Huber Magnus Huber 
Ghanaian Pidgin English in its West African Context [PDF ebook] 
A sociohistorical and structural analysis

This first published full-scale study of the Ghanaian variety of West African Pidgin English (Gha PE) makes extensive use of hitherto neglected historical material and provides a synchronic account of Gha PE’s structure and sociolinguistics. Special focus is on the differences between Gha PE and other West African Pidgins, in particular the development of, and interrelations between, the different varieties of restructured English in West Africa, from Sierra Leone to Cameroon. This monograph further includes an overview of the history of Afro-European contact languages in Lower Guinea with special emphasis on the Gold Coast; an outline of the settlement of Freetown, Sierra Leone, with a description of how and when the transplantation of Sierra Leonean Krio to other West African countries took place; an analysis of the linguistic evidence for the origin, development, and spread of restructured Englishes on the Lower Guinea Coast; an account of the different varieties of Gha PE and their sociolinguistic status in the contemporary linguistic ecology of Ghana; as well as a comprehensive structural description of the “uneducated” variety of Gha PE. The book is accompanied by a CD-ROM which contains illustrative material such as spoken Gha PE and photographs.