A sociolinguistic study of Mampulli-English codeswitching in Nalerigu, Ghana

Ghana is home to approximately eighty-seven indigenous languages, alongside English as the official language. It is, therefore, common for bilingual Ghanaians to switch between a Ghanaian language and English. Scholars have explored this phenomenon from various perspectives, including its application in pedagogy (Yevudey, 2013), language policy (Agbozo & Rescue, 2021), and multilingual communities (Oppong-Adjei & Yaw-Kan, 2023). However, many of these studies have focused on major southern Ghanaian languages such as Twi, Ga, and Ewe, in relation to English, leaving minority northern languages like Mampulli underexplored. Mampulli is a minority language spoken in Ghana’s Northeast Region. This thesis examines Mampulli-English codeswitching among Mampulli speakers. Data was collected through interviews, observation, and recordings of selected radio programmes. The analysis draws on Myers-Scotton’s Matrix Language Framework and Hymes’ Ethnography of Communication. Recorded radio data were transcribed, glossed and categorised into grammatical categories, namely, nouns, noun phrases, verbs, verb phrases, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and clauses. Observational notes and transcribed interviews were analysed thematically. Findings reveal that Mampulli serves as the matrix language, dictating word order and contributing specific morphemes, while English, as the embedded language, introduces morphemes that occasionally deviate from the Matrix Language Framework principles. The study also identifies key sociocultural factors influencing bilinguals’ shifts between Mampulli and English such as education, prestige of language, gender, age, and religion. This thesis is the first major study on Mampulli-English codeswitching and represents a significant contribution to Mampulli linguistic research, marking a major investigation into the language in over four decades.