During the pandemic my son, Teddy, and I bought a Gā language dictionary. He had started to ask me random questions about how to say certain English words in my native language -Gā.
His questions reminded me of my time as a Spanish instructor during my master’s degree program where my students used the phrase “¿como se dice…[insert the word you want to know] en Espanol?” If you have ever studied a second language, this phrase is handy in navigating interactions.
Teddy had just turned five and so saying “I don’t know how to say it” was never satisfying to him. We had always taught him that not knowing something, meant it was a chance to learn something new. This time he wanted to know how to say “dimples” in Gā,
“Dimples? Why do you want to know how to say dimples in Gā? I don’t say dimples in Gā.” That was my parent-like way of dodging the question.
“I don’t know. How do you say it?” Teddy insisted as always. This wasn’t our first time.
Now here’s the backstory.
Growing up, I spoke Gā and English at home. If I didn’t know a word like “dimples” or “refrigerator,” I would borrow the word from English. It worked well. I didn’t question it. That’s how everyone spoke around me – code-mixing – and so it was fair to say we spoke English with some words in Gā sprinkled in between. At the back of my mind, I had assumed as a child, we spoke like this because we didn’t have the words in Gā for many “modern” words or that no one knew the words because we had code mixed for so long.
My son’s questions led to my parents and together we asked about how to say “dimples” in Gā. There were no better experts in my mind.
My son’s question led to my parents and together we asked about how to say “dimples” in Gā. There were no better experts in my mind. Well, long story short: they both didn’t know. My son by this point was on to the next thing but it stirred a lot of questions for me.
Did we even have a word for dimples in Gā?
Why didn’t I know a lot of words in Gā? Why didn’t my parents? Who’s fault is that? What else didn’t I know in Gā? How can I say I’m Gā and not know enough in Gā to teach my son?
Thankfully the answer will soon come through my youngest sister, Davida. She was at that time taking a linguistics course in Gā at the university. She offered to ask her instructor and then I heard it for the first time: “dabii ahe bui”. Not only was there one way of saying it but we had other words for dimples like “kpai ahe bu” or “kpai bu.” I told my son and he casually said, “Oh okay!” and he turned to play with the toys in front of him. He had moved on.
I contacted Davida’s instructor and learned that we have a rich vocabulary in Gā and that our language is dynamic, full, and alive. Of course, it is! New words are introduced every day in English and other languages because of new diseases, new technologies, etc., and also because of how we use language. So why not Gā?
Our indigenous languages are the same but we assume otherwise because we have internalized a coloniality in our language practices where we see our indigenous languages as static and a relic of the past. In education, this coloniality is used to exclude our indigenous languages as full mediums of instruction because of the assumption that our languages are not “modern” to convey new scientific and technological terms. Our leaders and educators also assume that students cannot make meaning in our indigenous languages.
I have learned through this journey that our indigenous languages are alive and by using them fully we keep them alive for the Teddys of the world (even if their interest is brief). If you think we cannot make meaning in our indigenous languages, you have missed the point of this post because this whole journey here is about making meaning in my indigenous language. Every student deserves a chance to have that centered in their education. English and ex-colonial languages seem alive because the language grows as we use it. To me that says our indigenous languages are dying because we treat them just as symbols and not as full ways of knowing, meaning-making, and knowledge generation.
Let’s continue the journey: How do you say “dimples” in your indigenous language?
Edwin Nii Bonney 