features

[aramide]

What features must a new English pocess if it is to be aknowledged and accepted as an international Language. Can Ghanian English compete with British English.

[MikeNewYork]

What features must a new English pocess if it is to be aknowledged and accepted as an international Language. Can Ghanian English compete with British English.

I'll probably get in trouble for this, but new Englishes have to make certain that they remain compatible with and understandable to British English and American English. If any of them stray too far, they will be be relegated to minor dialect status.

Ghanian English will never, IMO, successfully compete with British English. But it really isn't a competition.

[Tdol]

It depends on the degree of cantact the variety has in international communication. The mssive develpment of India as an economic power has brought Indian English into the international arena, but there are many steps to try to reduce the features of it that impede comprehension, so Call Centres in India train the staff in accent reduction to try to ensure that their workers can communicate across the Englishes and in International English. With globalisation, the drive will be towards greater simialrity rather than greater divergence, so the differences between the varieties are, in my opinion, likely to be eroded or reduced.

[aramide]

YES u wil get into trouble. Seriously Im a Nigerian and we belive that the Ghanian accent is better than ours, can Nigerian English be improved to be able to meet up to expectations as a world class language.

[Tdol]

I don't think that one accent can be regarded as better than another, but in international communication, one accent can be more comprehensible than another. My experience has been in Europe and Asia and I don't think I could identify an accent as being Nigerian or Ghanian, though I could identify a South African accent. Is Ayi Kwe Armah a better user of English than Chinua Achebe? Ultimately, this sort of view becomes pointless to me- it's their qualities as writers that matters. And certainly, Mr Achebe is a world class user.

In the UK, many believe the accents of the south to be better than those of the north, but I think this is a wrong way of looking at things. Nigerian English will be a world class language when it is able to compete equally with other varieties on the world stage. As economies develop and participate more, the language used will adapt to fit in- languages are enormously flexible, so any variety of English can fit in.