If You Can Speak and Write Articulately in Twi ,Thank this Man...

Ghana is a multilingual Nation with around 8 significant dialects. The influx of the different ethnic groups due their journey to discover harmony and security, discovery and the search for fertile hunting grounds account for the multilingualism of Ghana.

Prior to the approaching of the Europeans, our local dialects were just spoken and not written due to our non-educated nature. The quest of the European preachers to demystify our worshiping of lesser divine beings prompted a significant achievement in the nation's phonetic improvement i.e making our local dialects written.

Language boundary was a significant obstruction the ministers faced in spreading the gospel. Taking this into account , a few missionaries with linguistic ability figured out how to make our dialects written.

This article looks seeks make known the European Missionary who started the making of the Twi language composed. The Twi language includes, Asante Twi, Akuapem Twi and Fante. Johan Gottieb Christaller is the brain child behind the transcribing of oral Twi to a written language.

Johan Gothieb Christaller

He was a Basel missionary, who was conceived on 19th November, 1827 in Winnenden close to Stuttgart in Germany. J. G Christaller grew up to turn into a priest, a preacher and an interpreter. He was posted to Gold Coast now Ghana in 1853. He was first stationed at Akropong , 32 miles from Accra

Contributions to Ghanaian Linguistic Development

J. G Christaller at the beginning of his missionary work in Gold Coast, acknowledged that it is hard to proliferate the gospel in Dutch since the local prople didn't comprehend. It got evident to Christaller that without the local language, endeavors to proliferate the gospel will be worthless.

Christaller's tremendous commitment prompted creation of the Twi language in a written form in 1853 . Harping on his phonetic ability, he effortlessly made an interpretation of Twi into a composed structure. Christaller along with Akan language specialists, David Asante, Theophilus Opoku, Jonathan Palmer Bekoe and Paul Keteku made an interpretation of the Holy book to Akuapem Twi in 1871.

Christaller's phonetic work was not just restricted to deciphering the Holy book. He likewise wrote books on :

Akan language structure (Grammar).

The way of life of Akans and Akan maxims (proverbs),

Twi Dictionary.

His commitment to making Twi a written language is indelible. In reality in the event that you can talk and write articulately in Twi, Johan Gottieb Christaller deserves to be lauded.