Coinage in Akan Among Senior High School Students: A Case Study of Selected Schools in Ghana

The paper is entitled “Coinage in Akan Among Senior High School Students”. It aims to investigate coinage used by senior high school students. This paper also investigates other word formation processes involved in coined words and the reasons why the students use them in their everyday conversation. The collected data from direct elicitation and interviews were categorized into the types of coined words and analyzed in terms of their formation processes by using a method of analysis based on theories as proposed by Yule (1985), Potter (1975), O’Grady and Guzman (1996), and Gerber (1968). The findings show that there are 10 groups of word formation processes in this study. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of the findings of a sociolinguistic survey geared towards coinage as used by students of both Osei Tutu Senior High School and Bisease Community/Senior High School speech communities. It is also imperative to state that these two schools are located in typical Akan speaking communities. Osei Tutu Senior High School, situated in Akropong, in the Ashanti region of Ghana, is a single sex school (boys’ school) and Bisease Community/Senior High School on the other hand is situated in Ajumako-Bisease in the central region. The latter is a mixed school.