Reviewed by Omaima Ayoub, Richard J. Daley College
This volume brings the fields of linguistics and cultural anthropology together in a series of well-rounded papers on various aspects of language, culture, and family issues in Ghana (West Africa). The papers are divided into two thematic sections: (i) ‘Language’ and (ii) ‘Culture and family studies’. ‘Language’ deals with language pedagogy, prosodic-morphology (e.g. aspects of Akan tense, aspect, and hypocorisms), Nzema morphophonology, communication disorders, and lexical borrowing, whereas ‘Culture and family studies’ encompasses the Akan family system, Akan semiotics, nonverbal taboo communication, a Krobo festival and its sociocultural relevance to the Krobo society, and Frafra (Ghana) anthroponymy (i.e. human names).
In ‘English sounds and spellings: Solving the initial reading problem in Ghana’, Alan Duthie examines the difficulties Ghanaian native speakers encounter when they learn English. He contends that, because a closer correspondence is found in the writing and sound systems of Ghanaian languages than in English, it would be helpful for Ghanaian learners to begin learning the basics of reading in a Ghanaian language before bridging onto English. In ‘Recent-/remote-past marking in Akan: A multi-tiered account’, Seth Ofori offers a multitiered moraic account of recent-past and remote-past markings in Akan and demonstrates (i) that these morphemes are both inherently moraic and (ii) they are dependent on the verbal affix hierarchy and various phonological rules for their distribution and their segmental realizations.
In ‘Negation in Nzema’, Samuel Obeng and Emmanuel Yankey discuss negation in Nzema, a Kwa language spoken in Ghana, by showing that this process involves several morphophonemic features such as tonal change, vowel harmony, consonant alternation, frication, and loss of affrication. Ebenezer Godwyll, in ‘Using the mother tongue (L1) as a medium for early identification and diagnosis for communication disorders: A look at Ghana’, addresses the development of processes for early identification and diagnosis of communication disorders in Ghanaian children as well as the rationale behind the need for such processes. Godwyll also argues that the mother tongue should be used to discern communication disorders.
In ‘Akan hypocorisms: A constraint-based approach’, Seth Ofori claims that the ranking of morphophonemic constraints is responsible for the various morphophonological processes (e.g. reduplication, deletion, vowel lengthening) that occur during the hypocoristic formation of Akan anthroponyms. In ‘Lexical borrowing: The case of Ewe’, Paul Agbedor examines loanwords that entered the Ewe language as a result of its contact with other European and non-European (i.e. Ghanaian) languages.
The section on culture and family studies starts with Cecilia Obeng’s ‘Understanding the Akan family system through discursive constructions at naming ceremonies’, in which she examines how the discourse patterns associated with Akan naming ceremonies reflect the Akan family system and lifestyle. She also explains how literary devices such as proverbs, metaphors, parallelism, and symbolism help to heighten performance and inform the audience about the sociocultural significance of Akan traditional and moral values. Kofi Agyekum, in ‘Aspects of Akan semiotics’, looks at symbols from the general framework of nonverbal communication and contends that, because semiotics carries a high degree of arbitrariness and ambiguity, it contradicts reality and therefore relies on conventions and sociocultural interpretation.
In ‘Non-verbal communication: Left hand taboos among the Akan of Ghana’, Joe Amoako addresses some of the reasons the Akan would pick up and clean dirty things with the left hand but eat and greet with the right one. He concludes with a recommendation to use the right hand in most African cultures, since using the left hand is considered taboo. John Teye, in ‘Historical and sociocultural essence of the Ngmayem festival of the Manya Krobo of Ghana’, explores the social, cultural, and religious value of Ngmayem, an annual harvest and thanksgiving festival celebrated by the Manya Krobo of Ghana.
Finally, in ‘The psychological implications of Frafra (Ghana) names’, Samuel Atindanbila discusses the psychological implications that Frafra names have on their bearers. He argues that in addition to having spiritual, historical, and social implications, Frafra names provide their recipients with status, respect, and individuality, and act as channels for identity formation and the preservation of cultural values.