The Ethnopragmatics of Akan Palace Language

Abstract

The paper deals with formal language at the palaces of the Akan people of Ghana. The Akan is spoken in six regions in the southern parts of Ghana. The Akan areas are inhabited by native Akans and other Ghanaian immigrants from the other ethnic groups. The approaches used in this study are formality (Irvine 2001) and register as outlined by Agha (2007). The paper looks at Akan palace language from the point of view of the norms and values of Akan culture and shows the ethnographic effects of the use of language in sociocultural communicative events at the Akan palace. I focus on the following questions (a) How different is royal oratory from ordinary language? (b) What is the place of formality and politeness in palace language? (c) How do children acquire competence in palace language? (d) What is required of participants? (e) What are the functions of palace language? (f) What is the current state of palace language? (g) Are there any drastic changes in palace language due to urbanisation, modernisation, western cultures and religion?