Ghanaian Pidgin English

Ghanaian Pidgin English (GhaPE) is a Ghanaian English-lexifier pidgin also known as Broken English and Kru English (kroo brofo in Akan) which, like other varieties of West African Pidgin English originated as a language of contact between colonizing British and African slave traders for the transatlantic slave trade.. GhaPE is a regional variety of West African Pidgin English spoken in Ghana, predominantly in the southern capital, Accra, and surrounding towns. It has strong influence from Received Pronunciation, as well as Ga and Akan, two languages indigenous to the Greater Accra region.

Compared to other West African creoles and particularly other West African Pidgin English varieties such as Nigerian Pidgin English, GhaPE is more restricted in social usage and seems to be more stigmatized. A contributing factor may be the relative importance and usage of other languages such as Standard Ghanaian English (SGE), Hausa, and Akan (particularly the Twi dialect) as lingua francas. Other researchers posit long-lasting language ideologies about prestige dialects as a reason for this difference. While GhaPE is generally intelligible with other varieties of West African Pidgin English, there are some significant lexical distinctions, particularly involving vocabulary coming from substrate languages, for instance, the words "biz" (which stands for "ask"), "kai" (which means "remember") and "gbeketii", meaning "in the evening", in the Standard Ghanaian English.

GhaPE can be divided into two basilectal and mesolectal varieties, which academically are referred to as "Town" and "Student" pidgin in newer literature, with "Student" pidgin first emerging as a term in 2002. They may also be referred to as "uneducated" or "non-institutionalized" pidgin and "educated" or "institutionalized" pidgin respectively. The basilectal Town pidgin is predominantly associated with casual conversation and lower/working class speakers.

From Wikipedia · Ghanaian Pidgin English · CC BY-SA 4.0