Amy Finn's languages

[pne]

I asked Amy Finn (who's from Ghana) yesterday which languages she speaks, and she answered, English, German, and French. She said that French was her second language, which she learned at school, and English her first language.

I was a little surprised that she spoke no local languages; Stella, too, apparently, since she asked about tribal languages. Amy said that there were many tribes in Ghana and many languages. Apparently, her tribe (collection of tribes?) speaks twelve languages, of which she speaks three: [Something which I didn't catch but which seemed to end in [wi:] - Twi, perhaps? Though the first sound sounded like [s] or [ts] or something like that to me], Fante, and Ga.

I'm a bit curious why she didn't mention those languages when I asked her which languages she spoke. Did she think I wouldn't have heard of them, or that I wouldn't count them as "languages", or that I was only asking about "trade languages"?

When I asked her what she spoke at home with her parents, she said Fanti, so I presume that's more likely to be what I'd call a "first language".

Comments

[nik-w.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fante_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ga_language

[pne.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

So the first language is probably indeed "Twi", given that the native pronunciation on the Wikipedia page has an affricate and that it's spoken in Ghana.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

In Latin America, it's apparently not unusual to make a distinction between "languages" (like Spanish and English) and "dialects" (like Maya or Chibcha). I'm not sure what the primary basis for categorisation is--official status, literacy, international prestige, or what.

[anicca-anicca.livejournal.com]

Maybe she presumed that her native African language would have been considered inferior, due to the small number of speakers or just because of its African origin, which I'm sure is an opinion she has come across.

(For instance, my ex-sister-in-law was from the Philipines and lived in Germany with her German husband. She talked German and English with her son and why I asked her why she didn't pass on her own mother tongue she said it was a "useless" (!) language anyway. I couldn't convince her otherwise...