A sociolinguistic study of lexical borrowings in Dangme

Abstract

This thesis investigated lexical borrowings in Dangme (a language that belongs to the Kwa family of languages of the Niger–Congo Phylum) from a sociolinguistic perspective. It investigated the borrowed items that permit nativization or adaptation and those that resist nativization in Dangme. The dialectal variation in the use of lexical borriwings for same entities in Dangme was also investigated. The Processes and Products Framework propounded by Winford (2003) to explain lexical contact phenomena was adopted to explain the linguistic features of the lexical borrowings in Dangme. Again, the Variationist Sociolinguistic Theory propounded by Labov in 1966 was adopted to explain and discuss the dialectal variations in the use of lexical borrowings in Dangme. Data were drawn from both primary and secondary sources. The convergent parallel mixed method research design, which merges both quantitative and qualitative data at the same time of the research before integrating the information in the interpretation of the results, was deployed in collecting primary data in this study. Elicitation, interviews and focus group discussions were used to gather primary data from 100 respondents from the Ada, Gbugblaa, Manya Krobo and Yilo Krobo dialects of Dangme. The findings of the study showed that some borrowings to Dangme are localized to the extent that speakers of Dangme in direct contact with the source languages (Akan, Ga and Ewe) have knowledge and prefer to use them. It was also established that some Akan words borrowed to Dangme and most English words borrowed to Dangme are evenly distributed among all the respondents selected for the dialectal variations in the use of the lexical borrowings in Dangme. It also emerged from the study that whilst some lexical borrowings permit phonological, morphological and semantic adaptations in the course of borrowing, others also resist phonological adaptation during borrowing into Dangme.