Ghanaian Pidgin English

Ghanaian Pidgin English (GhaPE) is a Ghanaian English-lexifier pidgin also known as Pidgin, Broken English, and Kru English (kroo brofo in Akan). GhaPE is a regional variety of West African Pidgin English spoken in Ghana, predominantly in the southern capital, Accra, and surrounding towns. It has strong influence from Received Pronunciation, as well as Ga and Akan, two languages indigenous to the Greater Accra region.

Compared to other West African creoles and particularly other West African Pidgin English varieties such as Nigerian Pidgin English, GhaPE is more restricted in social usage and seems to be more stigmatized. A contributing factor may be the relative importance and usage of other languages such as Standard Ghanaian English (SGE), Hausa, and Akan (particularly the Twi dialect) as lingua francas. Other researchers posit long-lasting language ideologies about prestige dialects as a reason for this difference. While GhaPE is generally intelligible with other varieties of West African Pidgin English, there are some significant lexical distinctions, particularly involving vocabulary coming from substrate languages, for instance, the words "biz" (which stands for "ask"), "kai" (which means "remember") and "gbeketii", meaning "in the evening", in the Standard Ghanaian English.

GhaPE can be divided into two basilectal and mesolectal varieties, which academically are referred to as "Town" and "Student" pidgin in newer literature, with "Student" pidgin first emerging as a term in 2002. They may also be referred to as "uneducated" or "non-institutionalized" pidgin and "educated" or "institutionalized" pidgin respectively. The basilectal Town pidgin is predominantly associated with casual conversation and lower/working class speakers.

Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, male students in boarding and secondary schools began using GhaPE as a form of rebellion against strict educational language ideologies, as educators have attempted to ban the use of pidgin in schools several times. Additionally, these students used GhaPE to express solidarity and camaraderie and establish social groups, with female students and those seen as lacking proficiency in GhaPE being excluded from conversation. For many students, particularly those born outside of major cities like Accra or Tema, this was their first exposure to any form of GhaPE.

This usage of pidgin eventually morphed into the lexically distinct Student pidgin. Student pidgin is often acquired and used in institutions such as boarding schools and universities and are influenced by Standard Ghanaian English. While originally limited to educated male students, Student Pidgin has been increasingly picked up by young women and uneducated young adults, as well as even asserting influence on speakers of Town pidgin due to its association with wealth and education.

Women have been historically less likely to use GhaPE in public or professional settings to avoid the social stigma of illiteracy associated with GhaPE. Use of GhaPE has generally been limited to same-gender groups of similarly aged speakers, though increasingly the boundaries of what is an is not acceptable as speech are blurring. As early as 2008, GhaPE was observed in use in romantic contexts between men and women, and children of middle class families may acquire GhaPE from their fathers even before attending school. However, GhaPE is generally considered unacceptable in formal or traditional contexts, even by speakers who would otherwise use it socially with the same individuals.

Contemporary GhaPE, with influences from both Student and Town pidgin, is spoken by 20% of the population with 5 million speakers. Some of the settings in which GhaPE is commonly used include "educational institutions, work places, airports, seaports, drinking places, markets, on the radio, popular songs, and on political platforms", as well as in military or police forces and in casual, social settings. Over the years, some young Ghanaian writers have taken to writing literary pieces such as short stories in GhaPE as an act of protest. GhaPE has also seen expression in songs and movies and in advertisements.

Also, young educated men who were raised outside Accra and Tema very often do not know it until they come into contact with others who do at boarding-school in secondary school or at university. But that might be changing, as Accra-born students go to cities such as Ghana's second city Kumasi to study at university and so could help gain the language new diverse speakers.