COMMUNICATION OF LANGUAGE ATTITUDES: AN EXPLORATION OF THE GHANAIAN SITUATION

Attitudes towards languages in Ghana are influenced by historical, sociological and cultural factors, the most prominent of which is a long period of British colonial rule (1821-1957), leading to the establishment of English as the most prestigious and the only official language of the country. In communicating language attitudes in Ghana, people are affected by the functions that English and the local languages perform as well as their potential use in a range of linguistic domains. As Ghana has not taken a definite stand on the national language issue, English performs many communicative functions; it is the language of the media, education, religion, government, judiciary, commerce and social interaction. Measures to promote indigenous languages have often been unsuccessful as knowledge of such languages generally does not confer any appreciable economic advantages. The present paper explores how Ghanaians communicate their language attitudes and reveals the current trend where Ghana’s indigenous languages are being relegated to the background.