ABSTRACT
Accra, the capital city of Ghana, is highly multilingual and has a fair representation of most of the major languages in the country. In this regard, a lot of intercultural activities are expected to occur. This study explores an underrated importance of language use in forming congenial relationships during intercultural encounters such as interethnic marriage ceremonies in Greater Accra. The study analyses how language is negotiated and used during these ceremonies. It reveals that the languages to be used for the ceremonies are often negotiated for prior to the day of the ceremony.
Using Fairclough’s (1995) model of Critical Discourse Analysis, the study shows language imperialism and misinterpretation as some of the problems associated with language usage within the context of interethnic marriage ceremonies. The study also examines the socio-pragmatic factors that inform the language choices of speakers during the course of the ceremonies following Myers-Scotton’s (1993) Marked Model. It shows that speakers make marked choices for the purposes of giving directives, to accommodate other interlocutors, to sing songs and for quotations.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents Page
DECLARATION………………………………………………………………………………. i
DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………………………. ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………. iii
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………. iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………… v
LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………………………… ix
LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………….. x
ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………………………………………. xi
CHAPTER ONE………………………………………………………………………………. 1
GENERAL INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………….. 1
CHAPTER TWO…………………………………………………………………………….. 11
LITERATURE REVIEW, THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY 11
2.1.3. Language choice in other bilingual/multilingual interactions…… 18
2.1.4 Language choice in interethnic marriage ceremonies……………… 23
2.3.5. Selection and transcription of data…………………………………………. 40
2.3.6 Methodological Problem……………………………………………………….. 41
2.5 Chapter summary……………………………………………………………………….. 41
CHAPTER THREE…………………………………………………………………………. 43
LANGUAGE NEGOTIATION AND CODE CHOICES…………………… 43
CHAPTER FOUR…………………………………………………………………………… 68
CODESWITCHING AS A CODE CHOICE…………………………………….. 68
- Introduction………………………………………………………………………………. 68
CHAPTER FIVE…………………………………………………………………………….. 94
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………. 94
APPENDIX I……………………………………………………………………………….. 101
UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEW GUIDE……………………………………… 101
APPENDIX II………………………………………………………………………………. 102
SELECTED RECORDINGS FROM THE CEREMONIES………………. 102
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………… 117
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Linguistic situation of Accra…………………………………………………… 5
Table 2: Language combination of the participants………………………………… 39
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: A framework of critical discourse analysis of a communicative event 30
Figure 2: Greater Accra districts…………………………………………………………. 38
ABBREVIATIONS
CDA Critical Discourse Analysis
CS Codeswitching
MC Master of Ceremony
MM Markedness Model
RO Rights and Obligations
CHAPTER ONE GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Language is an integral part of every speech community. It is a tool through which people express and communicate their thoughts, feelings, ideas and perform other linguistic routines. Therefore wherever people go they carry their language with them. It is said (Salzman 2004) that language forms part of a person’s culture. It is the most fundamental means of identifying people in relation to ethnic or cultural grouping.
A person’s ethnic group is usually associated with the language they speak. Waters (1990), in defining ethnicity, mentions that ethnicity is generally associated with shared features like ancestry, language, food and other cultural markers. This means that language is crucial to forming an ethnic identity. There are about seventy-nine ethnic groups co-existing in Ghana (Lewis 2009). These ethnic groups exist close to each other which attract a lot of interethnic interactions. The interactions between ethnic groups are higher at the urban areas.
Accra, as an urban area and also the capital of the country, has become an inhabitance for many ethnic groups. These ethnic groups migrate from their original homes into their new settlements with their language and culture, making Accra heterogeneous in language and culture. Because of the ethnic/cultural diversity in Accra, a lot of intercultural activities are expected to occur. One of the noticeable intercultural activities is marriage between
different ethnic or cultural groups. The purpose of this work is to look at how language is used during these interethnic activities.
Background to the study
Interethnic marriages have been a very common occurrence in many African countries of which Ghana is no exception. It is a prevalent societal reality given the over sixty languages (Guerini 2006) spoken by a population of about twenty-four million. Interethnic marriages play a key role in sustaining unity in diversity in the country. It makes room for cultural integration, it is a gateway for multilingualism and it reduces the risk of ethnic conflicts. This is because marriage is a universal phenomenon that cuts across cultures. It has received much attention in Africa because it is believed that, marriage does not just unite two individuals but families as well. Because of the status attached to the concept of marriage, it is performed as a ritual in most cultures with series of ceremonies held to mark it. In Ghana for instance, before two people can be declared and recognized as a couple, they will need to go through the customary or traditional marriage ceremony. The religious marriage ceremony is however optional. In recent times, there has been the introduction of marriage by ordinance (orthodox, Christian or Islamic) which involves the registration of a marriage under the intestate succession law (1985). This law allows the wife to be a part of her husband’s economic unit (Gedzi 2009).
Since marriage is a well celebrated institution that attracts a lot of respect, many preparations like food, drinks, venues, etc. are put in place in
order to have memorable ceremonies. Ubong (2010:334) comments that marriage ceremonies among the Ibibio of southern Nigeria are not only rites of passages but are also a sort of entertainment to the witnesses gathered. For this reason, the masters of ceremonies (MCs) or spokespersons are carefully selected for the programs. These speakers could be professionals, friends or family members but what is important is that whoever is chosen must be able to ‘run the show’. Again, Ubong (2010:335) mentions that diction is of a great significance to the ceremony hence a lot of consideration is taken into selecting spokespersons for both families. The language use of the spokespersons and MCs is very important to the ceremony, especially when the ceremony involves different ethnicities.
In selecting spokespersons for interethnic marriages, the linguistic repertoires of these persons are of great importance, not only must they have a rich language full of proverbs, metaphors, jokes etc., they must also have linguistic competence in the languages represented at the ceremonies. The spokespersons must consider the linguistic backgrounds of the audiences before making their language choices in order to keep them engrossed in the ceremony. The situation is far more interesting when an interethnic marriage ceremony is held in a multilingual urban center like Accra where almost everyone is a bilingual (Myers-Scotton 1993:33). Therefore, this work investigates how language is used during interethnic marriage ceremonies in Accra, focusing on how language is negotiated and the factors that influence these negotiations.
The Linguistic situation of Accra
Ghana, like many African countries, has a multifaceted linguistic setting which promotes multilingualism. This is because Ghana is estimated to have over sixty languages (Guerini 2006) of which eleven are taught and studied in schools (Agbedor 1996). Myers-Scotton (1993:33) confirms that because of the language situation in Africa, the average African “speaks at least one language in addition to his/her first language, and persons living in urban areas often speak two or three additional languages”.
Accra, just as other urban areas in Africa and the world has many languages co-existing. One can expect to hear different languages being spoken. As Dakubu (2009:19) puts it, “Accra can be characterized as operating with a system of four languages: English, Akan, Hausa, and Ga. These are the languages with the largest number of speakers in the city, and are by far the most likely to be spoken as second languages.” English is the official language of the country, Akan is the lingua franca and Ga is the indigenous language of natives of Accra. Hausa though not a native language of Ghana also has a high number of speakers. Languages such as Ewe, Mole Dagbani, Guan, among others are in use among the populace of Accra. The table below indicates the languages used in Accra and the number of people who use each of them.
Table 1: Linguistic Situation in Accra
| Language | Number of speakers |
| Akan | 1, 528, 722 |
| Ga | 1, 056, 158 |
| Ewe | 775, 332 |
| Mole Dagbani | 200, 735 |
| Guan | 73, 409 |
| Gurma | 62, 435 |
| Grusi | 48, 822 |
| Mande | 28, 656 |
| Other languages | 75, 568 |
Source: (Ghana Statistical Service Report, 2012).
Even though Dakubu (2009) has projected Hausa to be one of the languages with higher number of speakers in Accra, the report of the 2010 housing and population census did not list Hausa among the first five languages with a higher number of speakers. This is probably because Hausa is not an indigenous language of Ghana or there has been a drastic reduction in the number of speakers between the period of Dakubu’s (2009) study and the period the 2010 housing and population census was conducted.
As one of the busiest urban centers and also the capital of Ghana, Accra has a reasonable representation of the multilingual situation in Ghana. This is because members of the various ethnic groups in Ghana migrate here for economic and other reasons. This accounts for the multilingual nature of Accra. According to the Ghana Statistical Service Report (2012), there is a
representation of people from different parts of the country. This makes Accra the center for which many ethnic groups converge. Table 1 elaborates the language heterogeneity of Accra.
Despite the linguistic heterogeneity of Accra, not all the languages represented are used at the same level. From table 1, Akan has the highest number of speakers (1, 528, 722), it is the language with the biggest domain of use. It is the language mostly used in radio and television discussions and advertisements, at market places, in church sermons in many areas of Accra. Akan is the language of daily communicative events although Ga is the indigenous language of the people of Accra (Tsikpo 2010). Other languages like Ga and Ewe equally have slots in radio and television but it is not as frequent as Akan which is the lingua franca. The rest of the languages are used in in-group communication and as a means of identification for the speakers.
The multilingual nature of Accra encourages a lot of cross-cultural activities, this informs the study to choose Accra as a research site because it will be easier to record more interethnic marriage ceremonies in Accra.
