The Languages of Ghana
The Languages of Ghana

Author: Mary E. Kropp Dakubu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-06-03

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1317406044

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First published in 1988, this book provides an easily accessible handbook of knowledge about the languages of Ghana; their geographical distribution, their relationships with each other, the social patterns of their use, and their structures. Besides the general introduction, it contains chapters on each of the individually recognised families of languages spoken in Ghana: Gur, Volta-Comoé, Gbe, Ga-Dangme, Central-Tongo and Mande. An additional chapter outlines the use of non-indigenous languages in the country.

The Mouton World Atlas of Variation in English
The Mouton World Atlas of Variation in English

Author: Bernd Kortmann

Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783110279887

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The Mouton World Atlas of Variation in English (WAVE) presents grammatical variation in spontaneous spoken English, mapping 235 features in 48 varieties of English (traditional dialects, high-contact mother tongue Englishes, and indiginized second-language Englishes) and 26 English-based Pidgins and Creoles in eight Anglophone world regions (Africa, Asia, Australia, British Isles, the Caribbean, North America, the Pacific, and the South Atlantic). The analyses of the 74 varieties are based on descriptive materials, naturalistic corpus data, and native speaker knowledge.

The Impacts of Language and Literacy Policy on Teaching Practices in Ghana
The Impacts of Language and Literacy Policy on Teaching Practices in Ghana

Author: Philomena Osseo-Asare

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-03-15

Total Pages: 159

ISBN-13: 1000363317

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This text critically examines changes in Ghanaian language and literacy policy following independence in 1957 to consider its impacts on early literacy teaching. By adopting a postcolonial theoretical perspective, the text interrogates the logic behind policy changes which have prioritised English, local language, or biliteracy. It draws on data from interviews with teachers and researcher observation to demonstrate how policies have influenced teaching and learning. Dr Osseo-Asare’s findings inform the development of a conceptual framework which highlights the socio-cultural factors that impact the literacy and biliteracy of young children in Ghana, offering solutions to help teachers combat the challenges of frequent policy changes. This timely monograph will prove to be an essential resource not only for researchers working on education policies, teacher education, and English-language learning in postcolonial Ghana but also for those looking to identify the thematic and methodological nuances of studying literacy and education in postcolonial contexts.

Philosophical Foundations of the African Humanities through Postcolonial Perspectives
Philosophical Foundations of the African Humanities through Postcolonial Perspectives

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-03-19

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 9004392947

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Philosophical Foundations of the African Humanities through Postcolonial Perspectives critiques recent claims that the humanities, especially in public universities in poor countries, have lost their significance, defining missions, methods and standards due to the pressure to justify their existence. The predominant responses to these claims have been that the humanities are relevant for creating a “world culture” to address the world’s problems. This book argues that behind such arguments lies a false neutrality constructed to deny the values intrinsic to marginalized cultures and peoples and to justify their perceived inferiority. These essays by scholars in postcolonial studies critique these false claims about the humanities through critical analyses of alterity, difference, and how the Other is perceived, defined and subdued. Contributors: Gordon S.K. Adika, Kofi N. Awoonor, E. John Collins, Kari Dako, Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu, James Gibbs, Helen Lauer, Bernth Lindfors, J.H. Kwabena Nketia, Abena Oduro, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Olúfémi Táíwò, Alexis B. Tengan, Kwasi Wiredu, Francis Nii-Yartey

Ghanaian Pidgin English in Its West African Context
Ghanaian Pidgin English in Its West African Context

Author: Magnus Huber

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 1999-01-01

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9027248826

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This first published full-scale study of the Ghanaian variety of West African Pidgin English (GhaPE) makes extensive use of hitherto neglected historical material and provides a synchronic account of GhaPE's structure and sociolinguistics. Special focus is on the differences between GhaPE and other West African Pidgins, in particular the development of, and interrelations between, the different varieties of restructured English in West Africa, from Sierra Leone to Cameroon. This monograph further includes an overview of the history of Afro-European contact languages in Lower Guinea with special emphasis on the Gold Coast; an outline of the settlement of Freetown, Sierra Leone, with a description of how and when the transplantation of Sierra Leonean Krio to other West African countries took place; an analysis of the linguistic evidence for the origin, development, and spread of restructured Englishes on the Lower Guinea Coast; an account of the different varieties of GhaPE and their sociolinguistic status in the contemporary linguistic ecology of Ghana; as well as a comprehensive structural description of the “uneducated” variety of GhaPE. The book is accompanied by a CD-ROM which contains illustrative material such as spoken GhaPE and photographs.

The Fall of Language in the Age of English
The Fall of Language in the Age of English

Author: Minae Mizumura

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2015-01-06

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 0231538545

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Winner of the Kobayashi Hideo Award, The Fall of Language in the Age of English lays bare the struggle to retain the brilliance of one's own language in this period of English-language dominance. Born in Tokyo but raised and educated in the United States, Minae Mizumura acknowledges the value of a universal language in the pursuit of knowledge yet also embraces the different ways of understanding offered by multiple tongues. She warns against losing this precious diversity. Universal languages have always played a pivotal role in advancing human societies, Mizumura shows, but in the globalized world of the Internet, English is fast becoming the sole common language of humanity. The process is unstoppable, and striving for total language equality is delusional—and yet, particular kinds of knowledge can be gained only through writings in specific languages. Mizumura calls these writings "texts" and their ultimate form "literature." Only through literature and, more fundamentally, through the diverse languages that give birth to a variety of literatures, can we nurture and enrich humanity. Incorporating her own experiences as a writer and a lover of language and embedding a parallel history of Japanese, Mizumura offers an intimate look at the phenomena of individual and national expression.

The English Languages
The English Languages

Author: Thomas Burns McArthur

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1998-04-23

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 9780521481304

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Plural? monolithic? legion? - Tom McArthur explores the nature of English in its local and global contexts.

Ghanaian Pidgin English
Ghanaian Pidgin English

Author: Joe Amoako

Publisher: Nova Novinka

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781612096421

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Pidgin has been defined with different criteria by various authors. Two of these criteria are social and structural. The social criterion is that a pidgin arises out of the need for a language as a means of communication when people who do not have a common language come together. The structural criterion is that a pidgin is comprised of reduced structures that evolve to serve as a means of communication. This book is devoted to a literature review on the definition and etymology of pidgin and creole. Definitions to acquaint the reader with these two concepts are presented, which will help to decide whether the language variety being discussed in this work is pidgin or creole, or if it is something entirely different.

A dictionary and grammatical outline of Chakali
A dictionary and grammatical outline of Chakali

Author: Jonathan Brindle

Publisher: Language Science Press

Published: 2017-07-03

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13: 3944675916

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This book is the first comprehensive monograph dedicated to Chakali, a Southwestern Grusi language spoken by less than 3500 people in northwest Ghana. The dictionary offers a consistent description of word meaning and provides the basis for future research in the linguistic area. It is also designed to provide an inventory of correspondence with English usage in a reversal index. The concepts used in the dictionary are explained in a grammar outline, which is of interest to specialists in Gur and Grusi linguistics, as well as any language researchers working in this part of the world.