Something came to my attention today and immediately I felt ashamed to be a Ghanaian. Because I feel strongly about a lot of things in this country, I cannot help but type this brief write-up.
My write up is not to do with Energy or Politics but the Twi Language. A friend bought an English to Twi Dictionary at the EPP bookstore at the Legon Mall. I was very excited to see such a book because I don't know the twi words for a lot of things around me these days.
I flipped open the dictionary to see the Twi for Laptop. To my surprise and disgust, It's Laptop . Let me repeat. Twi for Laptop is Laptop according to this English to Twi dictionary.
I thought to myself maybe the author of this dictionary may not know alot and has done a shabby job. I called around to a lot of people to ask what the Twi for Laptop is? To my surprise no one knew.
This is only the tip of the Iceberg. What I realised is that there are wide range of modern items and English words that does not have Twi or Local Language translation.
Every year the Cambridge and Oxford Dictionary gets updated with new words. As a result the English Language has become dynamic. Our local Language has become static for over 100 years. All the great Professors and Lecturers of our Local languages, past and present should bow their heads in shame.
I will be writing to the VC's of all our public universities to bring this situation to their attention.
I am prepared to sponsor a conference to come up with new Twi and local Language words for all these new items and English words.
We can't sit unconcerned and let this development continue any longer. Our Local language will become extinct and obsolete if we don't make it dynamic and come up with new local words.
We should all take this situation very serious for the love of country.
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