Maxwell Antwi is an obstetrician gynecologist at the La General Hospital. Here’s is how he describes himself and his family:

“I come from Adankwame which is in the Atwima Nwabiagya District of the Western Region. I’m happily married with my wife who is sitting beside me. We have three kids. I think for the greater part of our family life we have been speaking English. But my wife and I were awoken out of our slumber. About September last year when our first born son, Kwaku Yeboah, came home with his first term results we discovered his grade in Akwapim Twi was the lowest among the subjects for that term…We were shocked to find out that our son had the least score in Akwapim Twi.”

“To keep a constant reminder of our decision and verdict we decided to put inscriptions at noticeable places in the house. We found pieces of paper and started writing on them <b>Ka Twi</b>.”

Dr Antwi and his wife wrote these inscriptions on the calendar at home. The aim was to constantly remind his children to speak the local language.

He may have realized his error now. Unfortunately there are thousands of Ghanaian parents who are yet to accept this truth. That’s where the problem lies.

Former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela once said that if you talk to a man in a language he understands, you speak to his head, but if you talk to him in his language that goes to the heart.

Welcome to this edition of Hotline. In this first of a two part series I take a critical look at the state of Ghanaian languages, a growing phenomenon where people feel shy to speak in their mother tongue and parents are proud to communicate with their own children in English.

Language is the most effective tool for preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. It is by far man’s most important asset through which he can study and understand the values and concerns of the society. 
 

Research has shown that as a child grows his language acquisition develops and through the language the child gains personal experience. Language transmits and conveys cultural values and gives the individuals a sense of identity. Dr Banning Peprah is a Ghanaian Language specialist at the University Of Ghana Department Of Linguistics.  He is very worried about the current trend.

“If we do not reverse the situation, a time will come when our own children – when we are no more – may not be able to speak the language and so our culture will be lost,” he said.

“Look at our folksongs…All these cannot be sang in English or French”

In Language, through figurative expressions like proverbs, similes, metaphors and cultural genres like folktales, myths, legends, riddles, puzzle, ideas and values are handed on for the individual to reach their fullest socialization.

In spite of its immense benefits the mother tongue is being relegated to the background and the home which is supposed to spearhead its use is rapidly disregarding it.

It has been realized that when mother tongue is used as Language of instruction in the formative years of the child it is usually efficient as a teaching tool as the first language is a tool of thought.

The mother tongue plays a role as the degree of mastery in the language of instruction influences school performance greatly. The general belief is that primary education is best begun in a child’s mother tongue.
 

This is crucial because when languages die, cultures die and the collective identity of countless people who spoke the language throughout history is lost, their aspirations buried and what makes them unique is wiped away forever.
 

This is because language and culture are strongly connected such that one cannot separate the other without harm. Dr Felicia Kafui Etsey is a senior lecturer at the faculty of Education University of Cape Coast. She is a strong advocate for the development and use of Ghanaian languages.

“Children choose a particular language that their parents [speak]. What happens is that they are trying to copy the identity of the group of people whose language they are speaking. So gradually you realize that our children are taking a kind of identity that they would never become because they would never become English people, they would not even belong to that group, the group would not even accept them. But somehow they are picking that kind of identity for themselves. I’m saying that because culture, language and identity are somehow intertwined. The moment you favour the language that means you favour the culture.

Records show that 230 of the world’s languages have become extinct due to neglect, documentation or lack of usage since 1950. The UNESCO language atlas says about half of the 7000 languages of the world are endangered.

Depending on who is counting, Ghana may be said to have approximately 50 indigenous languages. A recent study conducted by Prof Akpanglo Nartey, established that two languages, namely, Ghanaian English (GhE) and Akan, especially the Twi dialect, and to a small degree, Ewe, are slowly killing off the smaller Ghanaian languages.
 

For instance, in 1970 almost all Winneba natives spoke Efutu (Ewutu) as their first language. By 2010, 40 years later, only approximately 50% of children born to the Winneba natives speak Efutu as a first language. About 30% of these children speak no Efutu at all. Interestingly, medium-sized languages such as Ga and Dangme are also slowly losing grounds to the three languages cited. Meanwhile there are some dozen Ghanaian languages that have less than 1000 estimated speakers each. It is concluded that the closer a language community is to the major urban centers, the more likely it is to be endangered.

“I think it’s a common trend among the middle and upper class who don’t live in what we would call socialized communities. For example, Airport Residential Area is not a socialized community. You could live here for years and you would never speak to your neighbour,” he said.

“But if you live in a socialized community where you have interaction between the children of different homes and different families then acquisition of linguistic skill is done in an informal way and learning is done in an informal way.”
 

Dr Maxwell is now encouraging his friends to help their children to speak their first languages.

Linguistics experts list demographic superiority, socio-economic attraction, political dominance and cultural forces among the causes of language shift in Africa.
 

All of these phenomena apply to the Ghanaian scene where English, the language of the colonial masters, has exerted a lot of pressure on all the local languages to the extent that a lot of children born to Ghanaians at the top of the socio-economic ladder speak only English at home. For these people, at least, English is a more prestigious and, perhaps, superior language to the Ghanaian ones.

As parents Dr Antwi and his wife are very aware of the consequences of raising their children to speak only English.

He believes that recurring generations of children who do not speak their first languages well would result in a complete loss of identity for many Ghanaians.

Interestingly, a number of the smaller languages have resisted extinction while some of the medium-sized languages seem to be losing speakers at alarming rate.
 

For instance, Ga, the language of Accra and its environs is losing grounds to Akan. The Ga-Dangme people of Ghana boast of some of the world’s richest culture, including the so-called “six-cloth” wedding ceremony.

 Considering the fact that language loss is always accompanied by loss of the culture, it behooves all well meaning Ghanaians and Ga-Dangmes, in particular, to do all they can to prevent the extinction of the country’s endangered languages.
 

Similarly, Nzema seems to be losing out to the Fante dialect of Akan. There are indications that Ahanta which is the language spoken by the Ahanta’s in the Western Region is losing ground to Fante largely due to the attitude of the speakers.

Samuel Kojo Brace is a proud Ahanta and leader of the Ahanta students union. He is one of the few educated Ahantas who can read and write the language. He’s worried about how people who hail from his hometown are unable to speak the Ahanta language.

“You see, I become very, very sad because I think that my language is something I should be a master of. And the ability for you to become a master of your own language is for you to speak and write it more fluently,” he said.
 

Evidently, a lot of the indigenous languages of Ghana are in danger and could even be lost in the next few generations. The question then is, “What measures should we put in place to curb this trend?” A number of solutions come to mind. Join me next week as we explore the role of the media and the educational institutions toward protecting our local languages.