As most of you will know, English is spoken right across the world in diverse local flavours. In India, given its many local languages, people think in their mother tongue first, then speak in English, giving rise to the phrase “vernacular English”. Ditto for the Vietnamese and Chinese. I guess their languages do not accommodate the concept of space, time and direction with the result that it takes some time for outsiders to figure out the exact meaning of what they say.
One can write many hilarious pieces based on this use of English across the world, but that is for another time. This piece is about how English is spoken on the African continent – more specifically Ghana. I began to understand the local accent towards the later part of my stay in Accra.
The following list will give you some idea of English as it is spoken almost all across the African continent : (I must confess I took the help of a local web-site to compile this, before I could begin to chat with them like old pals….…)
Bad - you sleep on it in the bad-room
Beds – creatures associated with flying and cholesterol-free meat – hawks, crows, sparrows, doves, etc.
Beg - container,
as in shopping-beg, hand-beg
Chetz - where
worshippers go on Sundays to pray
Detty - opposite
of clean
Driva - holds the
steering wheel of a teksi
Duck – It was very
duck at night
Ebbon - Urban
Erriors – Areas
(Like - Ebbon erriors are safe in
Ewways - Airways
Eth – Earth
Fest - the one
before second and third
Guddin - where you
grow kebbijees
Hair – female
pronoun - as opposed to hiss
Heppi – Happy – I'm
so heppi – it’s Freiday
Hiss – male
pronoun – masculine form of hair
Itch – Each – as
in “itch and avairy pesson goes to chetz on Sunday.”
Jems - little bugs
that make you sick
Kah - what you
drive around in
Kebbijees -
vegetable
Len - to acquire
knowledge
Pee pull – Give powa
to da pee pull….
Pesson - one of
pee pull
Shex - houses in
squatter camps
Shit of peppa -
something to write on
Spitch - speech
Sweamas – pee-pull
in a sweaming pul
Teksi – kah for
hiah
Thest – Thirst
Wek – Work – You goin’ to wek now ?
***
