Anufɔ-English Codeswitching in Informal Settings Among the Anufɔ People of Ghana

Abstract

In Ghana, most of the recent studies on codeswitching (CS) have largely considered formal settings like religious centers (specifically the church) and the educational arena (specifically classrooms). Such studies show that CS is common in the classroom and churches and has academic and religious implications. In the general Ghanaian context, most of the CS situations among the major indigenous languages like the Akan, Ga, and Ewe investigated also report the effects of this language phenomenon on such languages. The CS situation among the “not widely spoken” indigenous languages such as Anufɔ is still opened to scholarship. The paper scrutinizes the employment of CS in informal settings among the Anufɔ people in Ghana. It employs ethnographic data collection techniques for the analysis. The analysis is framed within the Markedness Model of using CS in conversations. The study reveals that CS involving Anufɔ and English is linguistically and sociopsychologically motivated by such factors as: (i) vocabulary/lexical gap; (ii) language incompetence; (iii) preference for English; (iv) clarity and repetition; and (v) unintentional/subconscious habit. The effect of this CS situation is the emergence of a kind of Anufɔ/English language. This study is a contribution to the CS studies in Ghana.