low tone.

2^nd step: learn to discriminate sentence meaning (question, statement, negation etc.)

Statement vs. question

Listen to the following sentence:

means 'They know that place.' (accents: low tone, low tone, high tone)

Now listen to the next sentence:

means: 'Do they know that place?'

Can you hear the difference? A slight quick drop of the melody on the last syllable shows that this is a question, not a statement.

Listen again. Make sure you got the difference.

Affirmation vs. negation

Now listen again to the statement:

'They know that place.'

And now listen to the next sentence:

means: 'They do not know that place."

What is the difference from which the native speaker can tell whether the sentence is affirmative or negative? If you are not yet sure, listen again to the two sentences, one after the other.

The difference between them is on the second syllable, nim. nim is the verb and means 'to know'. If the sentence is negated, the verb changes to high tone.

But there is another difference, too, which shows that the sentence is negated. The "n" of nim has more weight and is longer. This is due to another syllable –n- which is low-toned and means "not" and which comes in between the pronoun and the verb:

'they-not-know'

The two "n" are not pronounced separately. Therefore, what you hear is just the lengthening and the tone difference caused by the negative "n".

3^rd step: distinguishing between the pronouns "you" and "they"

Now you are close to embarking on the listening exercice. You already know the variables which change a statement into a question, and an affirmation into a negation.

But in order to be sure not to miss anything, you need to listen to the first syllable as well. The first syllable can mean either "you" or "they".

Just remember that "you" and "they" differ by the colour of their vowel AND by their tone:

is closer to 'u' and is high tone, is more like 'o' and is low tone.

A final warning

Do not forget: different variables may be combined. For instance, in Akan just as in any language, a negative sentence can be questioned. For instance: "Do you not know that place?"

The exercice: applying what you know

Listen to each of the 8 sentences, one after the other. Try to hear the differences of melody ("tone") between them. Close the sound player window after each sentence.

Some useful tips

For hearing the difference, compare the tone of each syllable with the tone of the preceding or following tone.
For instance: Is the pronoun (you, they) higher than the verb (nim), are they both the same, or is the verb higher than the pronoun?
If the pronoun is high, this is a clear indication that it means "you", not "they". If it is low, this is a clear indication that it means "they", not "you".
Remember: -n, the negation, which occurs between the pronoun and the verb, counts as a syllable of its own. It is always low tone.
Try also to hear the difference of the vowels on the first syllable, which also may help you to discern whether the pronoun is "you" or "they".
Next, listen to each of the 8 sentences, one after the other. Try to understand what it says:

These are the choices you must make from what you hear:

Is it "you" or "they"?
Is it affirmative or negative?
Is it a statement or a question?

Assign the number of the sound to the Akan sentence.

Go to test