Language gives an identity and aids development - Prof. Amo Ofori

Head of the Ghanaian Languages and Linguistics Department of University of Cape Coast, Prof. Emmanuel Amo Ofori has posited that, language is one of the most important gift of nature to humanity.

According to him, language is the only means humans can deal with each other. "Without language there is no way humans can communicate among themselves and existence would be very problematic for all of us", he stated.

Speaking on GBC Radio Central's Morning Show on the topic "Language and Development" as part of the station's Heritage Month Series, he averred that language is of importance and the reason why some countries are using language as a tool of dominance.

"Once you begin to use another person's language, you tend to agree with the person easily and gradually imbibe the person's culture unconsciously thereby leaving your own behind", he stated.

Touching on how language came about, the Linguistics scholar postulated that, there are two schools of thought; "One is from the Devine source which is innate and the other is Speculative."

According him, with the Speculative School of thought, there is something within humans that allows them to develop language skills but, even that, an individual needs to live among humans in order to able to develop his language speaking abilities.

Prof. Amo Ofori revealed that, because we have not developed our languages very well sometimes, even within the medical profession language barrier inhibits Medicare. "Because the doctor cannot comprehend well the local language of the patient, s/he is unable to give proper prognosis on the patient", he contended.

"As a result of this problem, we've developed a 2 credits hour course in Ghanaian language to help our medical students at UCC to comprehend some of the local diseases to able to appreciate and diagnose patients better. I hope other medical schools would emulate same across the country", he shared.

The Linguistics scholar further underscored the fact that, all over the world every developed economy has developed its own language. In South Africa, they've accepted about 11 languages and we in Ghana can do something similar. Be it Germany, China, they use their language.

He continued by saying that, "Other countries have developed modules that has worked for them and Ghana can adopt same. We don't need to develop a new module but, we can adopt from others, make amends where they made mistakes and we can move one from there".