Languages of Ghana
The official language and de facto lingua franca of
Ghana is the
English language. In a relatively small country like Ghana, with a population of only about twenty-four million people (
2012), there are over seventy different tribal groups, each with its own distinct language. However, languages that belong to the same ethnic group are usually mutually intelligible. The
Dagbanli and Mampelle languages of
Northern Region for instance, are mutually intelligible with the Frafra and Waali languages of the
Upper East Region of Ghana. These four languages are of Mole-Dagbani ethnicity.
Eleven languages have the status of government-sponsored languages: four
Akan ethnic languages (
Akuapem Twi,
Asante Twi, Mfantse and Nzema) and two Mole-Dagbani ethnic languages (
Dagaare and Dagbanli). The rest are
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