Ghana Languages

Description
The official language of Ghana is English, in which many of the records from the period of British colonization (from the nineteenth century to 1957) have been kept. Earlier colonial records which have survived are in Portuguese, Dutch or Danish.

More than 250 languages and dialects are spoken in Ghana. English is the country's official language and predominates government and business affairs. It is also the standard language used for educational instruction.

Word List
For word lists and help researching in Ghana records, see:
 * Portuguese Genealogical Word List
 * Dutch Genealogical Word List
 * Danish Genealogical Word List

Alphabet and Pronunciation
Portuguese The Portuguese alphabet uses the same 26 letters and alphabetical used in English. The letters k and w are used only in words that are not of Portuguese origin.

Dutch IJ is equivalent to a Y. If a word whose first letter is to be capitalized starts with IJ, then both must be capitalized. Usually words beginning with IJ are alphabetized under Y, but not always.

When the Dutch alphabetize names of places or surnames, prefixes such as van der, de, or ter are not considered in the alphabetization.

Example:

ten Brock

van der Graf

's-Gravenhage

van Hijden

de Jong

van Leeuwen

ter Pelkwijk

van IJlst

't Zandt

Danish Written Danish has three additional letters: Æ (æ), Ø (ø), and Å (å). These letters are filed after A-Z alphabetically. The letter Å (å) was officially introduced in 1953, so it never appears in older records. Prior to that time it was usually written as Aa (aa) and filed at the beginning of the alphabet. Danish dictionaries and indexes, this word list, and the Locality section of the FamilySearch Catalog use the following alphabetical order:

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z æ ø å

Language Aids and Dictionaries
Portuguese A good online dictionary are Collins Dictionary and Lexilogos. Both are a great tool to use.

Dutch A great online Dutch dictionary are Linguee and bab.la. Both are easy to use.

Danish A great online Danish Dictionary is Lexilogos. It has current and old Danish translations.

Additional Resources
Portuguese
 * Davies, Mark, and Ana Maria Raposo Preto-Bay. A frequency dictionary of Portuguese : core vocabulary for learners. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Franics Group, 2008. Available at: WorldCat.

Dutch
 * Robertson, Ian. A preliminary word list of Berbice Dutch. Mona, Jamaica: Society for Caribbean Linguistics, 1976. Available at: WorldCat.