Abstract
The unspeakable or verbal taboos are words that are considered in bad taste by speakers of a language. They are associated with things that are not said, particularly in words and expressions in a given society because of their indecency, shocking character or immorality Verbal taboos in Akan include ntam ‘reminiscential oath’, duabɔ ‘imprecation’, nsedie ‘selfimprecation’, atɛnnidie ‘invectives’, ammɔdin ‘unspeakable’ The unspeakable may include the effluvia of the human body: faeces, menstrual fluid, etc. and the sex organs and acts related to sex. The data for this paper was drawn from Akan news on Adom FM (a local Akan radio station in Ghana) and an Akan proverb contest on Peace FM (a local Akan radio station) from June 2023 to December 2023. In addition, a questionnaire was conducted with 118 level 300 native Akan speakers at the Faculty of Ghanaian languages Education, University of Education, Winneba. The paper focuses on invectives and the unspeakable in Akan and argues that although the Akan culture does not allow the use of these expressions in normal speech, they are permitted in proverbs.
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