The Language of Nsawa : Akan Funeral Donations

Abstract

The paper discusses the language of Akan funeral donations within language ideology and the expressives speech act. The Akans attach much importance to funerals and one of the areas worth noting is the type of language used when people donate to the bereaved family. The paper considers the participants involved in the speech encounter, the structure of the language, and its stylistics and pragmatics features. The excerpts of nsawa language are analyzed within the framework of speech acts.