Are our Twi alphabets up to standard?

Thank God our dear nation will get gold on March 6, 2007. It will be a national day full of pride and dignity as we remember one of the blessed Wednesdays in the history of our dear nation.

Definitely, a nation which has gone through 50 years has got a lot of stock taking to do. What is important is that we use this stock taking period to put in perspective a way of life reflecting a changing society.

Our forefathers/mothers struggle towards independence deserves to be placed at respectable positions in our national efforts into the future. Many of the things done then were based on the circumstances during that time. If we were to have independence today it would have been different as conditions now and then are totally different.

The foresight of the big six and the sounding support of the masses then that laid the foundation towards our independence needs to be appreciated. Through their sense of vision and direction many institutions were established to shape our destiny into the future. It is important we use this golden jubilee to assess whether such institutions have lived up to their expectations.

One institution I am concerned about since its establisment is the Ghana Institute of Languages (GIL). I want to know if GIL has made the necessary impact on our way of communication and knowledge formation. This is because I wonder why the GIL upon all its centre of excellence (it any), has not been able to identify that the Twi alphabets (a, b, d, e,...) are failing to meet the modern spelling and pronounciation of some words and names.

I want to know if names like Acheampong, Techiman, Ackah, Ackon, Achiase, Chiriponi, Achirensua, Chia, and many more should be in our name dictionary at all. If they do what is the basis since our current alphabets do not have a 'c'?

I believe GIL can boast of many intellectuals, some of them might have come out with some of these name and others having a 'c' in them. Don't they think we need to revise our alphabets to reflect current circumstances of some of the names we take, write and spell in modern Ghana?

I wonder how one of our former heads of state should write his name as 'Acheampong' when there is no 'c' in Twi our alphabets. Or we now want to say Acheampong and many other names falling under this category are not Ghanaian names?

As we take stocks, it is my prayers that the Ghana Institute of Languages will also take note of this issue and start working towards a process that will either invalidate such names or realise that it is time 'c' is included in our Twi alphabets.

It is not too late. 50 years later if we are not able to seal off gutters just 500 meters away from the seat of government, or provide good sanition in our communities, or desist from insult party politics, or provide sustainable renewal energy and water supply, we can at least pride ourselves of having included the letter 'c' in our alphabets.

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