Intelligibility among the different dialects of Bono can be difficult. Bono is mutually intelligible with neighboring dialects of Akan such as Asante, but the degree of intelligibility drops off with geographical distance, and Fante is effectively a different language. Most speakers of Bono are
bidialectal in Asante. Bono and
Wasa are the most divergent dialects of Akan. Along with Fante, Bono is also one of the most conservative, retaining Central Tano features such as the third-person plural pronoun
bɛ that have been lost elsewhere.
Differences from other dialects of Akan Phonological • Bono tends to use /h/ where Asante has palatalized it to
hy (/ɕ/) and
hw (/ɕʷ/): cf. Bono
hia vs. Asante
hyia ("to meet"). • Bono has [l] and [r] in free variation, where Asante has only /r/ or only /l/. As Akan generally has [d] in complementary distribution with [r], there are some Bono words with [l], [r], and [d] in free variation, e.g.
fiela/
fiera/
fieda ("Friday"). A similar process may be found in some varieties of Asante, e.g.
akɔlaa/
akɔraa/
akɔdaa ("child"). • In most Akan dialects, the emphatic particle
nà is pronounced with a low tone, whereas in Bono it is
né, with a high tone. • Unlike other varieties of Akan, and most
Kwa languages in general, which have nominal vowel prefixes, many Bono nouns have either a
homorganic nasal prefix or no nasal prefix at all: cf. Bono
pɔnkɔ vs. Asante
ɔpɔnkɔ ("horse"). Conversely, while most dialects have lost the nominal vowel suffix, Bono as well as Asante have retained it: cf. Bono
nsuo vs. Akuapem
nsu ("water"). Asante is the only dialect to have retained both vowel prefix and suffix: cf. Bono
wuo, Asante
owuo, and Akuapem
owu ("death").
Grammatical • The most characteristic feature of Bono is its use of the third-person plural pronoun
bɛ, not found in any other Akan dialect. • Akan subject markers are usually only used when a subject is not made explicit, and are only ever used alongside an explicit subject in emphatic sentences. However, in Bono, an explicit subject is almost always used alongside a subject marker, whether the sentence is emphatic or not: cf. Asante
Kofi kɔe ("Kofi went", with explicit subject and without subject marker) and
ɔkɔe ("
He went", with subject marker) vs. Bono
Kofi ɔkɔe (literally "Kofi he went", with explicit subject and subject marker). Similarly, Bono requires a possessor as well as a possessive pronoun, e.g.
Kofi ne dan (literally "Kofi his house"), although this is a feature found in Fante and Akuapem. • In Bono, the first-person singular prefixes
me- reduce to a homorganic syllabic nasal when they occur immediately before a consonant, e.g.
mbaeɛ ("I came"), whereas other Akan dialects do not reduce it, e.g.
mebae ("I came"). • Bono does not distinguish the third-person singular animate
ɔ- and inanimate
ɛ- possessive prefixes common to other Akan dialects, instead using
ɔ- (sometimes pronounced
wɔ-) for both: cf. Bono
ɔkɔ ("he/she/it has gone") vs. Akuapem
ɔkɔ ("he/she has gone") and
ɛkɔ ("it has gone"). == Grammar ==