Ghanaian Pidgin English


Ghanaian Pidgin English is a Ghanaian English-lexifier pidgin also known as Pidgin, Broken English, and Kru English. GhaPE is a regional variety of West African Pidgin English spoken in Ghana, predominantly in the southern capital, Accra, and surrounding towns. It has strong influence from Received Pronunciation, as well as Ga and Akan, two languages indigenous to the Greater Accra region.
Compared to other West African creoles and particularly other West African Pidgin English varieties such as Nigerian Pidgin English, GhaPE is more restricted in social usage and seems to be more stigmatized. A contributing factor may be the relative importance and usage of other languages such as Standard Ghanaian English, Hausa, and Akan as lingua francas. Other researchers posit long-lasting language ideologies about prestige dialects as a reason for this difference. While GhaPE is generally intelligible with other varieties of West African Pidgin English, there are some significant lexical distinctions, particularly involving vocabulary coming from substrate languages, for instance, the words "biz", "kai" and "gbeketii", meaning "in the evening", in the Standard Ghanaian English.
GhaPE can be divided into two basilectal and mesolectal varieties, which academically are referred to as "Town" and "Student" pidgin in newer literature, with "Student" pidgin first emerging as a term in 2002. They may also be referred to as "uneducated" or "non-institutionalized" pidgin and "educated" or "institutionalized" pidgin respectively. The basilectal Town pidgin is predominantly associated with casual conversation and lower/working class speakers.
Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, male students in boarding and secondary schools began using GhaPE as a form of rebellion against strict educational language ideologies, as educators have attempted to ban the use of pidgin in schools several times. Additionally, these students used GhaPE to express solidarity and camaraderie and establish social groups, with female students and those seen as lacking proficiency in GhaPE being excluded from conversation. For many students, particularly those born outside of major cities like Accra or Tema, this was their first exposure to any form of GhaPE.
This usage of pidgin eventually morphed into the lexically distinct Student pidgin. Student pidgin is often acquired and used in institutions such as boarding schools and universities and are influenced by Standard Ghanaian English. While originally limited to educated male students, Student Pidgin has been increasingly picked up by young women and uneducated young adults, as well as even asserting influence on speakers of Town pidgin due to its association with wealth and education.
Women have been historically less likely to use GhaPE in public or professional settings to avoid the social stigma of illiteracy associated with GhaPE. Use of GhaPE has generally been limited to same-gender groups of similarly aged speakers, though increasingly the boundaries of what is an is not acceptable as speech are blurring. As early as 2008, GhaPE was observed in use in romantic contexts between men and women, and children of middle class families may acquire GhaPE from their fathers even before attending school. However, GhaPE is generally considered unacceptable in formal or traditional contexts, even by speakers who would otherwise use it socially with the same individuals.
Contemporary GhaPE, with influences from both Student and Town pidgin, is spoken by 20% of the population with 5 million speakers. Some of the settings in which GhaPE is commonly used include "educational institutions, work places, airports, seaports, drinking places, markets, on the radio, popular songs, and on political platforms", as well as in military or police forces and in casual, social settings. Over the years, some young Ghanaian writers have taken to writing literary pieces such as short stories in GhaPE as an act of protest. GhaPE has also seen expression in songs and movies and in advertisements.
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. 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.

History

The first European contact on the Gold Coast in West Africa was by Portuguese settlers in 1471. A Portuguese pidgin was used in parts of Africa throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. This pidgin first developed when native speakers of West African languages were taken to Portugal in order to learn Portuguese for translating purposes during voyages. It is speculated that the Portuguese settlement on the Gold Coast may have been reason for the pidgin's continuation in West Africa. This Portuguese pidgin was used for 300 years along the Gold Coast "but probably never far beyond the jargon stage".
Nearly two-hundred years later the following their independence the Dutch "took over all of Portugal's possessions in West Africa by 1642" in the 17th century, however "few linguistic remnants" remained in West African Languages, dialects, or varieties. This could be because the Dutch did not settle amongst the West Africans they traded with.
The British colonized the Gold Coast of West Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries from 1844 to 1957. The British had greater linguistic impact in West Africa as they were in greater contact with the indigenous people. GhaPE developed as masters required communication with their workers and was initially spoken by police corporals, watchmen, labourers, and domestic staff who were trying to keep pace with fast-paced English speakers.
Northern Ghanaians were some of the first to become pidgin speakers as they were late in accessing formal education and were employed by masters. "Migration of West Africans to and through Ghana in search of work" have impacted GhaPE development greatly in the last century. Migrant workers came to Ghana in the 1920s, and during a Nigerian oil boom that brought Ghanaian workers to Nigeria. Usage of GhaPE peaked in the 1980s as foreigners, including Ghanaians, were expelled from Nigeria. Nigerian settler influence has played a major role in the development and use of the language.

Geographic distribution

Dialects and varieties

GhaPE is a variety of West African Pidgin English, signifying relationship with other regional pidgin varieties such as Nigerian Pidgin English. Though some word formations are regional in GhaPE, words are also sometimes borrowed from other regional varieties. GhaPE most commonly borrows "abi", "dey", and "ein" from Nigerian but uses its own word, "commot" frequently as well. Because of Nollywood influence, it is fairly common for Ghanaians to understand Nigerian Pidgin. Furthermore, unlike Nigerian pidgin, the use of Ghanaian pidgin is gendered.
Student Pidgin originated in prestigious Ghanaian all-male secondary schools in the 1960s–1970s, and there has been an ever-increasing number of female students now also using SP.
A particularly basic variety used by illiterate speakers is sometimes called "'Minimal Pidgin', sometimes used between Europeans and servants".

Phonology

Phonology reflects the L1 of the speaker, in the case of GhaPE this includes Ghanaian languages from the Kwa language group.
For example, L1 speakers of Akan or Hausa replace with or. Therefore, "seven" would be pronounced.

Grammar

Morphology

GhaPE has no standardized orthography, research into morphology, syntax and phonology is limited.

Derivation

Morphological processes of reduplication can derivate words in GhaPE. This process "affects verbs, nouns, attributive adjectives, time and manner adverbials, adverbs, and numerals". Reduplication can also show inflection by showing plurality of action amongst verbs.

Inflection

GhaPE nouns can also show plurality similar to substrate Ghanaian languages by adding the suffix -s.

Articles

  • Definite article: dɛ
  • Indefinite article: sɔm
Sometimes with singular nouns, the GhaPE indefinite article sɔm varies with the SGE "a", or is replaced with the Nigerian Pidgin English wan.

Syntax

Sentence Structure

The following example shows the declarative sentence structure SV.

Lexis

Amoako finds that most of the GhaPE lexis and some of its syntax comes from English, however it has likely been re-lexified by the more current Ghanaian English.

Examples

  • "biz" "ask"
  • "kai" "remember"
  • "gbeketii" "in the evening"

Writing system

GhaPE is primarily spoken and, like many pidgins, is rarely written and has no standardized orthography.