The African e-Journals Project has digitized full text of articles of eleven social science and humanities journals. This item is from the digital archive maintained by Michigan State University Library. Find more at: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/ Available through a partnership with Scroll down to read the article. RESEARCH REVIEW NS VOL.7 NOS. 1 & 2 1991 TWI ETYMOLOGY: A STUDY IN ETHNO-LINGUISTICS Owusu Brempong Language as an arbitrary system of vocal symbols is a device through which human beings interact in terms of the total culture. The proposition for this paper is that Twi speaking peoples of Ghana have labels affixing to the behaviours which receive the names in that culture; that the lexemes assigned to concepts are linked to the cultural behaviour of the Akan Twi speaking peoples. The method employed here is a functional analysis, a method of determining the semantic components of concepts forwhichagiventermis a rubric; a sequence of phonemes that carries meaning and show the way of life of a people influences the particular language they speak. The subject of Twi etymology several times was introduced in conversation and often, it generated a heated debate among friends who belong to various Akan ethnic groups i.e., Asante, Bono, Akwapim and Fante. This informal method of receiving comments on the subject and acting as participant observer aided me to determine various morphemes which are put together to form lexemes; cultural pattern which is determined by the cultural behaviour of various Akan groups. The basic aim of "Twi Etymology" is to be used as a tool for teaching the Twi language to non-native speakers; aiding students to understand the links between Twi words and the cultural behaviour of the Akan peoples. Twi Etymology can also be utilized as a research tool for studies in linguistic anthropology. The ideas presented in this paper, so to speak, are not in the minds of every Twi speaker. Words exist in a language but due to cultural change, people might have different interpretations. People who possess the requisite knowledge, either non-literate or Western educated, will be interested in the subject. One important area of Twi Etymology which needs to be investigated is place names, how towns and villages in Ghana got their authentic names. Here again, the Twi names of these towns and villages, when etymologized could throw very much light on their historical and original discovery. For example, J.G. Christaller (1933:270) and W.E.F. Ward (1967:118) tell us that Kumasi (the capital of Ashanti), originated when the legendary priest, Okomfo Anokye, planted Okum trees, one at Kwaman which grew and became Kumase, hum meaning' 'the tree'' and ase meaning under. Hence Kumase means under the him tree. The other tree became kumawu, literally meaning him = tree and awu = dead, hence the name designated for the Ashanti town Kumawu means the dead hum tree Another example is Twimia a name designated to a village in Techiman, Brong Ahafo region. Like farming, hunting expeditions have led to the creation of many villages in Techiman. Twimia village falls in the latter category, Twimia village as the name implies, was a place where a species of antelope (otwe, plural atwe) were always pressedby hunters (otwe, antelope; mia, pressed), otwe - mia became Twimia. 93 For several years I have been playing with Twi words or lexemes of the Akan peoples of Ghana, in reference to a number of interesting foundations in the language. I began to ask some epistemological questions. What is the foundation of certain words in the Twi language and how are they formed? In order to explore the origin of some lexemes in Twi in relation to their meanings and their usage, I decided to etymologize their morphemic content. My approach was analytical and I discovered that some of the words in Twi were made up of two or more morphemes, each morpheme having a distinct meaning which together with other morphemes compose one meaningful lexeme. As Herbert Blumer writes: Human beings act towards things on the basis of the meanings that the things have for them. Such things include everything that the human being may note in his world - physical objects, such as trees or chairs; other human beings, such as mother or a store clerk; categories of human beings, such as friends or enemies; institutions, as school or a government; guiding ideals, such as indi- vidual independence or honesty, activities of others, such as their commands or requests; and such situations as an individual encounters in his daily life} I began to find out that the semantic content of some of the Twi lexemes has cognitive significance and is based on functional determinism. The names of many objectives reflect the functions which they have for the users, the Twi speaking people. Further investigation revealed that there are some lexemes which result from processes of culture change, inter-cultural contacts growing out of particular historical situations. The contact of Twi-speaking people with Europeans dates back to the fifteenth century. The activities of the Portuguese, English, French and Danish traders had great historical impact on the West Coast of Africa. On the whole I have dealt here systematically with specific lexemes, but I can say that the survey is incomplete since it was impossible to deal with all the Twi lexemes. Materials provided here are rather examples of ideas which merit further analytical consideration. The meanings which I have assigned to the morphemes in these lexemes are my own and therefore I would welcome any criticism which might help to advance and deepen our understanding of the semantic content of Twi words and the Akan culture. THE AKAN KINSHIP SYSTEM To start, I would like to deal with some of the basic terms designated for the family in the Akan world. Every Akan is born into an abusua, the blood family system or the clan. Each child inherits a spirit (totem) from his father but has his mother's blood. Therefore each child is related, through blood, to his mother's brother, to his mother's sister and her siblings; but not to the children of his mother's brother. The word Abusua when etymologized has two morphemes, abu literally meaning broken and sua meaning to learn. Abusua2 in a sense therefore means part of the society which is broken or a segment of the society which can be uniquely identified. The lexeme Sua to learn, denotes the learning process within such an institution. This means that individuals within the Abusua learn to identify themselves with the group.The Abusua expects individuals to play important roles in perpetuating and enhancing the clan. Members have social and financial obligations to each other and to the clan; they produce children (especially the women) and pay for the schooling of nephews and nieces, for example. 94 The strength of the Abusua is illustrated by several Twi proverbs, Abusua te se nhwiren, egugu akuw-akuw meaning The family is like flowers, it blossoms in clusters, illustrate the nature of the Abusua and its relation to society. A similar proverb, Abusua ye dom meaning The Abusua is an army refers to the strength of the extended family as a social unit in the Akan society. The proverb Abusua dua wontwa. The family tree is not cut illustrates the relation of the individual to the extended family. The Spouse: Mother and Father I have isolated some of the lexemes for Akan Kinship terminology for both affinal and consanguineal groupings. The main aim here is to create understanding for mainly people who do not know anything about the system. It would be equally helpful to native Twi speakers. We should not overlook the legal union of a man with a woman as a husband and a wife; the legal relation of spouses to each other - wedlock. Marriage in Twi is designated with the word awadee. This lexeme has two morphemes, awa from ware meaning long and dee from adee, meaning something. In a sense, the word awadee literally means something that lasts a long time i.e. a legal union of a man with a woman for life. Due to the concept of longevity assigned to marriage in the Akan world, the spouses are not only married to themselves but they are also married to both the extended family of the man and the woman; lifetime alliance between two extended families. Hence both extended families seek the longevity of such union. Explaining, the nature of marriage, Nana Abrafl, the queenmother of Techiman, saido nnemmafoo monnim nti, awadee dee warepaal meaning, You modern people, you don't know (understand), as for marriage, it is very long.3 Here we can see how Twi etymology gets into ethnography of speaking, how individual speakers assign meanings to words to communicate effectively about topics. Now let us consider the lexemes designated for both the husband and wife relatiships. The wordyere is used for a wife; that is, a man'syere is the woman. The wordyere literally means to spread to stretch i.e., to push it farther. In the Twi language one can say, yere nopintin meaning to holdfast or stretch tight. In a sense, when a woman is married to a man she is restricted or she restricts herself from indulging in activities considered by the society as immoral which could damage her marriage. Activities such as going out with another man or refusing to carry out domestic duties. Thus the marriage relationship makes the woman standfast. A husband's relationship to his wife is kunu, thus a man is a kunu (husband) to his yere (wife).