Multilingualism at church: language practices in a Ghanaian context

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the linguistic repertoires and domains of language use of the members of Victory Baptist Church at Nkwantanang (a suburb of Kade), an Akan-speaking area in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Data for the study is from observations and transcribed recordings of Sunday services, youth and women fellowship meetings, as well as conversations and interviews with selected members of the church. The theoretical underpinning of the work derives from Fishman’s [(2006). A decalogue of basic theoretical perspectives for a sociology of language and religion. In T. Omoniyi, & A. J. Fishman (Eds.), Explorations in the sociology of language and religion (pp. 13–25). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Retrieved from https://sociologyoflanguageandreligion.com/about/fishmans-decalogue/] sociology of language and religion principles and Baldauf’s [(2005). Micro language planning. In P. Bruthiaux, D. Atkinson, G. Eggington, W. Grabe, & V. Ramanathan (Eds.), Directions in Applied Linguistics: Essays in Honor of Robert B. Kaplan (pp. 227–239). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters] micro language planning approach. A major finding is that there are numerous instances of code-switching among the youth, which are attributable to the language contact situation in the church and the town. Additionally, monolingual elderly women resort to lexical borrowing. Furthermore, whereas some studies have proved that smaller communities are diglossic, this study shows that the language situation in Nkwantanang is rather multilingual despite the community's small size and remoteness. Lastly, members of the church have a positive attitude towards the prevailing language situation, which supports principle three of Fishman's SLR.