Velar palatalization in Akan: a reconsideration

This paper critically examines the palatalization rule in Akan, a Niger-Congo (Kwa) language, specifically velar palatalization. In addition to the regular Akan phonology, it provides evidence from five main domains in Akan, namely reduplication, loanword phonology, ideophonic constructions and Akan Pig Latin (APL) to show the systematic non-application of this phonological rule, and claim that the hitherto assumed very active process is not as active in the language as we had thought. It is common knowledge in the existing literature that the palatalization rule applies in Akan, just like in many other languages cross-linguistically, whenever a back consonant occurs before a front vowel. There are, however, counter-examples where this rule fails to apply or it underapplies though there is the right ‘palatalizing environment’. A classical example of this non-application has been discussed in the domain of Akan reduplication. In recent times, the observation of such counter-examples has been extended to the domains of Akan loanword phonology, and the APL. The paper concludes by calling for a reconsideration of the analysis of the phenomenon in Akan.