On the 4th of September 2022, Bolingo published a news website, Akan Kaseɛbɔ (www.akannews.com) in two of the Akan languages: Asante Twi and Fante. Akan Kaseɛbɔ, meaning “Akan News,” is the first online platform that has every string translated into the Akan language, enabling speakers of Asante Twi and Fante to have access to educative and entertaining content in their native language. Bolingo collaborates with graduates from the Faculty of Ghanaian Languages Education at the University of Education, Winneba, who contribute articles to the platform.
Akan is a Central Tano Language (a sub-branch of Niger-Congo Language Family), an indigenous language of the Akan people in Ghana. According to Statista, Akan was the most spoken local language in Ghana as of 2021, encompassing Akan varieties such as Fante, Akuapem, Akyem, Ahafo, and Asante. Akan was spoken by over nine million people in the country. About 80% of people in Ghana could use the language as their first or second language.
With Bolingo’s mission to unlock confidence in African languages, embarking on an initiative such as this is significant. In Ghana, the Akan language is more spoken than written. There are major radio and television stations in Ghana that broadcast all their programmes in the Akan language, but publish their written content in English. Even when there is an attempt to write some of these content in the Akan language, there are always errors and the wrong use of special characters, “ɛ” and “ɔ”. This obviously has an impact on the corpus available for the language, and on the use of the language online.
Ady Namaran, Operations Manager at Bolingo made the following remark during the launch of Akan Kaseɛbɔ:
“At Bolingo, we strongly believe that representation of the Akan languages on the internet is crucial to ensure the growth and continued existence of the languages. This will also promote the full and meaningful participation and access to critical information for natives of these languages on the internet.”
Bolingo is a Regional Multiple Language Services Provider with certification in Quality Management Systems (ISO 9001:2015) and Information Security Management Systems (ISO/IEC 27001:2013). Our strength lies in interpretation & translation, media localization and language consulting.
For more information & enquiries: info@bolingoconsult.com
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