The Akan or Central Tano languages are a pair of dialect clusters of the Atlantic–Congo family (perhaps in a theorised Kwa branch) spoken in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire by the Akan people.
Akan is commonly called "Central Tano" to disambiguate it from the Twi-Fante language, which has commonly been called "Akan" since a unified Twi-Fante orthography was introduced.
Internal classification
There are two or three languages, each with dialects that are sometimes treated as languages themselves:
- Twi-Fante (primarily in Ghana and East-central Ivory coast (Bono))
- core (Asante Twi, Akuapem Twi and Fante)
- Bono–Wasa
- Bia (primarily in Ivory Coast and Western Ghana)
- Northern Bia language
- Anyin dialect
- Baoulé dialect
- Chakosi (Anufo) dialect
- Sefwi (Sehwi) dialect
- Southern Bia language
- Nzema dialect
- Ahanta dialect
- Jwira–Pepesa dialect
All have written forms in the Latin script.