Ghanaian English


Ghanaian English is a variety of English spoken in Ghana. English is the official language of Ghana, and is used as a lingua franca throughout the country. English is the most used of the 11 official languages spoken in Ghana.

Demographics

Of the more than 28 million people in Ghana, more than half of the population uses English, and most use English exclusively. Most primary and secondary school classes are taught in English only.

Phonology

Due to Ghana's colonial history, Ghanaian English most closely resembles British English, although it is wildly varied and deviates from the standard in many ways based on location and context.
In contrast to the twelve monophthongal vowels of Received Pronunciation, Ghanaian English has only seven, an attribute shared with other forms of African English. Ghanaian English exhibits several mergers including the fleece–kit, foot–goose, and thought–cloth mergers.
In Ghanaian English, the voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant is the usual realization of the phoneme , the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate is the usual realization of and the voiced alveolo-palatal affricate is the usual realization of .