Abstract
This paper examines some phonological processes observed in the Pig Latin; a linguistic game played in Akan, a Niger-Congo (Kwa) language. The Akan Pig Latin (henceforth APL), which is popularly known as Megesege is usually played among Akan youth. The purpose of this game varies from concealment to social identity establishment. This paper is a qualitative study of 200 stimuli of sentences in regular Akan constructions manipulated into the APL. The simple rule for playing the game is to syllabify an already existing word and to add a [CV] syllable to each of those segmented syllables. Through this manipulation of existing word, several phonological processes are observed including insertion, syllabification, palatalization etc. The paper presents a descriptive analysis of some of the processes and shows how the study of the APL can facilitate our understanding of the several phonological phenomena in Akan, even though it may display, in many parts, quite different patterns from what obtains in the regular Akan grammar.
Highlights
Linguistic games or Language games as alternate languages are a common phenomenon and have been well studied cross-linguistically by several researchers
The linguistic games come in different forms or types and in this current paper, I will focus the discussion on one form; the Pig Latin played in Akan, which is locally termed Megesege
I discuss each of these phonological processes with examples from the APL and show how they can contribute to our understanding of several phonological phenomena and their theorizations
Summary
Linguistic games or Language games as alternate languages are a common phenomenon and have been well studied cross-linguistically by several researchers (cf. Haas 1957, 1967, 1969; Sherzer 1970, 1985; Decamp 1970; Conklin 1956, 1959; among others). In Akan, the phenomenon has received very little scholarly attention and the only readily available materials are by Kofi Agyekum (1996, 2009). It used to be a very common game in many Akan communities some few decades back, but it seems the number of its players is gradually waning, especially in the urban areas and among the younger generation. Perhaps, this situation may be responsible for the reason why there is very limited scholarly literature available on the subject in Akan. In the study of this phenomenon in Akan, researchers have, to a large extent, limited their scope to the ethnography and sociolinguistics of game, judging from. This paper will attempt to enlighten us about the pattern of some phonological processes such as palatalization and insertion of CV syllable inside an existing word or morpheme, which is an uncommon type of insertion in Akan and show what conditions such a process
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