How To Avoid Losing Our Mother Tongue

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, 01 November 2007
DR Felix Konotey-Ahulu, the renowned Ghanaian medical scientist, has added to his laurels research in another area, this time not in medicine but into the components of the Krobo/Dangme Ga language.

He has for long been working in the field of medicine, notably his research into sickle cell, but his discovery of a "Unique Feature of Tonal Linguistics, The Mid Pitch Arrest Phenomenon in Krobo/Dangme — Ga Mother Tongue of South East Ghana", is an eye opener.

Dr Konotey-Ahulu made his discovery public at a Ghana at 50 Lecture organised by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) at the British Council Hall in Accra on Tuesday.

He said the only way to preserve the country’s rich cultural heritage is for adults to teach the youth how to read and write the local languages.

"Let us not forget to read and write our mother tongue. I am not happy about how the mother tongue has been poorly used."

Touching on "How to avoid losing our mother tongue", Dr Konotey-Ahulu said "for instance I have observed the word ‘Akan’ to be used indiscriminately to stand for ‘Twi’ or even ‘Fante’ yet I, a non-Akan, am quite capable of discerning differences (acoustically) between the different types of Akan.

"Nobody is to blame for the choice of one language to represent that of a whole group of similar languages when it comes, for instance, to translating the Bible from Hebrew, Greek, Latin, or English. While logistics dictate the use of a representative language for literature translation, this can lead to the loss of written mother tongue, a situation I consider very serious."

He said, "as a Ghanaian, my own unique definition of a tonal language is one whose vowel can impart at least six different meanings to a consonant.

"Our parents were excellent in reading our language fluently, It is a pity that the young are not able to do so".

He lauded the early missionaries who translated the various languages suing "they did not know much about our languages in those days but were able to do the translation fantastically."

The fact that Ghanaians of an older generation read fluently in their own language the Bible and words of hymns reflect the magnificent work the translators have done, he said and asked:

"But why do we, the later generations find it increasingly difficult to read material translated into our mother tongues?"

Dr Konotey-Ahulu said the Krobo-Dangme-Ga people have extraordinary mid-pitch which is not common in the various languages worldwide.

Commenting on recent development’s in medicine and science, Dr Konotey-Ahulu condemned Professor James Watson, a DNA Pioneer and Nobel Prize Winner who recently commented that "Africans are less intelligent than Westerners."

He said, "there are Africans who have shot to the top. They competed and beat these Westerners whom Prof. Watson claims are more intelligent."

He said "it is not a question of retarded development but a case of accelerated degeneration. If Prof. Watson looks carefully, he can find great people like him who are African"

Nene Sackite II, Konor of Manya Krobo, who was guest of honour, said "Dr Konotey-Ahulu has done us proud by stepping out of science and medicine to analyse the components of the Krobo Language."

He honoured Dr Konotey-Ahulu with the title "The Eye of Krobo: and urged him to continue his good works.

Dr Letitia Obeng, President of GAAS, who chaired the lecture said, it is not too late for parents to start speaking their mother tongue with their children.