Ghanaian Pidgin English

Ghanaian Pidgin English
Kru Brofo (akan) "kulu blofo (Ga language)
Native toGhana
Native speakers
5 million (2011)[1]
(not clear if this number includes L2 speakers)
English Creole
Language codes
ISO 639-3gpe
Glottologghan1244
Linguasphere52-ABB-be
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This article is about an English-based creole. For standard English spoken in Ghana, see Ghanaian English.
Faisal Ali speaking in Ghanaian Pidgin about the language's Wikipedia project

Ghanaian Pidgin English (GhaPE)[2] is a Ghanaian English-lexifier pidgin also known as Pidgin, Broken English, and Kru English (kroo brofo in Akan). GhaPE is a regional variety of West African Pidgin English[3] spoken in Ghana, predominantly in the southern capital, Accra, and surrounding towns.[2] It is confined to a smaller section of society than other West African creoles, and is more stigmatized,[2] perhaps due to the importance of Twi, an Akan dialect,[4] often spoken as lingua franca.[5] Other languages spoken as lingua franca in Ghana are Standard Ghanaian English (SGE) and Akan.[6] GhaPE cannot be considered a creole as it has no L1 speakers.[7][8]

GhaPE can be divided into two varieties, referred to as "uneducated" or "non-institutionalized" pidgin and "educated" or "institutionalized" pidgin. The former terms are associated with uneducated or illiterate people and the latter are acquired and used in institutions such as universities[2][9] and are influenced by Standard Ghanaian English.[4][10]

GhaPE, like other varieties of West African Pidgin English, is also influenced locally by the vocabulary of the indigenous languages spoken around where it developed. GhaPE's substrate languages such as Akan influenced use of the spoken pidgin in Ghana.[4][10][11] Other influencers of GhaPE include Ga, Ewe, and Nzema.[4] While women understand GhaPE, they are less likely to use it in public or professional settings.[10] Mixed-gender groups more often converse in SGE or another language.[12] Adults and children have traditionally not spoken GhaPE.[10]

In some cases, educators have unsuccessfully attempted to ban the use of pidgin.[13] Although other languages of Ghana are available to them, students, particularly males, use GhaPE as a means of expressing solidarity, camaraderie and youthful rebellion.[4][5] Today, this form of Pidgin can be heard in a variety of informal contexts, although it still carries a certain stigma.[2] Specifically, GhaPE still carries stigma in academia which may explain why "few structural or sociolinguistic descriptions of the variety have been published".[9] Contemporary GhaPE is spoken by 20% of the population with 5 million speakers.[14] In general, pidgins are spoken in a wide range of situations and occasions including: "educational institutions, work places, airports, seaports, drinking places, markets, on the radio, popular songs, and on political platforms".[4]

GhPE, like other varieties of West African Pidgin English is influenced locally by the vocabulary of the indigenous languages spoken around where it developed, in this case, as around the Greater Accra Region, largely Ga. When spoken, it can be difficult for Nigerian pidgin speakers to understand Ghanaian speakers – for instance, the words "biz" (which stands for "ask"), "kai" (which means "remember") and "gbeketii", meaning "in the evening", in the Standard Ghanaian English.[citation needed]

Also, young educated men who were raised outside Accra and Tema very often do not know it until they come into contact with others who do at boarding-school in secondary school or at university.[citation needed] But that might be changing, as Accra-born students go to cities such as Ghana's second city Kumasi to study at university and so could help gain the language new diverse speakers.[citation needed]

Over the years, some young Ghanaian writers have taken to writing literary pieces such as short stories in GhPE as an act of protest.[15] GhPE has also seen expression in songs and movies and in advertisements.

  1. ^ Ghanaian Pidgin English at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b c d e Huber, Magnus (1 January 1999). Ghanaian Pidgin English in its West African Context. Varieties of English Around the World. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. doi:10.1075/veaw.g24. ISBN 978-90-272-4882-4.
  3. ^ McArthur, Tom (23 April 1998). The English Languages (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9780511621048.008. ISBN 978-0-521-48130-4.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Amoako, Joe K.Y.B. (1992). "Ghanaian Pidgin English: In Search of Synchronic, Diachronic, and Sociolinguistic Evidence" (Ph.D. Dissertation). University of Florida at Gainesville.
  5. ^ a b Dako, Kari (24 February 2004). "Student Pidgin (SP): the Language of the Educated Male Elite". Research Review of the Institute of African Studies. 18 (2): 53–62. doi:10.4314/rrias.v18i2.22862. ISSN 0855-4412. S2CID 146536980.
  6. ^ Yakpo, Kofi (1 January 2016). ""The only language we speak really well": the English creoles of Equatorial Guinea and West Africa at the intersection of language ideologies and language policies". International Journal of the Sociology of Language (239). doi:10.1515/ijsl-2016-0010. ISSN 0165-2516. S2CID 147057342.
  7. ^ Huber, Magnus (19 December 2008). "Ghanaian Pidgin English: Morphology and Syntax". In Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W. (eds.). A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool. Vol. 2. Berlin, Boston: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 866–878. doi:10.1515/9783110197181-123. ISBN 978-3-11-019718-1. S2CID 241854285.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  8. ^ Huber, Magnus (1 January 1995). "Ghanaian Pidgin English: An Overview". English World-Wide. 16 (2): 215–249. doi:10.1075/eww.16.2.04hub. ISSN 0172-8865.
  9. ^ a b Huber, Magnus (2008). "Ghanaian Pidgin English: Phonology". In Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W. (eds.). A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool. Vol. 1. Berlin, Boston: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 866–873. doi:10.1515/9783110197181-053. S2CID 243085546.
  10. ^ a b c d Ewusi, Kelly Jo Trennepohl (2015). "Communicational Strategies in Ghanaian Pidgin English: Turn-Taking, Overlap and Repair" (Ph.D. Dissertation). Indiana University.
  11. ^ Amoako, Joe (2011). Ghanaian Pidgin English: Diachronic, Synchronic and Sociolinguistic Perspectives. New York: Novinka. ISBN 978-1-5361-1284-9.
  12. ^ Huber (1999), p. 150.
  13. ^ Huber, Magnus (1999). Ghanaian Pidgin English in its West African context: A Sociohistorical and Structural Analysis. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 150. ISBN 978-1-55619-722-2.
  14. ^ Michaelis, Susanne; Philippe Maurer; Martin Haspelmath; Magnus Huber, eds. (2013). The atlas of Pidgin and Creole language structures. [Oxford], United Kingdom: APiCS Consortium. ISBN 978-0-19-969139-5. OCLC 839396764. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  15. ^ flashfictiongh (8 April 2016). "'Ebi Time' by Fui Can-Tamakloe". Flash Fiction GHANA. Retrieved 11 March 2020.