Ghanaian English is a variety of

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

spoken in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and Tog ...

. English is the official language of

, and is used as a

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

throughout the country.

remains the designated language for all official and formal purposes even as there are 11 indigenous Government-sponsored languages used widely throughout the country.

Demographics

Of the more than 28 million people in

, more than half of the population uses English, and most use English exclusively.

Primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works ...

and

secondary Secondary may refer to: Science and nature * Secondary emission, of particles ** Secondary electrons, electrons generated as ionization products * The secondary winding, or the electrical or electronic circuit connected to the secondary winding i ...

school classes at public schools, and schools that prepare for public certificates are taught in English only.

Phonology

Due to Ghana's colonial history, Ghanaian English most closely resembles

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadl ...

, although it is decidedly varied and deviates from the standard in many ways based on location and context. In contrast to the twelve

monophthong A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...

al vowels of

Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been argument over such questions as the definition of RP, whether it is geo ...

, Ghanaian English has only seven, an attribute shared with other forms of

African English Dialects are linguistic varieties that may differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. For the classification of varieties of English only in terms of pronunciation, see regional accents of English. Overview Dialects can be defi ...

. Ghanaian English exhibits several mergers including the fleece–kit, foot–goose, and thought–cloth mergers. In Ghanaian English, the

voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant The voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ("c", plus the curl also found in its voiced counter ...

�is the usual realization of the phoneme (as in "ship" and "Chicago"), the

voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate The voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represent this sound are , , and , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are t_s ...

ɕis the usual realization of (as in "cheese" and ""watching") and the

voiced alveolo-palatal affricate The voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represent this sound are , , and , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are d_z\ a ...

ʑis the usual realization of (as in "general" and "magic").

References

* Languages of Ghana Dialects of English {{ghana-stub