Colloquial Local Language inventions (SLANGS)

Modern Language Inventions

The creativity of the African youth has never been in doubt. What it has failed to attract or receive is the needed support to harness those potentials. These ingenuities have been showcased in all industries and all spheres of life. Some of such developments have been in language and communication, Music and lifestyle in general.

Over the years, some groups of people, especially the youth have attempted to create slangs to communicate among themselves, ostensibly to elude other listeners of what is being discussed. Such creations usually spring out of the blues. It then spreads among the youth. One of the key drivers of these slangs has been music. Once the slang finds its way into the music industry, its popularity is greatly enhanced.

Me-ge-se-ge – Ghana

The name of the slang alone tells of one which was never given proper attention for its development. A proper name could have been given to it and the diction properly developed. This slang emerged in the 70s among rural dwellers in the akan speaking communities, popularly known as “me-ge-se-ge”, to wit “I say” or “I am saying”. The slang was developed by with an overwhelming dependent on the local Twi language. This language is spoken by dividing every word into its syllables; adding the last vowel of your first word to ‘g’; and filling the spaces in between the syllables with the “g + last vowel” To properly adhere to this rule, one has to be a good speaker of the Twi language and must also listen with rapt attention to be able to understand what is being said, in order to have a meaningful conversation. 

For example, if I want to say “me din de Kwaku”; which means “My name is Kwaku”

I will say: “Me-ge-di-gin de-ge Kwa-ga-ku-gu”

Assuming you want to tell someone, “Bedidi”, to wit, “Come and eat”. You will say “Be-ge di-gi di-gi.”

With this simple illustration, you can say a word, make a sentence, or actually begin to delve into this interesting language.

 

Though it might sound simple, it makes a very interesting conversation among speakers who are very conversant with the language and have used it for long.

 Unlike other languages in the same category, the “me-ge-se-ge” has not been developed enough to attract the needed attention for adoption by many. Whiles growing up, those who spoke it were branded deviants. This stigma made many shy away from speaking it.

There may be other attempts in the hinterlands that have not come to the limelight.

Me-nketew-se-nketew – Ghana

Similar to “Me-ge-se-ge”, this slang did not receive a lot of popularity, due to its complex nature. The social stature of the proponents and speakers for that matter, could not add impetus to the quest for acceptance and use among the groups of people outside the fulcra group. Oral literature has it that it was created as a competition to the “Me-ge-s-ge”. The group of originators could not however inch pass the heights achieved by their perceived competitors.

RELATED: why-i-love-my-language-and-culture

languages-in-ghana-and-where-they-are-spoken

Saka (Kumerica) – Kumasi, Ghana

Recently, the youth in the second largest city in Ghana and the capital of the Ashanti region, Kumasi took the world by storm with a language they call Saka, in a subculture called Kumerica. As the name depicts, it is an American-like slang made in Kumasi! The lifestyle is accompanied by its form of dressing, as well as a dummy currency, a dummy passport, a flag, among others. Indeed, the term encompasses the entire street living in Kumasi, which forms the seat of the entire phenomenon. To maintain the roots of the subculture, the name of the language itself was coined out of the twi word ‘Kasa’, which means language or speak. In the Saka (Kumarican) language, the word is just turned around! Based on this, the word kasa was turned around to ‘Saka’ to form the name of the Kumerican language. For instance, when a Kumerican calls another ‘Dabro”, he/she means ‘broda’ (brother). To say ‘fresh’, you say ‘shfre’ among others. The phenomenon has been extended to existing structures, including names of suburbs and streets of Kumasi. Bantama is referred to as Florida, whereas Abuakwa is called Chicago and Suame is known as Miami. The term Kumerica is said to have been coined by two young Ghanaians by name Wesley Osei Ampratwu, (Black Foreigner) and Michael Owusu (Armani Sosa). One of the musical groups at the centre of this wave is called Asakaa. Asakaa should not be confused with the name of the Kumerican language, Saka. The group and other groups are championing the Kumerica version of the drill music genre. The drill has attracted other Accra-based Ghanaian Musicians like Nii Teiko Tagoe, known in showbiz as Shata Wale. Even though the whole phenomenon originated from Kumasi, members of this lifestyle are spread across Ghana and oversees. There are leaders for groups of members residing in particular locations outside of Kumasi. For instance, there is a leader for the Kumericans in Accra and so on. Bent on perpetuating the lifestyle, leaders of the Kumerican movement have set out criteria for one to meet before he/she can be accepted as a true Kumerican; First, change your location on your digital channels to Kumerica; Speak the Saka language; Wear Kumerican attire and other paraphernalia. Many are meeting this set of criteria in order to be part of this lifestyle.

Sheng – Nairobi, Kenya

I first heard about this language from my Kenyan friend, Richard Magu. As we sat in the lounge at the Murtala Muhamed International airport in Ikeja, Lagos, this subject caught my attention as we got engrossed in this conversation. We had enough time to talk, as myself and Richard waited to catch our flight from Lagos to Accra. What made it more interesting was the development of the diction, which was extremely different from the method used by the Ghanaian counterparts in the development of the “Me-ge-se-ge” and the “Me-nketew-se-nketew” slangs. Sheng was formed out of the combination of the words, Swahili and Slang – Sh - eng. The youth of the various Nairobi suburbs and slums began experimenting the creation of a new language, to as it were, get their own peculiar way of communicating among themselves. This began as a craze to the chagrin of the older generation. The slang swept through Nairobi like a wild fire. Conversations around the slang, took centre stage on radio and television stations. The slang is a mixture of Swahili and English based cant (a jargon of influencer group often employed to influence people outside of that group) . The basis of the slang is English or Creole. Even though the basis is the English language, it was influenced by many other languages in Nairobi and other urban centres. The youth smartly infused some lines of the slang into the local music. Once the songs with sheng lines were released, they were instant hits. Music producers noticed the commercial viability and jumped on it. Through this and many other means, the slang has spread beyond the Kanyan borders into neighbouring Tanzania and Uganda. In 2015, a book entitled “Lafudhi hip hop poetry in ‘Sheng’ written by G. rongi, Madocho Wa Kanairo, a Kenyan artist and Omondi Kochieng, a writer has contributed to the growth of the language among the youths in Nairobi and oversees. What makes the Sheng language beautiful is the seriousness with which the players are pushing for the sustainability of the language. For every invention, especially language, which requires continuous use and optimization to succeed, the production of literature on the subject is key.