On Speaking Pidgin and other related forms of “Black People Talk”

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• Akadu Mensema 12 years ago

  Good essay! The problem with Tawiah-Benjamin's article is that he argued that those who speak pidgin are good English language writers. He uses himself as an example, but unfortunately, his writing is nothing to wrote home ab ...
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  Good essay! The problem with Tawiah-Benjamin's article is that he argued that those who speak pidgin are good English language writers. He uses himself as an example, but unfortunately, his writing is nothing to wrote home about!

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• KOO 12 years ago

  JOHN, VERY NICE PIECE. YES, PIDGIN IS THE BASTARDIZATION OF A LANGUAGE. IT IS FUNNY SOME PEOPLE CLAIM NIGERIAN PIDGIN IS BETTER THAN GHANAIAN PIDGIN. NO PIDGIN IS BETTER THAN THE OTHER. PTDGIN IS PIDGIN. IF YOU ARE CAN SPEAK ...
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  JOHN, VERY NICE PIECE. YES, PIDGIN IS THE BASTARDIZATION OF A LANGUAGE. IT IS FUNNY SOME PEOPLE CLAIM NIGERIAN PIDGIN IS BETTER THAN GHANAIAN PIDGIN. NO PIDGIN IS BETTER THAN THE OTHER. PTDGIN IS PIDGIN. IF YOU ARE CAN SPEAK A LANGUAGE WELL, YOU DO. BUT IF YOU CANNOT, YOU MAKE DO.
  
  AS AN AKAN, IF I CAN SPEAK GA WELL, I SPEAK IT FLUENTLY AND PROUDLY. IF I CANNOT, THEN I DO WHAT I CAN DO.

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• Jonas 12 years ago

  This is more informative than Tawiah's piece. Above all this writer doesn't spend a large part of the article talking about himself like Tawiah almost always does - I am this, I am that, I've studied this, I can do that, etc. ...
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  This is more informative than Tawiah's piece. Above all this writer doesn't spend a large part of the article talking about himself like Tawiah almost always does - I am this, I am that, I've studied this, I can do that, etc. Tawiah can be too "fool" of himself.

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• USMAN 12 years ago

  I think Tawia's argument was to counter the stupid utterance made by the DCE of Ketu to the effect that pidgin English is the cause of our educational downfall. These are the sort of foolish decisions taken by our useless uni ...
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  I think Tawia's argument was to counter the stupid utterance made by the DCE of Ketu to the effect that pidgin English is the cause of our educational downfall. These are the sort of foolish decisions taken by our useless university graduates in authority. We were in this country when somebody got up and said the use of cars with tainted glasses can increase crime rate and we all believed it. Some where in the 80s, one Abeiku's( Jaga Pee's) career was truncated on GTV for the flimsy excuse that he spoke pidgin and that will discourage the youth from speaking good English. Ever since then how many English or reading books have our useless university graduates been able to write. Another instance is when in 1987 the government came out with a new educational system with the simple excuse that the old system was too bookish. Today what are we seeing? A very feeble educational system producing useless university graduates even to the extent that we had to go to Nigeria to borrow their grading system for our school children. This was because the first grading system we produced for the SHS system was not recognized internationally. This is how far our useless university education has brought us.

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• James B. Otafregya 12 years ago

  The Maroon town Accompong is actually a corrupted form for Akropong and not Acheampong.
  To add a few words: the Maroons call cola-nuts 'bese'; aben for horns. They have terms like "chamu" ie divide, "ye tu" ie we leave.

  The Maroon town Accompong is actually a corrupted form for Akropong and not Acheampong.
  To add a few words: the Maroons call cola-nuts 'bese'; aben for horns. They have terms like "chamu" ie divide, "ye tu" ie we leave.

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• mensah abrampa 12 years ago

  There's another maroon town called Onyankopon. I had a conversation with a Jamaican lady and she said something about the 'sense fowl' which is what we call 'akoko asense' in Twi. The Jamaicans say in their Patois dialect 'wo ...
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  There's another maroon town called Onyankopon. I had a conversation with a Jamaican lady and she said something about the 'sense fowl' which is what we call 'akoko asense' in Twi. The Jamaicans say in their Patois dialect 'wo me se?' meaning 'what did I tell you'?

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• James B. Otafregya 12 years ago

  We should work with the Maroons and and introduce Akan language there, so the modern day Maroon can speak what their forefather did 300 years ago.
  
  I love to reda such stuff!

  We should work with the Maroons and and introduce Akan language there, so the modern day Maroon can speak what their forefather did 300 years ago.
  
  I love to reda such stuff!

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• Tommy 12 years ago

  Mr writer, in fact I agree perfectly with you. for those who don't I ask, how different is our pidgin English for Swahili in terms of its roots and development. And even for their information, I know certain German courts all ...
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  Mr writer, in fact I agree perfectly with you. for those who don't I ask, how different is our pidgin English for Swahili in terms of its roots and development. And even for their information, I know certain German courts allow for the translation of German-Pidgin English, the essence being that communication has taken place. Why do we then kid ourselves trying to out do each other when it comes to the queen's language?

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• ' and Jesus wept ' 12 years ago

  The Pidgin English despite its various versions has come to stay since it is the most relaxed form of communication among Ghanaians and other West Africans especially our brothers and sisters from Nigeria.

  The Pidgin English despite its various versions has come to stay since it is the most relaxed form of communication among Ghanaians and other West Africans especially our brothers and sisters from Nigeria.

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• mensah abrampa 12 years ago

  West Africa probably have several hundreds of dialects because Nigeria alone have quite a lot.In Nigeria the pidgin english has eased their language problems because most Nigerians, both literate and illiterate can communicat ...
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  West Africa probably have several hundreds of dialects because Nigeria alone have quite a lot.In Nigeria the pidgin english has eased their language problems because most Nigerians, both literate and illiterate can communicate in the pidgin english.Sierra Leone also have their version of the pidgin english. I think the whole of West Africa especially Ghana should take a second look at pidgin english and possibly adopt its usage. This does not mean we will stop the study and speaking of our local dialects but I'm of the opinion that pidgin english will make communication among ourselves much easier, no matter which part of the country you may be visiting.It would also improve communication between us and our West African english speaking neighbors.Trading and commerce activities will be enhanced and we stand to gain in more diverse ways too.

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• Naa Awura 12 years ago

  It is very interesting how language evolves! Pidgin/Krio/Caribbean Patoi etc is as much a dialect of the English language as Scouse / Cockney / Yorkshire/ 'American. There is also the language of the youth developed by the ch ...
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  It is very interesting how language evolves! Pidgin/Krio/Caribbean Patoi etc is as much a dialect of the English language as Scouse / Cockney / Yorkshire/ 'American. There is also the language of the youth developed by the children of the Diaspora and the Ghetto. I wonder how long some of the modern dialects will last and if they will also creep into our African languages creating a reverse fusion!!

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• alpha lebbie 12 years ago

  Considerably a large chunk of black people are are creole /krio speakers. Thus it is become a peoples way of expressing themselves. This demographic cannot be ignored. we may require krio authors to publish in this fastly ...
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  Considerably a large chunk of black people are are creole /krio speakers. Thus it is become a peoples way of expressing themselves. This demographic cannot be ignored. we may require krio authors to publish in this fastly growing language.

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