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The Akan people and those who have either lived around Akans or have absorbed Akan people into their population speak Kwa languages, of which Twi/Fante is just one. Twi � Fante consists of the following dialects: * Asante (Ashanti), which together with Akuapem is commonly called Twi * Akuapem (Akwapem) * Akyem * Agona (commonly considered Fante) * Kwahu * Wassa * Fante (Fanti or Mfantse:Anomabo, Abura, Gomua) - Spoken in east coastal Ghana. * Brong - Spoken in west central Ghana and along the border in Côte d'Ivoire The Bureau of Ghana Languages has compiled a unified orthography of 20,000 words. The adinkra symbols are old ideograms. The language came to the Caribbean and South America, notably in Suriname spoken by the Ndyuka and in Jamaica by the Jamaican Maroons known as Kromanti, with enslaved people from the region. The descendants of escaped slaves in the interior of Suriname and the Maroons in Jamaica still use a form of this language, including Akan naming convention, in which children are named after the day of the week on which they are born, e.g. Akwasi (for a boy) or Akosua (girl) born on a Sunday. In Jamaica and Suriname the Anansi spider stories are well known. |