Beyond the Sea: Exotic Languages

Abstract In this chapter we examine the other, more ambiguous source of language meaning, the sea, that is, overseas; the languages that came to Accra and, of course, the rest of the country with seaborne trade. If the lagoon drains a vast continental reservoir of linguistic resources toward Accra, the sea connects it literally with the ends of the earth. The languages that came to Ghana and West Africa with the seaborne gold trade, slave trade, and colonialism are still languages of international economic and political activity, and at least one of them, English, appears to be gaining strength worldwide.