A Kente of Many Colours: Multilingualism as a Complex Ecology of Language Shift in Ghana

Abstract

Language shift, a process which may lead speakers to use their language in fewer domains with respect to other languages or even lose proficiency in their language altogether in favour of other languages, is a prominent concept in linguistics. But the concept has been mainly studied from Western perspectives (e.g. Fishman 1964, Veltman 1983and Bastardas-Boada 2007. This paper discusses language shift from the perspectives of Ghana, a highly multilingual developing nation in West Africa. We introduce the concept of ecology of language shift, and argue that any theory of language shift must rigorously take into consideration the complexity of the ecology in which language shift occurs. Multilingual language shift processes, which involve situations in which different types of language shift take place concurrently or sequentially in a country, are thus very different from simple language shift situations in less multilingual set-ups. The paper provides a relatively detailed empirical study of language shift based on a questionnaire survey before outlining some language maintenance activities, such as the pervasive use of indigenous Ghanaian languages in FM radio broadcast, that are being pursued to contain language shift in Ghana. Some of these language maintenance activities may also be useful for containing language shift in other African countries.

Ethnolinguistic vitality in Thulamela Local Municipality: A case of Xitsonga

“…Ghana's indigenous languages can be categorised into 10 major language groups or, more language subgroups, but these groups do not conform to a one-to-one matching with the 10 regions of the country. In addition to these indigenous languages, Bodomo et al (2009) state that there are other West African languages spoken in Ghana, such as the Chadic language, Hausa, and some Mande languages, whose status as indigenous languages seems to be debatable. While it is true that some of the more acceptable indigenous languages spread continuously into Ghana's immediate neighbouring countries where they are also regarded as indigenous, the geographical distribution of Hausa within West Africa, for instance, shows that it is completely cut off from major Hausa speaking areas such as northern Nigeria and Niger.…”

Acquiring Syntactic Variability: The Production of Wh-Questions in Children and Adults Speaking Akan

“…These participants typically speak Akan in their daily life, which is the dominant language of the region and the community where we conducted our study. Monolingual speakers are rarely encountered in Ghana, which is a multilingual country with over fifty spoken languages (Bodomo et al, 2009;Boll-Avetisyan et al, 2020).…”

Language Endangerment and Language Documentation in Africa

“…3 The limited role of colonial languages holds particularly for areas with indigenous languages of wider communication that were established prior to the colonial era. Where language shift resulting in decreasing linguistic diversity is observed in Africa, it is often to larger African languages that have such a historical presence in the area concerned (Batibo 2005;Bodomo et al 2009;Brenzinger 1992) and that already form part of peoples' repertoires. Widespread, but less documented, are shifts to other small languages that do not decrease the levels of linguistic diversity, because speakers remain multilingual, but continuously adapt their multilingual repertoires to changing circumstances.…”