Words and Phrases

The previous Blog post was about Christian names, second Christian names, Surnames and other words. This Blog post is about certain words within one of the Ghanaian languages. The Ghanaian Embassy [in Japan] Website lists the following greetings that are pronounced using the "Akan" Dialect. Please Mepaokyew. Good morning Maa Kye. Good afternoon Maa-ha. Good evening Maa-adjo. Good night Da-yie. Farewell Nantee-yie. Welcome Akwaaba, and Thank you Medaase. I already knew what Akwaaba meant, after reading the word on a large sign as I arrived at Kotoka International Airport. 'Thank you' was added to my vocabulary when Jeffers sent me a text with Medaase together with a string of words meaning 'how are you'. It was pretty difficult my end when that text arrived as I had no idea what was written. In fact it was worse than when I was learning the Welsh language as at least then I had a dictionary to fall back upon. Mind you; that fabulous social network site known as FACEBOOK came to my aid; and after a swift message to Jeff and a prompt response, all was revealed.

Names

Cudjo means a boy that was born on a Monday. Michael's middle name identifies that he was born on a Thursday and the spelling for Michael's middle name is the same as the Welsh spelling for Thursday although in Wales we place 'Dydd' before the name to denote that it is a day of the week. In Wales we often identify or associate people with a specific place or occurrence. So if someone worked on a farm for a long time, then it is likely that everyone would know them by their Christian name and the name of the farm instead of their family surname, e.g. Huw Pencarreg instead of Huw Davies. African's appear to adopt a similar approach to the Chinese in that almost everyone has a European name as well as their traditional or language specific name. Albeit that sometimes the European name is not as European as was originally intended. My youngest daughter as a Welsh middle name that translates into the English word 'love'. Another name variation in Wales is that many people use their second Christian name and not their first. My second Christian name is Bernard, so named after a close friend of my fathers who was shot and killed by the Germans during the Second World War. Although I do not use that name, I understand the importance placed upon it when it was added to my Birth Certificate by my parents. I am also aware of the many people that I have known for twenty or so years and have addressed them daily, to find out recently that the name that everyone uses is not their first Christian name. Often I do not recognise who a document is referring too, as the name that appears in front of me is alien to the one that I know. But I do know the name Cudjo, Tamara, Ruben, and Jeff and these names like those of my other African (and Chinese) friends will never be forgotten.