Language shift

ISSN: 1750-8649 (print) ISSN: 1750-8657 (online)

Sociolinguistic Studies

Article

Language shift: a case study of Ghana Kofi Agyekum Abstract This paper discusses language shift in Ghana from two perspectives: (i) language shift from a Ghanaian language to English which is the official language and (ii) shift from one or two Ghanaian languages to a third Ghanaian language that has become a lingua franca of an area. I will also look at language shift that is societal and based on governmental and institutional policies and others that are individual and based on people’s negative or positive attitudes to certain languages and also for practical reasons on communication. The paper further discusses the major features of languages that are being shifted and the factors that bring about language shift in general and Ghana in particular. It will look at major areas where language shift is predominant and focus on politics, parliament, the judiciary, the electronic media, education, migratory and settlement patterns. The paper will look at the problems with language shift and the need for language maintenance; and provide suggestions that can be employed to reduce or curb language shift. Keywords: multilingualism; language shift; language attitude; government policies; language use; language maintenance; ghana

Affiliation University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana. email: [email protected]

Sols vol 3.3 2009 381–403 ©2009, equinox publishing

doi : 10.1558/sols.v3i3.381 LONDON

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1 Introduction and definitions According to Garret (2006:63), ‘Language shift refers to a situation in which a community of speakers effectively abandons one language by shifting to another (not necessarily by conscious choice).’ Language shift involves the gradual replacement of the communicative functions of one language by another that the user considers to serve the maximum linguistic and social benefits of a particular place and time (see also Trudgill 2000: 191). In language shift, the functions of the minority language diminish in relation to the more prestigious language whose functions expanded to cater for previous functions of the minor language. This trend of ‘linguistic diminishing returns’ can lead to language extinction and death (see also Philips 2006:482). It implies therefore that if language shift is not controlled and checked, it can result in language death. Other terms used instead of language shift are language transfer, language replacement and language assimilation. Saville-Troike (1989:205) states that theories of cultural change are based on two facets operating within a society namely (1) a change and (2) persistence, stability, or maintenance. She posits that ‘Especially in culture contact situations, the possible outcomes for the multiple languages or language varieties involved include their maintenance as separate entities, changes in one or both language systems under influence from the other or the abandonment of one in favour of the other.’ A societal and language contact often results in sociolinguistic change. In the view of Fasold (1984:213) ‘Language shift simply means that ‘a community gives up a language completely in favor of another one. The members of the community, when the shift has taken place, have collectively chosen a new language where an old one used to be used.’ In describing language shift further; Romaine (1994:50) states that: Language shift generally involves bilingualism as a stage on the way to eventual monolingualism in a new language. Typically a community which was once monolingual becomes a bilingual as result of contact with another (usually socially more powerful) group and becomes transitionally bilingual in the new language until their own language is given up altogether.

The major conditions for a language shift are bilingualism, multilingualism; language contact and language diffusion. Brenzinger (1998: 228) clearly states that ‘Language contact is a prerequisite for language shifts.’ When two or more languages operate simultaneously in one society for a longer period, one language group may be compelled to abandon their language and use another’s. If one language is eventually replaced by a new one then there is language death. This is represented below.

Language shift: a case study of Ghana 383

Monolingual → Language A

Bilingual → languages A&B

Monolingual → Language B

Death of language A

Language shift is normally a down-to-top approach. It is usually a weaker, minority or lower-status linguistic group that shifts to a stronger, dominant, majority or higher-status linguistic group and not the reverse. The superior group or language is associated with status, prestige and social success and wider context of usage. A dominant group has little or no incentive and motivation to adopt the language of a minority (see Holmes 2001: 56). This situation is prevalent in Ghana where most people shift to English (the official language or to Akan a major lingua franca. 1 Language shift may also result from language spread that brings about language replacement. When colonial languages like English and French spread very fast in the world, their economic and technological gains influenced most people to learn them and after some time these international languages replaced the indigenous languages. 2 Globalisation has thus accelerated the process of language replacement and shift especially in African societies. Crystal (2000:19) concludes therefore that about half of the world’s languages will not survive the next 100 years. In this paper, I propose two categories of language shift namely, intra-national language shift and international language shift. International language shift is the situation where people shift to an entirely foreign language that is not one of the native languages of their country. In Africa, these languages are the colonial languages like the use of English in Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Kenya, or the shift to French in countries like Togo, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Benin. By intra-national language shift, I am referring to a situation where one indigenous language in a geographical area within a country assumes a lingua franca status and other speakers of other languages thus shift to this language. In West Africa, such trade languages are Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba in Nigeria, Akan in Ghana and Hausa in the Northern parts of Ghana. Hausa is mostly spoken in the Zongo communities in the northern or southern Ghana as a lingua franca for various ethnic groups. According to Dakubu (1988:170) ‘personal observations and survey findings both indicate that there is some tendency for children born in Zongos, 3 at least in the south, to learn Hausa before they learn their parents’ language or languages and to speak it better.’ The Hausa used in Ghana is more of the spoken type than the Nigerian standard variety. In the northern parts of Ghana many Moslems shift from their respective Gur languages into Arabic as a lingua franca during Islamic worship. Arabic is also used in Arabic education among Islamic communities in Ghana. Apart from trade and commerce, cross cultural interaction can also bring about

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intra-national language shift where some people especially from the minority tribes abandon their mother tongue and culture in favour of a majority language (see Gumperz 2001:46). In language shift, phonological and grammatical patterns are more resistant to changes and shift. Loanwords and borrowing are rather more prominent and adapted to the recipient language. Language shift is also based on the diffusionist theory. According to Gumperz (2001:470) ‘The diffusionists viewed the speech community as a dynamic field of action where phonetic change, borrowing, language mixture and language shift all occur because of social forces and where genetic origin is secondary to these forces.’ The socio-cultural forces include ethnicity, gender, trade and commerce, education, occupation, mobility, prestige and status among others. In investigating language shift among a bilingual German-Hungarian community, Gal (1979) posited that these subjective factors play a crucial role in language shift and that the emphasis is on individual goals and practices rather than communal or social. People want to shift their language in order to socialise with some others and this is based on the socialisation paradigm. In studying language shift in a village called Gapun in Papua New Guinea, Kulick (1992:9) therefore poses the question ‘Why and how do people come to interpret their lives in such a way that they abandon one of their languages?’ Apart from this individual and community oriented language shift, other forms of language shift are engineered and controlled by state institutions like education, legislature and these are based on language policies. 1.1 Language shift and death Language shift may lead to an ultimate loss of language, which is language death. Fasold (1984:213) therefore defines language death as when a community shifts to a new language totally so that the old language is no longer used. In linguistics, language death is also referred to as language extinction or linguistic extinction. Language death is a process that affects speech communities where the level of linguistic competence of speakers of a given language is decreased. Language death may affect any language including its dialects. In Ghana it is difficult to find a language that is totally dead; what we rather find is endangered languages that are on the verge of being dead. Examples of these are the fourteen Central-Togo languages, namely: Adele, Basila, Buem, Siwu, Sele, Likpe, Logba, Animere, Kebu, Bowili, Ahlo, Kposo, Avatime, Nyangbo-Tafi (see Dakubu and Ford 1988:123). Almost all these languages shift to Akan or Ewe as their lingua franca; and none of them is used on radio and television. At school the official local language used as a medium of instruction


from Primary 1–3 is Akan for those in the northern and western and the rest use Ewe. Some of these languages are spoken in both Ghana and Togo. 4 Examples of some southern languages in Ghana that are normally shifted include the Bono dialect of Akan whose speakers rather use the Asante version in schools and other areas of language usage. The Ahanta language in the Western region is also normally shifted in favour of the Fante dialect of Akan. Language shift does not always lead to language death, neither is language death always caused by language shift. Speakers of a certain language may shift to another language but they may still use their language in very limited contexts; for instance, for ritual or religious purposes only. Total language death occurs when there are no speakers of a given language that had many speakers some time back. 5 1.2 Methodology and findings The data for this paper was collected from diverse sources including radio and TV broadcasting where code switching and code mixing are employed. I also conducted interview on language attitude among people in the urban areas to find out their allegiance to their mother tongue and English. I also researched into the medium of instruction in a private basic school in Accra. Other sources were sociolinguistic books on contact language, bilingualism and multilingualism and social identity. On the use of English by parents at home with their children, I interviewed 30 parents of Bethesda Methodist Church Agbogba in Accra by using open ended questions. These parents aged between 25 and 50; 18 of them representing 60% were females, and the remaining 12 representing 40% were males. Twelve of them representing 40% had no high school and tertiary education and these were mainly market women and petty traders and artisans. The rest (18) representing 60% of the respondents had completed at least high school and some were university graduates. I also distributed 70 questionnaire to members of the Bethesda Methodist Church Agbogba Accra during a Sunday Service on the 19 July 2009. Some of them were able to fill in the questionnaires and handed them over to me on that day and I collected the rest later. On the whole I got 60 of them back. So the retrieval rate was very high. The questionnaire solicited among other things the type of Bible (language wise) people bring to church and the second Ghanaian language they use apart from their mother tongue. Of the 60 results that I analysed, 36 representing 60% used English Bibles, while 24 representing 40% used Ghanaian Language Bibles. Out of the 24 (40%) who use Ghanaian Language Bibles, 20 of them representing 83.3% used Akan Bible and the rest were Ga Nzema or Ewe.

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Of the 60 respondents 40 (66.6%) were Akans and 20 (33.3%) were nonAkans. On the question of the use of a second Ghanaian language, all the 20 non-Akans respondents indicated that Akan is their L2. Of the 40 Akans only 15 representing 37.5% (Akans) indicated that they speak other Ghanaian Languages especially Ga. Speaking Ga as an L2 in Accra is not surprising since Ga is the local language in Accra. 25 of the Akans, representing 62.5 % ( Akans) do not have any Ghanaian L2. This indicates that most Akans do not shift to other Ghanaian languages. In Solid Rock School a private Basic School that I visited at Agbogba, a suburb of Accra, it came out that the school insisted that all their pupils interact in English from Crèche to the final class of the primary School. The Ghanaian languages are only taught as a subject from P1. It also came out that only two Ghanaian languages Akan and Ga were taught and children who are nonnatives of these two languages had to compulsorily shift to one of them since Ghanaian language is compulsory at the Basic Level Examination. Those who chose Akan outnumbered those who picked Ga. The Akuapem–Twi is taught and all children who speak any of the Akan dialects (natives and non-natives) shift to Akuapem. I recorded Akan and Ga programmes on health, politics and agriculture on Ghana TV and on Peace FM radio and identified the code switching and code mixing by various speakers and callers to the programmes. I also interviewed renowned broadcasters from the various radio stations that use Ghanaian languages to find out their attitude towards their Ghanaian languages and the problems they go through in trying to translate English news and newspaper reports into Akan. The FM stations were Peace FM, Adom FM, and Oman FM all in Accra and Ankobra FM in Nzema in the Western Region. The interviewees were all aware that they were participating in a research exercise. They all confirmed that they code-switch and shift to English when it comes to the translation of figures, technical, scientific and other new concepts that they find it very difficult to get equivalents. Finally, I conducted a one-hour radio programme at the University Radio station at Legon on language attitude and language shift and out of 20 people who called to the programme 15 of them representing 75% complained that most people have shifted from the use of Ghanaian languages to the use of English. They bemoaned that the situation was uncalled for and Ghana will be losing her linguistic and cultural identity in future. This group was not aware that the programme was for a research.


2 Characteristics of languages under shift and threat I will now consider the features that are involved during language shift. The main features are simplification of grammar, assimilation and limited usage. 2.1 Simplification Simplification is the process involved in making a language easier to speak or learn by doing away with all the complexities of grammar and lexicon. Simplification of phonetics or grammar is meant to minimise efforts in producing speech (see Bright 1997:84). Romaine (1994:54) states that ‘Languages undergoing shift display characteristic types of changes, such as the simplification of complex grammatical structures.’ Simplification of language can take place in both languages. In the case of the indigenous language, children do not acquire their language fully because of the language shift, and because of the limited use of the language in many contexts, they tend to simplify it. In simplifying these aspects of language they do away with all the complex stylistic variations. Holmes (2001:58) states therefore that ‘There is a gradual reduction in the complexity and diversity of structural features of the language – speakers’ sound rules get simplified, their grammatical patterns become less complex, and their vocabulary in the language gets smaller and smaller.’ This phenomenon is seen among the Akan youth who now refuse to assimilate [mb] and [nd] combination into [mm] and [nn] and therefore instead of saying nni for ‘do not eat’ they say ndi, and instead of mma ‘do not come’ they say mba. Most modern composers of Akan folk songs limit themselves to some few lines because of their limited scope of vocabulary, idiomatic expressions and proverbs. When people begin to simplify their complex grammatical structures, they lose a lot of grammatical features, and this may be a sign that the speakers are getting ready to move away from that language. The process of simplification also takes place in relation to the target new language where the shift is directed at. The speakers tackle this new language and want to minimise the difficulties and complexities in grammar, lexicon and speech. This is one of the characteristics of pidgin languages in West Africa where Africans decide to simplify the colonial languages to ease communication. 2.2 Assimilation Language shift starts as language assimilation, that is, the speakers of one language begin to copy features of another language and eventually abandon their language and pick another. They may start by picking some lexical items especially loan words for modern technological items.

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The degree of assimilation depends on factors such as: receptiveness of the group to the other culture and language: how prepared they are to receive the other language; the possibility of acceptance by the dominant group and the degree of similarity between the two groups. If speakers of the minority language consider the dominant language as a prestigious one, assimilation will be successful. If the two languages are very similar then assimilation becomes easier. In Ghana, the full assimilation of Ghanaian languages to English is absent but some lexical items from European languages have already been assimilated into Akan. Let us look at the following: Source language Portuguese Portuguese Portuguese Dutch Danish English English English

Word porko taboa pao venstre kalkum shilling plate onion

Akan prako taaboo paanoo mfɛnsere krakum siren prɛte anyow

English gloss pig wooden board bread window turkey shilling plate onion

2.3 Limited use in context Another factor in language shift is that, once a language has been assimilated, the speakers of that language begin to use the new dominant language in many domains originally reserved for the former one. In the view of Holmes (2001:58): With the spread of a majority group language into more and more domains, the number of contexts in which individuals use the ethnic language diminishes. The language usually retreats till it is used only in the home, and finally it is restricted to such personal activities as counting, praying and dreaming.

New ways of life and lot of new terms for new concepts, technology and ICT are easily assimilated into the Ghanaian languages. These are discussed using the new language and there is a drastic reduction in the use of the indigenous language and the number of users of the indigenous languages in wider contexts; this is a sure sign of language shift. In Ghana, most formal sectors like the legislature, executive, judiciary, the print media, education, business employ English in most of their deliberations. In fact, all public documents in Ghana are written in English. Ghanaian languages are reserved for unofficial interactions such as daily conversations,


hawking and trading, local arbitration, religious rituals, funerals, puberty and marriage rites, etc. In the heterogeneous cosmopolitan areas like Accra these customary rites are performed either in English or a mixture of English and the respective Ghanaian languages; but this depends on the ethnic group that is performing the ritual. In the urban areas with high rate of multilingualism, some church services are conducted in English with translations into the Ghanaian languages. Some have early morning services in English and the other services in the Ghanaian languages like Ewe, Ga, Akan, etc.

3 Factors that contribute to language shift Language shift and death are engineered by language ideologies, language policies, language attitudes and everyday communicative practices in bilingual or multilingual communities. The general trend is that communities that have positive feelings and attitudes about their own language and community try to embark on language maintenance. On the contrary, negative attitude to one’s own language results in language shift and further into language death. This issue must not be overemphasised because the positive attitude towards ones language may not necessarily lead to language survival. The next section discusses the major factors that trigger off language shift. These include economic considerations, migration and settlement patterns, exogamous marriages, government policies and political factors, education, media and religion. 3.1 Economic and occupational language shift Economic survival is a major influence in language learning and language shift. Obtaining a job is one of the most obvious reasons for learning a second language (see Holmes 2001:58). I will start from an intra-national language shift in Ghana. During the pre-independence and post independence times, most people from the northern parts of Ghana travelled to the forest areas especially to Brong Ahafo, Ashanti and Eastern regions to work on farm lands. Some of these farm hands were Gurenes, Dagombas, Kusasis, Mamprusis, Kasenas, Dagaabas and Walles who never spoke any Akan. To be able to integrate very well into the Akan community, these migrant workers had to shift from their Gur-languages to Akan (Kwa language). In fact, there are some northerners in Akan speaking areas that speak impeccable Akan and embellish it with proverbs and other figures of speech just like native-Akan speakers. Coulmas (2005:164) identifies a three-tiered arrangement trend of language shift and remarks as follows.

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Sociolinguistic Studies In many African contexts where a three-tiered arrangement of local vernaculars, regional lingua-francas and former colonial languages is typical, shift from a local vernacular to a widely spoken African language such as Swahili, Hausa, Manding and Songhai is more common than to English, Portuguese or French.

We can see similar situations in Ghana and this implies that language shift is triggered by communicative needs at any particular time and space all meant for social adjustment. Most aspects of shifts in Ghana are occupationally oriented. Public servants or workers in private enterprises are forced to learn and shift to the indigenous languages of the areas they work. For example, the Krobos and Guan farmers in Akan areas speak Akan, Akan traders and workers in Volta Region shift into Ewe, non-native Gas in Accra, shift into Ga and Ghanaians who work in the northern parts of Ghana have to learn the Gur languages. Interestingly, there is a type of language shift in the Accra metropolis where the language shift is not based on the Ga language which is the indigenous language but rather a shift from other Ghanaian languages to Akan, the major language of Ghana. Various non-Akan artisans, drivers and sellers in Accra and in the major trading centres shift to Akan when doing business. 6 There is also international economic language shift. In Ghana, the official language is English and most public offices adopt English as the medium of communication. Owners of some businesses and private sectors adopt the English language and people can only speak their various languages when speaking outside official levels. There are crucial settings where workers of banks are forced to shift from English to the respective Ghanaian languages of their customers especially where the customers cannot speak English. Workers thus shift to their customers’ language as an aspect of customer services. Similar language shifts occur in doctor-patient interactions. Most non-native Akan speakers in hospitals in Akan speaking areas, and in the metropolis like Accra, Kumasi are forced to learn Akan so that they can easily use it as a lingua franca to interact with many patients who cannot speak English. The same happens to Akan doctors who work in the northern parts of Ghana. This type of language shift is crucial in private hospitals if doctors really mean business. Economics and occupational survival are crucial factors in language shift either from a minority to a majority language or vice versa (cf. Salzmann 2004:194). 7


3.2 Migration and settlement patterns Economic factors can bring about social mobility and migration that also result in language contact. Migration and settlement patterns influence language shift. In support of this, Romaine (1994:53) states that ‘In some cases shift occurs as a result of forced or voluntary immigration to a place where it is not possible to maintain one’s native language … or as a result of conquest.’ In support of this view, Nahir (2003:402) stipulates that ‘voluntary migration results in much faster shift than does annexation or colonization’. When the Konkoba and Nanumba war started in the Northern Region in 1994–1995 most people moved from the northern region to southern Ghana where they hoped for peace and comfort. These immigrants shifted to the languages in their new environment that were perceived as majority or higherstatus languages; and also to ease their interaction. Migration may also be due to economic factors that compel people to travel to other places to look for jobs and greener pastures. However, large group of immigrants often manage to preserve their languages. Coulmas (2005:158) posits that migration often leads to language shift within three generations. The first generation uses only their L1 (mother tongue monolingual); the second generation (their children) becomes multilingual and uses L1 at home and L2 in other domains like school, offices and official sectors. The third generation (their grandchildren) is most likely to be L2 monolinguals the host country or state (see Holmes 2001:52). This straight pattern has not been reached among Ghanaians; most Ghanaians are in the second generations with just a few in the third generation. Closely related to migration are the settlement patterns:–moving from rural to urban centres. This is tied in with the attitudes of the majority and the minority language groups. Some people move to urban centres and abandon their languages for the ‘so-called’ prestigious ones. In Ghana, some of the illiterate parents in the urban areas speak English alone with their children and since these children grow up not speaking their native languages (at all or not much) there is a language shift. 8 Other examples of these are what we found in Ghana in the early 1950s where many people from the northern territories had to come to the Akan areas in the south for jobs and ended up learning the Akan languages; another example is the many settlers in Accra who speak Ga. The Ghanaian society has a popular settlement called the Zongo community that is normally made up of settlers from the Northern and Upper regions of Ghana (especially Moslems) and their Gur counterparts from Northern Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Togo and Burkina Faso. In these communities, the settlers

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speak several indigenous languages and they adopt the Hausa language as their lingua franca for inter-ethnic communication and practical and pragmatic purposes. The Ahantas in the Western region of Ghana, share boundary with the AkanFantes. In their cosmopolitan areas like Dixcove and Princess Town, the Ahanta speakers shift from Ahanta to Fante. It is recorded that the Ahanta is only spoken in the home in the mornings and evenings and as soon as they set out, the shift begins. 9 However, in the remote and rural areas of the Ahanta land where there is not too much influence of Fante, Ahanta is maintained. A similar phenomenon operates among the Sahwi speakers of the Western Region of Ghana. They share common boundaries with the Asantes and speak both the Sahwi and Asante languages. They use Asante-Twi at market towns like Sahwi Bekwai, Asanwiniso, and Wiawso. At school, since the Sahwi language is not written, the pupils learn the Asante Twi and some Twi students at the School of Ghanaian languages were native speakers of Sahwi. A Sahwi highlife composer, Adu Kwasi composes in the Twi language so as to get wider a market. On his cassette with ten songs only two are in the Sahwi language. In the local churches, the language of worship is either Twi or Sahwi or both. The Sahwi phenomenon is a little bit interesting because the Twi speakers are in the minority but they have been able to spread their language. This has become possible because of the geographical proximity between Asantes and the Sahwis. 3.3 Exogamous marriages Exogamous marriages (mixed marriages) also contribute to the swiftness of language shift (see Holmes 2001:60). When people inter-marry, language shift crops up if one of the couples does not understand the others’ language. Sometimes both parties may adopt a common language and eventually shift to that language. 10 Most mixed ethnic couples in Ghana especially in the urban areas like Accra, Kumase or Tamale usually use English as the common language for the parents and children. Where both couples are not fluent in the English language and cannot speak the languages of each other, they are compelled to use the lingua franca of the area such as Akan, Ewe, Ga or Hausa. Saville-Troike (1989:208) remarked that the role of women in language shift and language maintenance is crucial. She states clearly that Where the women in marriages are uneducated and remain in the home they tend to remain monolingual and contribute to the maintenance of the mother tongue; where they are educated, bilingual, and participate in trade and other external activities, exactly the opposite has been observed.


It is therefore not surprising that the use of English as the language of daily interaction in Ghana is more prevalent in the urban areas than the rural areas. 3.4 Government policies and political factors Another contributing factor to language shift in Ghana is the government policies concerning language and education. A particular government may adopt language policies which may favour English and some Ghanaian languages. In such situations, the speakers of the minority languages that have not been captured in the policies may shift to the other languages. If there is any kind of negative attitude towards particular languages especially at the official language policy level; some speakers would be sidelined because of the use of another language. Their younger generations are likely to look down on their languages and therefore shift to the more ‘prestigious ones’. Languages that are accepted for are esteemed higher. In Ghana, such languages include English, Akan, Ewe, Arabic, Ga, Dagbani, Dagaare, etc. As part of the official language policy of Ghana, all formal interactions at the governmental levels are done in English. The Ghanaian constitution and public documents are all in English and this is a national language shift. It is the indispensable role of English in Ghana that makes some parents use it as the medium of communication with their children; and would not like their children to learn the Ghanaian languages. The children thereby acquire English as their first language and may not speak any Ghanaian language at all. Obeng Gyasi and Adebgija (1999:360) state that: In Ghana’s 1969 constitution, for example, article 71 (d) stated that a member of Parliament must be ‘able to speak and, unless incapacitated by blindness or other physical cause, to read the English language with a degree of proficiency sufficient to enable him to take an active part in the proceedings of the assembly.

The above simply implies that no matter how brilliant one is, if s/he cannot communicate in English s/he cannot take part in any serious and meaningful political deliberations and cannot be a parliamentarian; English is indispensable. When various dialects or languages coexist within the same geographical area such as Akan, they struggle for supremacy, popularity and recognition e.g. Bonos and Asantes. In this struggle, some of the dialects take the leading role and become the linguae francae that break the existing linguistic barriers. In the end the subsumed varieties (various Bono) are compelled to shift into this central variety (Asante).

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3.5 Education and language shift Language shift occurs due to the type of language policy a nation or an institution adopts. In Ghana since English is the language of education there is a language shift from the Ghanaian languages. In Ghana, one cannot enter any high school or tertiary institution without passing English. Whilst English is core and compulsory at the high school the various Ghanaian languages are electives. Most private basic schools do not allow their pupils to speak any of the Ghanaian languages apart from having them as courses on the timetable. Pupils who speak their indigenous languages are punished by wearing placards with the inscriptions ‘I have spoken vernacular’, or ‘Vernacular is prohibited’ around their necks. At the tertiary educational level, there are departments for foreign languages and some students study languages like French, Arabic, German, Spanish, Swahili and Russia. The University of Ghana, has now introduced Chinese language beginning from the 2008/2009 academic year. In Ghana, there are some students who read some Ghanaian languages at the Junior High School (JHS) and Senior High school (SHS) that are not their mother tongue. 11 Practical examples are the Bonos, Brosas and Sahwis who have to learn the Asante Twi at school or some of the languages in the Buem and Nkonya districts of the Volta Region who learn Ewe or Akuapem-Twi at school. The Anums, Lartehs and other Guans in the Eastern Region of Ghana study Akuapem-Twi (Akan) in school. These Guan languages are neither used in the local courts nor in churches. In Winneba, a town in the Central Region of Ghana, the people are Guans who speak the Efutu language. Unfortunately Efutu is not studied at school and not used in churches and at the district courts; they thus shift to the English and Fante languages. The Efutu language is only restricted to informal situations (Obeng Gyasi 1997:60). Since English is the official language and the medium of instruction in Ghana, some bilingual children in the early stages of school insist that their parents speak English with them and sometimes express some feelings of shame if their parents speak the local languages with them. As they grow up some of them bear with their parents, others however, insist on this phenomenon especially when their colleagues visit them in their homes. The worst situation is where one or both parents cannot speak English. Saville-Troike (1989:211) reports of a similar situation among bilingual homes in the US. When children attend school outside their homes and English or any Ghanaian language is the predominant language used in daily interaction, there ensues a language shift. We find this in the cities like Accra, Tema, Kumase and


Takoradi where pupils from other parts of Ghana shift to English and the local languages of the areas. At the universities and other tertiary institutions, the students normally shift to English in most formal interactions. Most male students shift to pidgin language. They start practising the pidgin while at high school. Their tutors monitor them and think that its rampant use will affect their progress, proficiency and competence in the English language. When they enter the universities, since there is much freedom, the students commonly use the pidgin language in their informal interactions. At job sites, including offices, most young men (university graduates) continue to use pidgin in their informal interactions because pidgin has a simplified grammar. 3.6 Media and language shift There are two types of language shift in the Ghanaian media. These are shift from the use of the indigenous languages of Ghana to the use of English. We find these in all the print media where everything is in English and a word in a Ghanaian language is used only when they want to emphasise something or to create humour. We find the same phenomenon on radio and TV where certain programmes are purely in English and people will only switch to a Ghanaian language for a literary effect and foregrounding. According to Saville-Troike (1989:209) ‘The spread of modern technology and mass media are additional forces for social integration. On this dimension, attitudes toward desirability of change play a major role.’ In Ghana, most classified advertisements like situation vacant, funeral announcement, conferences and other important announcements on TV and in the print media are always in English. The second category of language shift is a shift from one Ghanaian language into another. This is particularly the case with a shift into Akan one of the major languages. Most non-native Akan speakers in Ghana can use the Akan language so well and sometimes better than some Akan native speakers. 12 In Accra and Kumase, various radio programmes on politics, health, agriculture, and sex education are in Akan. Non-Akan listeners are thus forced to contribute to these programmes in Akan. Some of these programmes include Afism on Radio Univers where speakers like AN from the North, AD a Ga and many others contribute in Twi. Asmpa Radio, a local FM in Accra, has a Twi programme that is hosted by one AD who is a Dangme (a language in the Greater Accra region of Ghana) speaker. 13 There is a therefore a social stratification based on the degree of access to communication, where the speakers of the minority languages do not have access to their own languages. Since their languages are not broadcast, they are motivated and assimilated into the use of the dominant languages and hence the need for language shifts. This individual language shift is good for the country

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since democracy and grass-root participation becomes more profound through the use of indigenous languages. The other intra-lingual language shift is what I will refer to as ‘dialectal shift’ from one dialect of a language to another. Here too. Akan is the language used in discussions. On the average, most Fantes are able to speak the Asante version of Akan more than how the Asantes can handle the Fante version. On many Akan radio and TV programmes Fantes chose to speak Asante-Twi. The presenter KSK of Kookurokoo fame on Peace FM is partly Ewe and partly Akuapem but he broadcasts in Asante Twi and only resort to Akuapem or Fante when his interlocutors are speakers of any of these two dialects. NON, an executive member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is a Larteh (Guan) speaker. Traditionally, he is multilingual and can speak Larteh and Akaupem but in most cases he uses the Asante dialect. One of the local FM stations called Oman has roughly 60% Akan language policy so as to promote the Akan language. The management board insists on Akan-Twi, especially Asante. In view of this, one presenter KBS who is a Fante speaker has been compelled to present in Asante Twi. Meanwhile on Radio Univers where there is no such dialectal shift he presents in Fante, his local dialect. 3.7 Religion Language shift can also be due to religion. There are various religions that have some strong attachment to various languages. If the religion spreads to other geographical areas or continents there is a concomitant spread of the language. Adherents to this new religion are compelled to learn the language associated with it and shift from their indigenous languages during worship. In Ghana, we saw this type of religious language shift in the Roman Catholic Church where their mass and liturgy were conducted in Latin. As a matter of convention all priests in the Catholic Church in Ghana were/are expected to study Latin in addition to theology. The Islamic religion of Ghana also employs the Arabic language and all good Moslems especially the Sheiks (teachers) should have proficiency and in-depth knowledge in the Arabic language and culture. According to the literature, Arabic was strongly attached to the widespread of Islam because people firmly believed that it was very difficult if not impossible to translate the Koran into another language (cf. Saville-Troike 1989:208). This myth of the intranslatability of the Koran has now been broken since there is an Asante-Twi Koran. Since the Methodist Church started on the Fante land, the Akan version of the Methodist Hymn Book called Christian Asr Ndwom (CAN) is in the Fante dialect. It was the Fantes who translated the English Hymns and the


Christian Asr Ndwom (CAN) has been used in all the Akan areas of Ghana. It was only in the past decade that Akan scholars in the Methodist Church have come out with Akristofo Asre Ndwom that is written in the Unified Akan Orthography. This same phenomenon is found in the Presbyterian Church where the Twi Hymn Book is written in the Akuapem dialect but used by all the Akan members of the Presbyterian Church being Asantes, Akyems, Fantes, Bonos or Kwawus. The reason is that the Presbyterian church started from the Akuapem area.

4 Language maintenance and resistance to language a shift It is possible for language persistence, maintenance and stability to operate alongside language shift in a multilingual nation like Ghana. This happens in a cultural and purist linguistic situation where the speakers of a minor language are so nationalistic and loyal to their language and are bent to protect and maintain it. Nahir (2003:439) states that Language maintenance is the preservation of the use of a group’s native language, as a first or even as a second language, where political, social, economic, educational, or other pressures threaten or cause (or are perceived to threaten or cause) a decline in the status of the language as a means of communication, a cultural medium, or a symbol of group or national identity.

A combination of factors thus influences the need for language maintenance and most Ghanaians adhere to these factors to maintain their languages and culture. Crystal (2000) identifies five main reasons why languages should be protected from dying and these include:

• preservation of our diverse traditional cultural wealth, • ethnic identity through language, • languages serving as repositories of history, • language as source of human knowledge, and • fascinating nature of language. Language maintenance is the situation where a language group that is bound to shift to other languages under certain circumstances rather holds to their language (see Coulmas 2005:157). Classical examples in Ghana are the Asante dialect of Akan and the Ewes of the Volta Region. The speakers of these varieties will shift to either English or any of the Ghanaian languages as a last resort.

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Clyne (1998:310) records that ‘the most successful language maintenance occurs in groups for whom language is intertwined as a core value with other core values such as religion and historical consciousness of family cohesion, rather than those for whom language stands in isolation as an identity marker.’ 14 It implies that the factors that affect language maintenance are multivaried. The trend is that the more important the language is valued as a symbol of ethnic identification and unity the longer it is maintained and the Asante-Twi language and Ewe are classic examples in Ghana (see also Holmes 2001:61). The Asantes are a cultural group that adheres to their language and culture. 15 They were able to resist colonialism for many years until they were finally defeated by the British in 1900. They pride themselves in their language and use their variety in almost all forms of communication. They employ it in chieftaincy, funerals, arbitration, rituals, marital contract, and on radio, etc. They are of the view that certain religious practices and rituals are best executed in the Asante dialect since some cultural terms resist translation and should not be tampered with. A major step in the language maintenance of the Asante dialect is the translation of the Holy Quran into Asante Twi by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission of Ghana under the able-leadership of Dr. Maulvi Wahab Adam. The Asante version of the Holy book is to benefit the Asante Twi reading public. The Asante Quaran was launched on Saturday, 28 March 2008. Obeng Gyasi (1997:69–80) records that earlier on the Lartehs of Eastern region of Ghana had positive attitude towards Akuapem Twi at the expense of their own language, but the formation of the Okere Nationalist Movement in 1995 has brought some changes. One of the aims of this movement was to develop and uplift the image of the Guans on the Akaupem ridge, in view of that, the Larteh people have now become proud of their own language. Isolated communities can also bring about language maintenance. If the speakers of a particular language isolate themselves they can maintain their language instead of shifting to the dominant language. This is the case of the Ewe communities in the cosmopolitan areas in Kumase and Accra. In Kumase, there is a suburb called Anloga that is predominantly Ewes. The Ewes have been able to maintain the Ewe language and culture despite the Asante language’s influence in the cosmopolitan. They have musical groups and they meet regularly to discuss developmental projects at home. These people only shift to Akan language during interactions with non-Ewes. We find isolated communities in the Zongo communities in Ghana where people from the northern parts of the country settle at one part of a village or municipality and therefore use their indigenous language or the lingua franca called Hausa. In Accra, such settlements include Mamobi and Nima. In Kumase, we have Zongo and Mossi Zongo.


An extended form of this language maintenance is found in Ghanaian communities in Europe and North America. There are ethnic groups like Asante Kuo, Bono Kuo who meet regularly and chat in Akan, eat Akan food and wear Ghanaian clothes. These groups have musical groups like Adowa and Kete and they meet occasionally to perform. They have chiefs and queens and subchiefs and they continue to practice their Ghanaian cultures and language. 16 According to Holmes (2001:63) ‘If families from a minority group live together and see each other frequently this also helps to maintain their language.’ This tallies with the above. They have established Ghanaian churches where the worship is conducted in Akan amidst Akan Gospel songs. They sometimes invite Akan pastors from Ghana to preach and give them counselling. Some parents from these Akan groups hire some Akan teachers among them to teach their children the Akan language. Some Ghanaians abroad travel home with their children during holidays for the children to acquaint themselves with their languages and cultures. Another area of language revival and maintenance is the current phenomenon of doing away with Christian names. During the pre- and early post-independence periods, most people who were admitted to schools were automatically given Christian names. Currently, the phenomenon is fast changing and most parents now give indigenous names to their kids so we now have names like Akwasi Opoku Agyemang, Nana Ama Owusu Agyei. In Agyekum (2006: 228), I discussed the nationalistic names and I considered that as an aspect of language maintenance. Some scholars who in the 1950s and 1960s had European or Christian names attached to their family names have officially and legally changed these foreign names and maintained only the indigenous ones. A man formerly called Timothy Acheampong is now officially called Kwasi Akyampn. The change is also from anglicised (Acheampong) to an indigenous one (Akyampn). Many Akans, who started as civil servants with Christian/Western names together with their Akan names, have dropped the former. People with names like Stephen Bosie Amponsa, Andrews Jackson Dapaa, and Daniel Kyei, have dropped, the Stephen, Andrews, Jackson and Daniel. The last pages of the Legon Newsletter, a magazine at the University of Ghana, deal with change of names by students. Students change their names by dropping the foreign names. Below are two examples that appeared in Vol. 41 No 49 of University of Ghana Reporter No 715 page 92. The heading is Change of Names. 1) From: Quarcoo, Agnes Naa Ahima (Miss) To: Quarcoo, Naa Ahima (Miss) 2) From: Senya, Praise To: Senya, Kafui.

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In 1 above, the student who was in her final year dropped the western name Agnes. In 2, however, the student dropped the western name Praise and replaced it with Kafui, an indigenous Ewe name. A major aspect of the maintenance of Ghanaian languages is that most important social surveys and findings are now translated from English into the major languages for the public to be well informed. Examples are Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU), Ghana Sustainable Change Project (GSCP), etc.

5 Conclusion In this paper, I have discussed the outcome of languages in contact in Ghana. We have seen that when languages come into contact, speakers shift to additional languages (multilingualism) to improve their lives. The social and economic motives of individuals are factors that contribute to the speed in language shift. When people urgently need a second language as a prerequisite for success in the society they rush for language shift. In terms of age young people normally shift faster than the aged. We saw that the languages that get assimilated are usually the minority or ‘lower-status’ languages. The paper considered the major factors that foster language shift and they include economic and occupational influence, immigration and settlement patterns, educational policies, governmental policies and politics, exogamous marriages, media and religion. All the above factors come into play because of our human needs for language. Naturally, a language with limited or no instrumental utility to catch up with modernisation and globalisation will be abandoned and replaced with the one that will serve the current needs of the people and the society. We have noticed that language shift may lead to language death. We saw that language death is not prevalent in Ghana due to the language maintenance that is based on the use of the various indigenous languages for socio-cultural and socioeconomic purposes. We rather have endangered languages and most of them are found in the Ghana Togo Mountains in the Volta Region. The paper has outlined that language shift can be controlled. If a language group is proud of their language and have positive attitude towards it they will try to maintain it irrespective of the pressures from the majority language(s). While many speakers shift to the prevalent dominant languages, there are agencies, institutions and purist who are ready to even die for the course of their indigenous languages. Examples of these are the Akan Consultative Council that published the Akan Unified Orthography and the Guan Literacy Council and the Okere Nationalist Movement formed in 1995. Ghanaian migrant settlers try to maintain their languages across geographical frontiers.


Unfortunately, as they work hard, globalisation, modernisation and technology also influence and enhance borrowing, diffusion and language shift; and language shift continues to thrive in Ghana. About the author Kofi Agyekum is Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics, University of Ghana.

Notes 1 It is also possible for majority or higher-status linguistic groups to shift to the minority groups. An example of such situations may be the case of the Norman Conquest, where the conquerors shifted to English. 2 Russification of the Russian language in the former Soviet Union and communist states in Europe was a clear example of language spread. 3 Zongo refers to communities in urban areas in Ghana that are solely inhabited by immigrants from the northern parts of Ghana who are predominantly Moslems. 4 Dakubu (1988:120) records that in the 1960s a researcher – Heine – found out that the Animere people in Kechibi were shifting to Adele, and the language seemed to be dying out with no more than 250 speakers. 5 A language may die, not because its speakers shifted to another language, but perhaps because all the speakers were killed as a result of war, famine or some natural disaster. 6 The findings from my research on language shift at the Agbogba Methodist Church in Accra about the second Ghanaian language they speak revealed that most Akan speakers do not speak any other language. All the 20 noneAkan speakers (100%) who spoke Ga, Ewe, Krobo, Nzema, Kasem and Ada stated Akan as their non-native Ghanaian Language. 7 In discussing the relation between economy, politics and language use that can bring about language shift, Philips (2006:485–486) claims that ‘The political economic position of a group determines its attitude towards the codes in group’s multilingual repertoire, the group’s code choices, and the ultimate survival of the codes being spoken. The inequality of languages originates in economic equality’. 8 This phenomenon is also true with Ghanaian immigrants in the US and Europe. Sometimes American students who study Twi for Beginners at Legon for one semester include Ghanaian-born Akan children from US and Europe who according to them, only speak English at home with their parents and they were therefore taking their opportunity in Ghana to learn basic Twi.

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9 This information about language shift among the Ahantas was provided by Dr. Kofi Ackah, the Head of Department of Classics of the University of Ghana who has stayed in Dixcove for many years. 10 Professor Y of the University of Ghana is an Akan and the wife is an Ewe. Prof Y cannot speak Ewe but Mrs. Y can speak Akan so both of them and their children normally communicate in Akan or sometimes in English. If they speak in Akan it is a language shift for Mrs. Y; if they communicate in English, it is a shift for all of them. 11 In 1994, the Ghanaian languages were made core subjects at the Senior High Schools but since not all the languages in Ghana have attained literacy status, most students had to study any of the 11 accepted languages as a second language. This kind of language shift created a lot of problems and the Ghanaian language was dropped as core and made elective for students who had the will to study. 12 In the research at Agbogba Methodist church, all the 20 non-native Akan speakers stated that Akan was their second Ghanaian language. On the contrary, only 15 of the 40 Akans said they could speak Ga that is the local language in Accra; this is meant to ease communication. 13 For anonymity, I have represented the names of these people in abbreviations. 14 Language maintenance prevails on university campuses where there are a lot of ethnic students association meant for ethnic identity, cultural and language development. Some of these are Asante Students Union, Brong Ahafo Students’ Union, Gonja Students Union, etc. 15 The Asantes are resistible to language shift, but the Fantes readily adapt to changes. Some Fante speakers of the Akan language feel proud speaking English and even when they speak Fante there are a lot of code mixing and code switching. The Fantes have even anglicised some of their indigenous names. 16 An interesting phenomenon of language maintenance is found in Norway where mother tongue education is highly emphasised. As part of the curriculum and language policy, aliens with legalised citizenship status can insist that their children learn their indigenous languages at school. If the educational authorities do not get a teacher the parents could be asked to teach their own local language in school.

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