Concentric: Studies in Linguistics 34.2 (July 2008): 85-100 The Structure of the CCV Syllable of Akan * Charles Marfo and Solace Yankson Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology The issue that is looked into in this paper is whether or not the CCV syllable structure in Akan involves a true consonant cluster. Following Dolphyne (1988), an attempt is made to discuss the issue with the claim that Akan does not have a basic CCV structure, but only a surface realization of it. It is explained that the surface CCV is motivated by the economy of expression principle (e.g. Bresnan 2001). It is argued therefore that where CCV seems to have been realized, it is only so because of an application of an economy-motivated process of vowel elision that results in a syllable reduction. It is accordingly explained that the ensuing CCV should be analyzed into CVCV. Three factors, i.e. occurrence of [r], attainment of vowel harmony and the specification of the feature high, are discussed as contributors to the realization of CCV. Key words: Akan, economy (of speech), labialization, syllable structure, vowel harmony, vowel height 1. Introduction Consonant cluster(s) in Akan, specifically in Asante-Twi, 1 is the subject of discussion in this paper. In the discussion, the issue we look into and strive to explain is whether or not Akan has a true consonant cluster in a syllable. We endeavor to explain the claim that Akan does have a consonant cluster in the syllable, but only in the phonetic form as the most economical form. In other words, among the basic syllable structures of the language, there is no consonant cluster, neither in the onset nor in the coda. The non-existence of a basic consonant clusters in Akan is also illustratively pointed out by Dolphyne (1988:52-54). Akan has a number of basic syllable structures. The common ones are V and CV, as in abaa ‘a stick/cane’, which is syllabified as [V.CV.V]. As could be observed from [V.CV.V], the common ones are put together to form other basic structures, e.g. CVCV. The fact that Akan does not have consonant clusters is immediately supported by the coda situation in the language. That is to say, the language has no closed syllables, * We are grateful to the participants at the 1 st Annual Academic Retreat of the Departments of English and Modern Languages held in Cape Coast, Ghana, for their insightful comments and questions. Our appreciation also goes to anonymous reviewers of this journal for their keen observations and comments. Finally, we will like to thank Ove Lorentz (CASTL, Norway) for reading through the paper and raising pertinent issues that led to substantial revision. 1 Akan is a member of the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo language family and a two-tone language (i.e. high and low, e.g. see (2)) that is mainly spoken in Ghana. Asante-Twi is one of the major languages that comprise Akan. The other major ones are Fante and Akuapim-Twi. I focus on Asante-Twi in this paper although the name Akan will be used consistently as reference.