Ghanaian pidgin english ghape, also known as kru english or, in akan, kroo brofo, is a variety of west african pidgin english spoken in ghana, predominantly in. Jan 19, 2016 how to say the twi alphabet vowels in this mini blog post we shall learn about asante twi vowels. Whether ks originated as a british dialectal form or spontaneously in aave is unclear. Contrasting english phonology and nigerian english phonology saleh, a. The paper focuses on describing the assimilation process of palatalization. It is the sibilant equivalent of the voiceless palatal fricative. Dodd et al 2003 reports a normative study on the phonological development of british englishspeaking children.
In the last five decades, new varieties of english in a postcolonial context have been the focus of a vast number of studies aiming at an investigation of their characteristic. The oed faces an increasingly uphill struggle in its attempts to capture world english. Ghanaian english suggest the nasal velar is hardly realized in ghanaian english hence the. Ghanaian writing of english has some widespread misspellings such as portable for potable and groupper for grouper. Towards standardisation of ghanaian english the case of uew students 29 english is, arguably, the most unifying cultural element of our nation, given the fact ghana is a multilingual country. This dictionary of nigerian english was stimulated by some enquiries from the oxford english dictionary on words of putative west african origin. Compared with some of its facets such as phonology and grammar, the lexis of ghanaian english ghe appears to have received less research attention. Pdf the verbal morphology and phonology of asante twi. Phonological and phonetic characteristics of african. Pdf this paper adds to the literature on the phonology of ghanaian english. If these seem to have gain wide currency they are included. We can say therefore that descriptions on ghe pronunciation in general are rare. Pichi is an afrocaribbean englishlexifier creole spoken on the island of bioko, equatorial guinea. Ahulu goes on to inform us that, currently, pidgin english is used by only a small percentage of the ghanaian population those uneducated in bse.
The verbal morphology and phonology of asante twi 101. Towards standardisation of ghanaian english the case of. Old english originated from a germanic tribal and linguistic continuum along the frisian north sea coast, whose languages gradually evolved into the anglic languages in the british isles, and into the frisian languages and low germanlow saxon on the continent. The paper focuses on describing the assimilation process of palatalization which is a feature in the coarticulation of. Pdf palatalization practices in ghanaian english researchgate. English is the official language of ghana, and is used as a lingua franca throughout the country.
About the english language in ghana today and about. Contrasting english phonology and nigerian english phonology. The intelligibility of everyday speech is built on the mastery and the use of appropriate intonation patterns. Spellingpronunciation in ghanaian english language in india.
A sociohistorical and structural analysis varieties of english around the world general series. Phonologists are interested in the sound patterns of particular languages, and in what. Exploring the feasibility of a proposed ghanaian english. A phonological study of the effect of academic competence on. A phonological study of the effect of academic competence. An acousticarticulatory study of bilingual vowel production. Ghana has english as an imported language and speakers of english have appropriated and nativised the language at all linguistic levels including phonology. This paper adds to the literature on the phonology of ghanaian english. Olaniyi, oladimeji kaseem, phd department of english kwara state university malete, kwara state nigeria. It assumes some level of proficiency on the part of students in the language concerned. This book is intended to help meet the need for published works on african englishes in general and ghanaian english in particular.
Feb 12, 2019 ghanaian english ghae and in its subcategories. Jan 28, 2010 even if you dont find yourself traveling to nigeria in the distant future, try one of these phrases on one of your nigerian friends, and fully bask in their glowing response. An empirical analysis of ghanaian english phonology pia van rahden, m. Ewe, dangbe, hausa and english and although you wont be expected to understand them all it might help to know a. This is an introduction to the phonology of presentday english. Due to ghana s colonial history, ghanaian english most closely resembles british english, although it is wildly varied and deviates from. Reviewed by andreas joswig sil international introduction at the turn of the twentyfirst century, could there be anything less necessary than another book on german phonology. The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of the velar nasal. Modern ghana is a coastal west african country and consists of britains former gold coast colony, ashantiland.
Ghanaian pidgin english ghape, also known as kru english or, in akan, kroo brofo, is a variety of west african pidgin english spoken in ghana, predominantly in the southern towns and the capital, accra. The distinctiveness of ghanaian english involves the. This article investigates the acoustic and articulatory correlates of vowel contrasts in bilingual speakers. Even if you dont find yourself traveling to nigeria in the distant future, try one of these phrases on one of your nigerian friends, and fully bask in their glowing response.
Most primary and secondary school classes are taught in english only. Of the more than 28 million people in ghana, more than half of the population uses english, and most use english exclusively. Listen to how the pidgin english phrases listed below here. Towards standardisation of ghanaian english the case of uew. Due to ghanas colonial history, ghanaian english most closely resembles british english, although it is wildly varied and deviates from the standard in many ways based on location and context.
This makes intonation the music of everyday speech of which its appropriate use has been the final hurdle that the majority of the speakers of english as a second language have not crossed. Pdf aspects of akan grammar and the phonologysyntax. English phonology and spoken english, and have been considered academically competent enough to be awarded a first degree in the english language and admitted to a master of arts in the english language in university of ibadan were randomly selected for this investigation. The case for ghanaian english in the last two decades, the compilation of corpora and the analysis of linguistic phenomena via corpus data have become a fascinating linguistic practice around the world and by this, corpus linguistics is now firmly established as a credible approach for the study of language. The present study is on lexical hybridization, and it represents educated users of english in. Educated nigerian english phonology as core of a regional rp olajide, stephen billy, phd department of arts and social sciences education faculty of education, university of ilorin ilorin, nigeria. Available formats pdf please select a format to send. Modern ghana is a coastal west african country and consists of britains former gold coast colony, ashantiland, the northern territories, and british togoland.
To date it is the most comprehensive analysis of the english accent used by ghanaians, an accent that differs in a number of significant ways from the varieties of english spoken in the majority of west african countries. They were given some oral production tests on intonation tune. Dako 1990 asserts that the neutrality of english ensures its ready acceptance by all ethnic groups in the country. Here are 26 nigerian pidgin english phrases you need to know. Ghanaian english is a variety of english spoken in ghana.
It is an offshoot of 19th century krio sierra leone and shares many characteristics with west african relatives like nigerian pidgin, cameroon pidgin, and ghanaian pidgin english, as well as with the englishlexifier creoles of the insular and continental caribbean. We analyse data from bilingual speakers of twi akan and ghanaian english, with the aim of examining how the production of the advanced tongue root vowel contrast in twi relates to the production of the tenselax vowel contrast in ghanaian english. Ghanaian pidgin english in its west african context. This volume gives a detailed overview of the varieties of english spoken in africa, south and southeast asia, including l1 varieties such as white south african or st helena english, l2 varieties such as cameroon, pakistani, or malaysian english as well as pidgins and creoles such as nigerian or ghanaian pidgin. How to say the twi alphabet vowels in this mini blog post we shall learn about asante twi vowels. This paper focuses on the ghanaian english pronunciation standard gheps. Abstract the thrust of this work is the fact that phonology plays a vital role in language and communication both in localnative, national and international languages.
This course is designed to enable students apply the principles of phonetics and phonology to the description of the sounds and sound patterns of a ghanaian language e. English is an indoeuropean language and belongs to the west germanic group of the germanic languages. English is the most used of the 11 official languages spoken in ghana. Phonological and phonetic characteristics of african american. Hybridized lexical innovations in ghanaian english 181 ghanaians speak mainly one ghanaian language in addition to english. This is a general discussion of the phonology of english within the frameworks of lexical, metrical, and prosodic phonology. Ghana calls an end to tyrannical reign of the queens english. Listen to the audio pronunciation in the cambridge english dictionary.
Educated nigerian english phonology as core of a regional rp. Ghanaian ghanaian west african english one of the more surprising things about ghanaian english is the extent to which it has a common lexicon. General american, southern british received pronunciation and scottish standard english. There are phonemic representations of all twenty rp vowels in ge but their. Prices in gbp apply to orders placed in great britain only. It takes a look at the definition of phonology, the british english and nigerian. Ewe, dangbe, hausa and english and although you wont be expected to understand them all it might help to know a few key words that you can use to pepper. It not only presents a synthesis of current approaches but also reconciles their discrepancies and presents critical commentary. This paper investigated the intonation patterns of the randomly selected 45 bilingual. The phonology of german by richard wiese the phonology of the worlds languages. May 04, 2015 this paper adds to the literature on the phonology of ghanaian english. In contrast, listen to the language of an average, secondaryschool educated ghanaian, whose spoken english deviates from bse but is far from a pidgin. Ghanaian pidgin english is used by roughly a fifth of ghanas over 25 million inhabitants 2012 in variety of situations.
About the english language in ghana today and about ghanaian. An empirical analysis of ghanaian english phonology. Phonetics and phonology at the time of the investigation. The voiceless alveolopalatal sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some oral languages. The symbol in the international phonetic alphabet that represents this sound is. Last time i told you that i am neither a hunter nor a soldier, so i cannot say anything about trouble involving guns. We shall build on what we learn here in subsequent blog posts. Its manner of articulation is sibilant fricative, which means it is generally produced by channeling air flow along a groove in the back of the tongue up to the place of articulation, at which point it is focused against the sharp edge of the nearly clenched teeth, causing highfrequency turbulence its place of articulation is alveolo. As a distinctive variety, ghanaian english ghe phonology has been described by scholarly works like sey 1973. Prices in represent the retail prices valid in germany unless otherwise indicated. It offers a systematic and detailed discussion of the features shared by these major accents, and explains some major differences. Spelling pronunciation in focus the paper concludes that spelling pronunciation has become an innovative feature in ghanaian english not only because of its widespread nature but also because it satisfies two criteria any new english variety ought to meet maintains international. How to pronounce ghanaian in english cambridge dictionary.
These studies looked at ghanaian english phonology to identify vowel and consonant phonemes as used by ghanaians against the rp. Professor dolphynes research interest is in instrumental phonetics, phonological theory, phonology of the akan language and its dialects, the phonology of english and its variations in ghanaian english, historical linguistics with reference to akan, language in education in ghana with reference to the place of ghanaian languages and english. It deals principally with three varieties of english. Phonological and phonetic characteristics of aave 453 however, those cases may likewise represent survivals of older forms. The statistics on the spread and competence of english and the repercussions of the linguistic. Twi consonants have the same sounds as their english counterparts, but the vowels e.