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A government sign in English in Accra. Ghana is a multilingual country in which about eighty languages are spoken. [7] Of these, English, which was inherited from the colonial era, is the official language and lingua franca. [8] [9] Of the languages indigenous to Ghana, Akan is the most widely spoken in the south. [10]
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 ]
[2] [3] It is principally spoken in the central and southern regions of Ghana as well as in settlements in other regions in western Ghana, Ivory Coast, as well as in Liberia, Gambia and Angola. [ 1 ] Fante is the common dialect of the Fante people , whose communities each have their own subdialects , namely Agona, Anomabo, Abura and Gomoa, [ 4 ...
Ga is spoken in south-eastern Ghana, in and around the capital Accra. It has relatively little dialectal variation. Although English is the official language of Ghana, Ga is one of 16 languages in which the Bureau of Ghana Languages publishes material.
West African Pidgin English arose during the period of the transatlantic slave trade as a language of commerce between British and African slave traders. Portuguese merchants were the first Europeans to trade in West Africa beginning in the 15th century, and West African Pidgin English contains numerous words of Portuguese origin such as sabi ('to know'), a derivation of the Portuguese saber. [3]
[2] Ewe (Eʋe or Eʋegbe [ɛβɛɡ͡bɛ]) [3] is a language spoken by approximately 5 million people in West Africa, mainly in Ghana and Togo. [1] Ewe is part of a group of related languages commonly called the Gbe languages. The other major Gbe language is Fon, which is mainly spoken in Benin.
Twi is the common name of the Akan without Fante. [2] [3] Effectively, it is a synonym for 'Akan' that is not used by the Fante people.It is not a linguistic grouping, as Akuapem Twi is more closely related to Fante dialect than it is to Asante Twi. [4]
Americans of Ghanaian descent are still considered oborɔnyi because they come from abroad. Oborɔnyi are considered amusing, especially in rural areas, where children might follow around a foreigner, chanting the word. [4] The term is not derogatory, but a way to identify someone who is not a native-born Ghanaian, or an "obibinyi."