Legon Journal of the Humanities, 25
(2014)
P a g e
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Leteh, Twi, and English. 322 of the sample claim that Leteh is their first language, but
269 of this number use Leteh whereas 53 of them prefer to use Twi and other languages.
Out of the 418 respondents, 362 claim they can speak Akan whilst 354
of the number
actually use Twi effectively. In the case of English, 227
claim that they are able to
communicate in English whereas 102 of the number use English in some of their
interactions. The scenario confirms the multilingual nature of the community.
Individual multilingualism in Larteh is also attested by data in Table 2. In order
to investigate individual
linguistic repertoire, the 269 respondents who indicated that
Leteh was their first language were considered.
In this study, this number represents
Larterians, i.e., the
people of Larteh; people who consider Larteh to be their hometown.
Table 2
Individual Linguistic Repertoire
LANGUAGE
NUMBER OF
SPEAKERS
PERCENTAGE
REPRESENTATION
Leteh only
1
0.3%
Twi only
3
1.12%
Leteh and Twi only
265
98.51%
Leteh, Twi, English
252
93.68%
Leteh, Twi, English & other
113
42.01%
Out of the population sample, only one person is a Leteh monolingual. This is a75-year-
old woman who has had no formal education.
Similarly for Twi, three people claim that
it is the only language they speak. These people had Leteh as their first language; they
previously spoke
Leteh when they were children, but lost their proficiency when they
migrated to live in Northern Ghana for a greater part of their lives. As many as 265 people
are bilingual in Leteh-Twi. A little over 90% of the population sample is multilingual in
the three major languages spoken in the community. Furthermore, 113 of the population
sample spoke other languages apart from the three major languages, representing about
42% of Leteh speakers. The data therefore substantiate
a community where almost
everyone is multilingual.
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