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Ghanaian English is the English language as used in Ghana (population 20 million), the largest English-speaking nation in West Africa after Nigeria. Local contact with the language dates from 1631. Standard English is the official language, West African Pidgin English is widespread, and indigenous languages include Ashanti, Ewe, Fanti, and Ga, all of which have an influence on English usage, especially in vocabulary. Ghanaians strongly resist the idea of a distinctive Ghanaian English, and although standard and pidgin shade into one another, many seek to maintain a sharp line between them. In local usage "r" in such words as art, door, worker. Usage includes expressions adopted from local languages, often as the first element in compounds, as in the terms bodom beads, kente cloth, and in localisms such as an airtight "a metal box," an outdooring "a christening ceremony," and to enskin "to enthrone a chief by draping him in an animal skin."
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