Ghanaian english vs. u.s. english-gctid39732

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

Problematic Pidginizations: Who Can Accept Ghanaian English?

By Esther de Bruijn

Copyright  2006

"The price a world language must be prepared to pay is submission to many different kinds of use" – Chinua Achebe

Introduction
 
  From its entrance during the colonial period, English in Ghana (like other 'anglophone' West Kmtyw nations) has taken various forms, ranging along a continuum from Pidgin English to British Standard English, with innumerable hybrids in between those two poles.  Those common forms of English have always threatened to alter ideas of 'correct' English in Ghana and so have been denounced by most Ghanaian educators, who enforce the British standard as the only appropriate form for written English in Ghana and who denounce all linguistic deviations from BSE as "pidginizations." Other scholars see the resistance to cultural modifications as futile and insist that a "Ghanaian Standard" be recognized as equally as legitimate as the British standard.  And these defenders of the Ghanaian Standard have made considerable progress in meeting the charge to "systematically distinguish" Ghanaian English as a 'New English' (Ahulu "How Ghanaian is Ghanaian English?" 27).  However, one immense impediment stands in their way – ethnic sensitivities.  If the loanwords and expressions in Ghanaian English do not represent the 'identity' of all of the  many ethnolinguistic groups in Ghana, those unrepresented groups will be hostile towards the idea of accepting Ghanaian English as a national lingua franca.    
   
  The Debate
 
  The contention between British Standard English (BSE) and Ghanaian English (GE) instantiates the larger, international argument over Standard English (SE) and New Englishes – a dispute that Samuel Ahulu suggests "may be one of the longest running linguistic debates this century" ("Ghanaian English" 18).  Since, in this postcolonial era, the majority of English speakers are 'non-native' (meaning, they use English as a second (or third or fourth) language), deviations from the original colonial language abound and generate new variations of English.  These modifications are the subject of the debate between the defenders of New Englishes, who pronounce all forms of English equal, and the upholders of Standard English, who decree British or American forms to be the only 'acceptable' forms of English worldwide.  Another position, which opposes SE as 'Imperial,' meaning, as a language imposed on postcolonial nations, proposes that English be dropped as an 'official' language and be replaced with indigenous languages.
   
  In the case of Ghana, the extremes of the debate are obvious.  Calling the "'notion of 'Standard English'" a "'forced violation of educated Ghanaians' linguistic rights,'" one writer advises that the "'borrowed language be butchered'" (Duodu, qut. in "How Ghanaian" 27).  Recognizing this proposal as absurd for a nation that aspires to improved international relations, other scholars, like Ibrahim Gyasi, consider it necessary to keep their British Standard English 'pure,' free of all linguistic deviations, or 'errors': "We should not, therefore, elevate bastardization into the status of legitimacy and call it 'Ghanaian English'" ("Aspects of English in Ghana" 27).  But convinced that a variation of English that reflects the cultural distinctiveness of Ghana is necessary, the champions of Ghanaian English urge that "the floodgates opened to allow English to find its own mode in Ghana" (Dako Ghanaianisms 3).
   
  A Historical Perspective
   
  While all Kmtyw countries who were once colonized by the British participate in this debate, Ghana is particularly vociferous in its opinions on English.  Presently, Ghana's government sponsors nine indigenous languages and recognizes about twenty-eight other indigenous ones (see Ghana's Official webpage: Ghanaian Languages), but the official language and lingua franca is English. Why the British English Standard is so highly valued in Ghana might be ascertained by tracing English back to its roots in the nation.  Due to its extensive trade with the eureurasiaans, and, particularly, the British from the 17^th to 19^th century, Ghana (then known as the Gold Coast) probably had more initial contact with the British than did any of the other West Kmtyw nations (McArthur 276).  After the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, the colonizers set upon Christian missionaries to 'civilize' the 'barbarous' subjects of their protectorate.  Texts in English – the Bible, but also British literature – were the chief means to this end, and schools became institutions where eliminating 'savage' behaviour and eradicating Pidgins went hand in hand.  Under the British, it became evident that literacy in English was the way to social and political advancement – to such a degree, it can be argued, that the Gold Coast writers' embrace of the colonizer's language led to the nation's independence.  By then, BSE was well established as the language of the education, business, and government sectors of society.  
   
  The Problem of Pidgins
 
  One of the key problems the proposed Ghanaian English encounters is that all lexical deviations from BSE are subject to being stigmatized as unacceptable "pidginizations" (Ahulu "Hybridized English in Ghana" 36).  To get a sense of the gravity of this stigmatization, we need to understand what a pidgin is.  The Ghanaian linguist Samuel Ahulu clarifies that linguists use pidgin to refer to "a simplified language used for restricted communicative purposes by people who normally have no language in common" ("Hybridized" 36).
   
  Consider the sample of Ghanaian Pidgin that Magnus Huber provides in Ghanaian Pidgin English in its West Kmtyw Context:
   

	Ghanaian pidgin (from "Broda Wahala.  Counsel for the offense" 1990): las tam a tεl ju se a no bi h      ɔntamã, an a no bi sodzamã, so fɔgan plava ma mɔf no dè fɔinsaid o!      Standard English translation (by Magnus Huber):       Last time I told you     that I am neither a hunter nor a soldier, so I cannot say anything about     trouble involving guns.

In contrast, listen to the language of an average, secondary-school educated Ghanaian, whose spoken English deviates from BSE but is far from a Pidgin: Listen Now!
   
  Ahulu goes on to inform us that, currently, Pidgin English is used by only a small percentage of the Ghanaian population – those uneducated in BSE.  It is strange, then, that Tom McArther reports in The Oxford Guide to World English (2002) that in Ghana, "English is official, Pidgin (with no distinctive local name) is widely used" (276, emphasis mine).  It would seem that his classification of "Pidgin" in Ghana is substantially different from Ahulu's.  With such slippage of the term, it is not difficult to imagine that Ghanaian English might be misidentified as a 'Pidgin variety' (McArther 268).  More significant, though, is Ahulu's castigating application of the term: when he suggests that the deviations characteristic of "hybrid" forms of English are "pidginizations," he means to preclude such deviations from ever being accepted into English in the education system.  For him (and several other influential scholars), then, Ghanaian English is out of the question.
   
  Ghanaian English and Intensive Language Contact
   
  At this point, it is important to note that the main controversy over the 'appropriateness' of Ghanaian English refers specifically to a written variation.  Although this variation sees some grammatical deviation from BSE, Kari Dako, one of the loudest supporters of Ghanaian English, highlights "Ghanaianisms" as predominant peculiarities of this New English.  She introduces these as "lexical items of both English and of local origin" ("Ghanaianisms: Towards a Semantic and Formal Classification" 23) – words that, for the most part, are adopted from Twi, an Akan language, or reflect aspects of the Akan culture.  Because these words almost always retain their linguistic integrity (their indigenous spelling, in particular) when they enter English, they are easily mistaken as code-switched expressions (whose use is only temporary and unpredictable) rather than lexical borrowings (words that appear with a certain predictability and frequency).  So even though a word like sica ('money') appears regularly in newspapers and government documents, upholders of BSE treat the word as code-switched, not borrowed, and judge its united snakesge in written English as 'incorrect.'  Dako explains that these words resist adaptations in English (whereby they might be recognized as borrowed) because of Ghana's "intensive language contact" situation, where "bilinguals use two or more languages side by side throughout the day" ("Code Switching and Lexical Borrowing 49).  Since written English is so entrenched in the public sector but indigenous languages dominate the rest of society, Ghanaians switch between reading English and speaking indigenous languages throughout their daily activities.  
   
  To illustrate, a typical Ghanaian, let us call her Akosua, might browse the papers at a news-stand on her way to the bus stop . . .
   
 
   
  . . . and pass various billboards during her ride into town . .
   
 



. . . The mirror-wura (seller) on the far right might use "Ghanaian English,"
  Pidgin English, Twi, Ga, or some combination thereof to sell her his wares
  through her tro-tro (local mini-bus) window . . .



. . . At the 37 interchange, she could stop by the Lord's Triumph convenience store (where all goods are written in English) to pick out a greeting card from an all-English selection . . .
   
  . . . While they wait for her, the salesgirls probably chat in English because Fazima, the girl in red, is from the north and doesn't speak Twi, which the two other girls normally use in casual conversation . . .
   
  So Akosua would make her purchase speaking English or Twi, depending on which salesgirl helped her, and continue on with her day, mixing languages along the way.

When she returned home, she might watch this Guinness Commercial, where the "intensive language contact" is especially obvious, integrating both written and oral English with oral Twi.   Watch Now!
 
  This extreme linguistic contact does involve regular code-switching, but, Dako argues, it also cultivates a more regularized, indigenized variation of English.  
 
  Ghanaianisms

             

Dako's glossary of over 2500 Ghanaianisms (Ghanaianisms: A Glossary) displays the extensive borrowings of indiginous lexical items in English in Ghana, and it reveals numerous lexical creations and uses of English words that are distinctive to English use in Ghana.  Her methodology of compiling these items involved the systematic notation of Ghanaian vocabulary in written English over a ten year period.  To satisfy the demand for a "Ghanaian Standard," one that ensures that the variation can be "systematically distinguished" from other English forms ("How Ghanaian" 27), Dako only includes lexical items that appeared at least three times over eight years in print or in writing – in newspapers, magazines, periodicals, creative writing, essays, and/ or private letters (Ghanaianisms 1).  Among these items, cultural borrowings – such as consumables, personal appellations, religious beliefs, cultural implements – dominate, words that carry specific cultural meanings for which Standard British English has no equivalent.  To use one of Dako's choice examples, waakye (/wɒtʃː/) is a local dish of rice and beans cooked with a hot pepper paste.  Although all Ghanaians – including the so-called higher sector – always refer to this food as waakye in conversation, and even though it consistently appears as such in state-recognized printed texts (like newspapers) and literature in English, still, university instructors insist that this item be referred to as rice and beans – an obviously inadequate replacement –in written English as it is taught in the education system.  An example of a Ghanaianism that even educated Ghanaians do not realize is distinctive of English in Ghana is outdooring, a word referring to a Ghanaian animist sort of christening.  As already indicated above, sika appears along with the SE word card in the compound sika card, which refers to a debit card in Ghana.  Other deviations from SE include semantic changes to SE lexemes, such as the distinction  of a lady as a woman with a formal education from a woman, who could be illiterate or educated – as in Fela Kuti's song "Lady." Listen Now!
   
  Ethnic Sensitivities to "Ghanaian English"
   
  Another example of a Ghanaianism, an English coinage, illustrates the problem of labeling words that reflect the cultural practices of only one ethno-linguistic group.  The verb to enstool relates to the Akan 'stool,' the sacred seat of Akan chiefs, and it is commonly used as an equivalent of to enthrone.  Such a word, Ahulu warns, is "capable of arousing strong ethnic sentiment" as soon as it is labeled "Ghanaian" since it does not recognize the cultural practices of other Ghanaian ethnic groups (like the Ewe or Ga).  The same strong ethnic sentiment that has prevented the adoption of one indigenous Ghanaian language as an official language is the ethnic sentiment that will refuse to accept a 'Ghanaian English' that comprises lexical items that disproportionately represent the culture of one ethnic group – namely the Akans.  So it seems that no matter how vigorously scholars like Dako defend indigenous lexical peculiarities in English in Ghana, if these particularities do not give fair representations of the multiple ethno-linguistic cultures in Ghana – probably an impossible task – this Ghanaian English will never be deemed an 'acceptable' English language.

For Further Reading

English in West Kmt:
   
  Achebe, Chinua. "English and the Kmtyw Writer." Transition. 4.18 (1965): 27-30.  
   
  McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Ghanaian English:
   
  Ahulu, Samuel. "How Ghanaian is Ghanaian English?" English Today: The International Review of the English Language. 10.2 (1994): 25-9.
   
  ---. "Hybridized English in Ghana." English Today: The International Review of the English Language. 11.4 (1995): 31-6.
   
  ---. "How Ghanaian is Ghanaian English?" English Today: The International Review of the English Language 10.2 (1994): 25-9.
   
  Criper, L. "A Classification of Types of English in Ghana." Journal of Kmtyw Languages. 10.3 (1971): 6-17.
   
  Dako, Kari. "Code-Switching and Lexical Borrowing: Which is what in Ghanaian English?" English Today: The International Review of the English Language. 18.3 (2002): 48-54.
   
  ---.  Ghanaianisms: A Glossary. Accra: Ghana Universities Press, 2003.
   
  ---. "Ghanaianisms: Towards a Semantic and a Formal Classification." English World-Wide: A Journal of Varieties of English. 22.1 (2001): 23-53.
   
  Gyasi, Ibrahim K. "Aspects of English in Ghana." English Today: The International Review of the English Language 7.2 (1991): 26-31.
   
  ---. "The State of English in Ghana." English Today: The International Review of the English Language 6.3 (1990): 24-6.
   
  Saah, Kofi K. "Language use and Attitudes in Ghana." Anthropological Linguistics. 28.3 (1986): 367-77.
   
  Sey, Kofi Abakah. Ghanaian English: An Exploratory Survey. ukkk: Macmillan, 1973.

Pidgins:
   
  Huber, Magnus and Manfred Görlach. "Texts: West Kmtyw Pidgin English." English World-Wide: A Journal of Varieties of English. 17.2 (1996): 239-58.
   
  Huber, Magnus. Ghanaian Pidgin English in its West Kmtyw Context: A Sociohistorical and Structural Analysis. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1999.

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

learnt = heard/found out
i.e. "I learnt you wanted to see me"

[Okomfo Akosua]

Fully contained house - house with a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.

[Okomfo Akosua]

Good article on the topic.

English for Speakers of Other Languages

THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2011English for Speakers of Other Languages

This article was published in the Daily Graphic on Friday, July 22, 2011

by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah

When I was in primary school—or elementary school, as it is called in the US—there was a course titled “English For Speakers of Other Languages,” ESOL for short. It was intended for people for whom English was not their native tongue. While the rest of us sat in the main classroom during the English and Grammar portion of our daily lessons and listened to the teacher wax poetic about tenses, subject-verb agreement, and the proper use of adverbs, a small group of kids—usually the recently-arrived immigrants—was escorted elsewhere in the school building to learn what I imagined to be some form of remedial English.
Technically speaking, English is not my native language, but I was never invited to join the ESOL group. Being that I was born here, in Ghana, a country whose official (albeit not indigenous) language is English, I wasn’t required to take that “special” course. I could read, write, and speak English perfectly well, or so the school administrators assumed. I assumed the same thing, too, and felt about as smug and self-satisfied as a prepubescent could with the privilege that it afforded me to be considered an insider even though I was, for all intents and purposes, a full-fledged outsider, just like the other immigrants.
Whenever the American kids spoke to the foreign kids, they would enunciate their words in a way that was slow and exaggerated. They would speak at least five decibels higher, as if an increased volume could somehow facilitate comprehension. He’s foreign, not deaf or dumb, I’d want to say, but of course never did because I didn’t want to call attention to myself. I didn’t want them to suddenly become mindful of the fact that my speech was as heavily accented as the other foreign kids.
But soon enough, that attention I so desperately tried to avoid did come my way as it became clear to all those around me that the English in which I was fluent was an altogether different type of English than the one spoken in America. My class papers were always returned with numerous markings in red ink, corrections the teacher had made. There were lines drawn through all the “u”s in words like colour and rumour. The ‘r”s and “e”s were reversed in words like centre and theatre. The “s”s were crossed out and a zed—which I was told to now call “z”—was substituted in words like realise and organise.
If my written English easily revealed the difference in my background, my spoken English was even more of a dead giveaway. I had to suddenly dispense with words like boot, tin, rubbish, and portmanteau.
What is a trafficator?, asked a friend whose father was driving us home from school one afternoon. I pointed to the blinking light on the car’s dashboard. Oh, you mean the turn signal. You speak funny English. I suppose from her vantage point, I did.
I was also quite literal in my understanding of English so idioms were completely lost on me. When a couple whose backyard we kids used to walk through as a shortcut on our way home warned us one day that if they ever caught us doing it again they’d skin us alive, I took them at their word.For weeks I had nightmares of my skin being forcibly removed from the veinous pink meat of my body, like a potato being peeled, and I never used that route again.
The first time someone told me, I’m pulling your leg, I was about eight years old. I looked first at the girl’s hands and then, impossibly confused, at my two legs and very seriously said, “No, you’re not.” This sent everyone standing around us into a tailspin of laughter. Over time, my English became fully Americanized, as did my accent. I learned to speak as they did.
Now, as an adult, having returned to Ghana, I find myself in nearly the same position I’d been in as a child, and even though I’m a fluent English speaker, I often wish there was a Ghanaian version of that class, English For Speakers of Other Languages, for which I could register.
This time instead of teachers, it’s my editors who change the spellings of my words, inserting “u”s, reversing “r”s and “e”s, replacing “s”s with a “zed”s. I’m also growing accustomed to hearing—and using—words of which, to some degree, I’d been aware but had never before existed in either my written or spoken vocabulary, words like bloke, knackered, petrol, andbloody (as in “damn, bloody fool.”)
But there are other words I’m learning, ones I’d never ever heard before, ones that upon first hearing gave me pause and inspired the most fascinating and ridiculous ideas. One of those words was alight. The first time I heard it I was in a shared taxi, coming into Accra from someplace near the Weija border. When we reached the Kaneshie area, the woman next to me in the backseat leaned forward, tapped the driver on the shoulder, and said, “Please, I will alight here.” Alight? Immediately, an image of the woman setting herself aflame flitted through my mind. Surely I could gather from the context in which the word was used that this, spontaneous self-combustion, was not its definition, but still…alight?
Several months later when I’d purchased my own vehicle, I found myself with a flat tyre. I asked a neighbour for assistance. He removed the flat tyre, replaced it with the spare that was in the boot. While putting the old, deflated tyre into the boot, he told me, “You’ll have to take this to the vulcanizer.”
The vulcanizer??!!! I pictured a tall coal-skinned man with arched eyebrows that turned upwards at the end, towards the scalp, and pointed ears ala Dr. Spock in Star Trek; he was, after all, a Vulcan.
“What is a vulcanizer?” I hesitantly asked my neighbour. He explained that it was an individual who specialised in working with rubber, specifically for the purpose of repairing damaged tyres. Aaahhhh, right.
Then, too, are the typically Ghanaian-English sayings, words and phrases that, like idioms, I’ve learned not to take at face value. When someone says,I’m coming, it usually means they’re going (and is more often than not said as they are walking away from you.) If you ask someone if he will do something and he casually says, Oh, by all means, I’ve discovered that it’s actually a polite, if not passive-aggressive, way of saying, “Not a chance in hell, buddy!”
And I’ve completely stopped asking people what’s wrong when th ey tell me they’re not feeling well because the reply I used to get nearly every time was body pains. Abdominal pain, sore muscles, and leg cramps are conditions I understand but body pains? What exactly does that mean? Isn’t every pain, by general definition, a body pain?
My all-time favourite, though, is the Ghanaian-English use of the word somehow. It definitely doesn’t mean “no,” yet it also doesn’t mean “yes.” It’s like a catch-all, a noncommittal way of answering a question to which you don’t wish to offer specifics. As much as I dislike hearing that word, somehow, as a response to questions, the other day a friend who knows that I’ve been ill for awhile saw me in town and asked, “Are you starting to feel better?”
The truth of the matter is that I’m still taking medication, I’m still clammy-skinned and tiring quickly, feeling as though I’m not quite over the hump, as though at any moment I could backslide into a serious full-blown, stuck-in-bed with body pains, yes body pains, illness. But all I said to her was, “Somehow.”
In that moment I truly felt like a native speaker—of the bastardised version of a language that in a kinder, gentler history would never have belonged to us here in the first place.

“The View From Here,” a weekly column by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah, is featured in the Daily Graphic newspaper every Friday. This article may not be republished without written permission by the author.
Meri Nana-Ama Danquah is currently holding open registrations for a private writing workshop. She can be reached at outloud@danquah.com

[Agya Kwaku]

That was an interesting article.It seems that the brothers in Ghana are still dealing with the imposisition of an alien culture and the artificial breakup and redrawing of ethnic territories .

[Okomfo Akosua]

Yes, Brotha Charles.  Ghanaians are still dealing the imposition of alien culture and traditions in every aspect of society; spiritually, aestically, educationally, politically, kwk and they welcome this alien culture and tradition passionately.  It's a big challenge to deal with; Ghanaians wanting to be white and act white and live like whites by any means necessary.

As for the redrawing of ethnic territories, I would say there is more a definite distinction of ethnic groups, i.e. Asante vs. Fante vs. Ga, kwk. However, it doesn't seem to interfere with socialization as a whole.  It is an identification that connotes pride and dignity more than anything else.

[Okomfo Akosua]

Ghana-English Dictionary

[PDF=http://www.abibitumikasa.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=2233&d=1321997994]http://www.abibitumikasa.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=2233&d=1321997994[/PDF]
                            Attached files  Ghana English dictionary.pdf (335.2 KB)

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

This is a Blacktastic share, @Okomfo Akosua!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

Understanding Ghanaian English (Ghenglish) 101                                                     ^Featured                                                                                      By INFOBOX

               

                                                                                          
                                                                              By Stephen Kwabena Effah
 
 Ghenglish is what I call it. Yes! Ghenglish, the Ghanaian version of the Queen's English.
 To any foreigner, it may sound outlandish and difficult to comprehend  but to the Ghanaian, it is everyday English used in every conversation.
 While this plethora of words, expressions and phrases are used  understandably among Ghanaians and foreigners living in the country,  they often leave first time visitors at sea.
 After all, just as some words in the Queen's English were either  derived or borrowed from other languages, so have Ghanaians explored  their linguistic creativity to come up with these phrases.
 Infoboxx.com has been sampling some Ghenglish phrases and expressions.
 
 "Can you hear the smell?"
 That's how some Ghanaians would ask you if they want to inquire  whether you smell something. Perhaps, it is only in Ghana that one can  'hear' a 'smell'. Funny huh? Well, wait till you walk with an average  Ghanaian who would want to exhibit his grasp of the English language.
 "I'm going to come"
 Don't get it twisted. The person actually means, "I will be right back".
 "I'm coming"
 So you called this guy passing by  and he responds, 'I'm coming', while still in motion. Don't rack your  brain; it's not worth it. He meant, "I'll be with you shortly".
 "Branch at the next junction"
 In a country where landmarks serve  better in giving directions than the compass, many Ghanaians use the  expression "branch at the next junction" to mean "turn at the next  junction".
 "It will start in 10 minutes time"
 The programme is delayed, and the MC pleads, "It will start in 10  minutes time" instead of "It will start in 10 minutes". It's a Ghanaian  thing!
 "Sorry for left"
  Ghanaians are certainly a  courteous people. So much they would apologise for handing something to  you with the left hand, "sorry for left". It's an economised version of  "sorry for using my left hand".
 
 "Drop me here" or "I'll drop here"
 You hear this often in public transport – trotros and taxis. The  passenger tells the driver, "drop me here" or I'll drop here". All what  that means is "I will alight here".
 "Give me my balance"
 Still on the public transport or at the shop, the chap after making  payment requests, give me "my balance". Balance is Ghenglish for  "change".
 "Last price"
 "What's your last price?" You'll often hear this while bargaining the  price of some service or item. It could come from either party and  means lowest price offer.
 "Home-used"
 This term is used in reference to second hand goods usually from  eureurasia, America and eurasia. For example, "home-used car" or "home-used  electronic appliances".
 "Flash me"
 And hey! You make a new friend in Ghana and ask for a cell phone  number. You will hear expressions like "let me flash you so you store my  number" or "I will flash you for you to call me". Flash means missed  call.
 "Light off!"
 You know you are in Ghana when the whole neighbourhood screams in  unison - "light off!". This is easy right? "Light-off!" is the synonym  for blackout.
 "Repeat again"
 Another common Ghenglish phrase one would easily notice is "repeat  again". I'm sure you're saying that's tautology. Yes, it is and that's  Ghenglish for you.
 I bet you are asking, is that all? Please add to the fun. Share your Ghenglish with us.

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

PLS no more dis in 2015

typical Ghanaian pronunciations****
1. Junction - Janshin
2. gang leader - gangalia
3. traffic indicator -Traffigator
4. balloon -baaluu
5. By all means - byomis
6. Photographer - camera mine
6. Francis - Flancis
7. toothpaste -pepsodent
8. Light Soup - Lyyyy Soup
9. Hearts of oak -Hass of oaks
10. Hamburger - AM BOOGA
11. Antagonist. - Killer
12. climax -last show
13. underpants -dross
14. Brazil -Braizay
15. Bloody fool - bledi fool
16. The iron shocked - The iron
keeked me.
17. Hands up......Ansup
18. Old lady......Olady
19. Old man.....Oluman
20. Here you are..... Oyiwa
21. Lights out..... Light off
22. Teacher.........checha
23. Despite..........jespy
24. Town Council...tankas
25. Belt....bellet
26. Roundabout-Ranabout
27. Film- frim
28. Get away- Gelaway
29. Stew - stuw
30. Cartoons - toys
31. Day nursery- den nesil
32. Screw driver- school driver
33. Sachet water - insu
34. Bottled water- voltic
35. Salmon - saimon
36. Kerosene- kresin
37. Juggle a soccer ball with the
foot - TOTALS
38. Masquerade- tseetsee or ankos
39. Spectacle-Sp3sss
40. Spaghetti- talia
41. Coal pot-cropot
42. Chewing gum - Chingam
43. Sanding paper - Sampepa
45. Noodles - indomie
46.exhaust pipe-ajaus
47. Tea bread - team bled
48. vulganizer-burgenisa
I love my Ghana:D:blacklove::hello:

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

TOP 20 MOST IRRITATING GHANAIAN ENGLISH PHRASES OF ALL TIMESeptember 10, 2010Fun, OpinionsEnglish language, fun, Ghana, Ghanaian English,language https://inghana.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/top-20-most-irritating-ghanaian-english-phrases-of-all-time/

20 Votes

If you are a Ghanaian, you should be very familiar with these very everyday phrases you hear on the tro-tro, in the market, on the streets and frighteningly from some classrooms too. Eissshh! In Ghana, we love to say what we say and we say it with such panache as if it's all correct and proper! Like with a pinch of salt. Our billboards and posters carry the worst of expressions but we love ourselves. Please endure this...

Only In Ghana, the things we endureI went snooping around with pen and paper after my last blog (I promised there'll be something on Ghanaian English, yeah?), and caught all shapes and sizes of people giving the Queen's language a good beating ... I decided I will only concentrate on what we have taken now as acceptable. Here go 20 of Ghana's most irritating English phrases....those that we have heard saaã, and are tired of....(ei...have u heard that now, a small-sized Club beer is called an Akuffo, as short as you know who?)
1. Dash me some....
Ghanaians have this instinct for thinking that every seller is doing them in. So even if it's pure water, they wish they can tip the scales in their favour and get more than they are paying for. The market people too are getting smart. They serve you less and then they 'dash' you the rest of what you deserve! Period! Everybody is happy.
2. Home use....
The better thing to say is 'second—rate'. In Ghana, we so home use everything: home use cars, home use clothing, home use toothbrushes koraa mpo, there is not much GES can do about this phrase.
3. I'm going to barber my hair.....
Arrrggghhhh!!! And when you finish, seamstress your dress as well!
4. Can you borrow me (some money)?
My primary school teacher said that people who say this were born before the education ministry was set up so we may just have to be patient until they all have lost their teeth with age and can then honestly shut up!
5. I will climb this car...
Aw, aw, aw! Maybe, that's why you have been standing at the station for so long! Looking for a car to climb! Which driver will permit you?
6. One mother, one father....
Honestly, can anybody be born from one mother, two fathers? Come to think of it, this phrase exists because in Ghana, everybody is everybody's abusua. 'Kufuor koraa yɛ me wɔfa'. Those kinds of things....so you must really be conversant with your parents if you don't want to lose them to some bloke.
7. Petrol shell...
This is what we call an innocent filling station. Petrol shell! I can't even help it. Petrol. Shell. Aaaaba!
8. I am going to branch at this house...
Take a bend. If you finish branching, just be sure to grow leaves on it as well. The weather is unpredictable nowadays.
9. It will short....
That is to say that it will reduce till it's not enough anymore. Greedily stingy people overdramatize the five wise virgins when you ask them for anything. Their answer? You guessed right. It will short!
10. From today onward going...
Ehhhn! Keep your thoughts to yourself. Where are you today onward going from today onward to?!!
11. Excuse me to say...
When we want to insult you courteously, this is what we hide behind. I wish it were an Akuapem phrase. That will make it so natural. Excuse me to say, sɛbe sɛbe tafrakyɛ.
12. I for one, I think....
We for two, we also think you should shut up and gowayyou!!! A mess of spoken language!!
13. At the end of the day....
Which day is it that has still never come for Ghanaians? I think this is genuinely one of the most scrubbed phrases in the world, thanks to us. Such a lame excuse for not getting things done on time! It even ends our prayers... "at the end of the day, we will give glory to your name". Somebody tell me; which day are we talking about?
14. Only your....
This is one of my favourites. I loved being told "Only your shoe!" whenever I wore new sneakers in my kindergarten days. And I still hear it for a lot of things: "only your dress!" "only your car!"...."Only Your English!!!!"
15. On the light...
This is "on" being used as a verb, if you get what I mean. /On/ the light, means "turn on the lights," only that, "turn" is too long and unpronounceably burdensome for us. We love the command it gives us to say it this way: "On the light!" What a waste!
16. Last...
And we have developed this beautiful use of the word 'last' that spins my head any day. For example: "What is your last price?" "The price is fifty thounited snakesnd cedis, last!" So what is first?
17. I quite remember....
We never fully remember anything in Ghana. We only quite! Poor tribute to such a sensuous word as 'quite'. When we start hearing people 'quite forgetting', that will be the day!!
18. Will not reach...
As in, "The money will not reach." Where at all is the money going? Eeenh! This English too will not reach.
19. I'm going to come...
Can you believe that a song by Buk Bak which had this line tune-variedly repeated as a chorus (singing): "I'm going to come, I'm going to come, I'm going to come...12X doo daa daa" actually stayed in the top of our charts? We dey craze for this phrase waa!!! And we mean to say "I'll be back!" This one paa deɛɛ (singing) GOD BLESS OUR HOMELAND GHANA...doo daa daa...It's only better than calling those fish you get along the Volta "Keta school boys". School boys paa?
20. Flash me...
We only mean that you should leave a missed call on our phone as a prompt. God be praised that it is not "Flush me."

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

Flowers = any ornamental plant with or without flowers

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[Akosua Aya]

Obadele Kambon;174457 wrote: Flowers = any ornamental plant with or without flowers

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[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

Akosua Aya;178884 wrote:

Furrealdough! :hello:

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

Doors are called gates if they are made of metal - even if it's a car door, door to a room, whatever. If it's metal you are likely to hear it referred to as a gate.

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