The words we love

One of my favourite words is the famous Ghanaian colloquialism, chale. As a delicious piece of vernacular, the word has various spellings: challey, charle, charlie.

The pronunciation is more or less “chah-lay”, with equal emphasis on both syllables. The venerable online Urban Dictionary tells us that it is used “in the same sense as the words ‘Dude’ or ‘Homie’”.

Another site likens it to old chap in the UK, amigo in Mexico, bredrin in Jamaica. For me it is the sound of coming home. My mother has lived in Accra for almost 15 years; I’ve been visiting at Christmas for 20.

I can think of no word more frequently heard in Accra than chale. Like all speakers of tonal languages, Ghanaians can invest infinite meanings in single sounds. “Ey, chale” can be a cheerful greeting, “Chale! We’re waiting” an admonition, “Chale, o” an expression of sympathy, “Chale, I’m tired” a request for the same.

Perhaps it’s the sound as much as the meaning(s) that endears me to the word. I’ve always loved words that begin with the letters “ch”. To my ears, there is something, well, cheerful about the sound.

Charming, chocolate, chitchat, children. A touch of mischief, playfulness. The softness of the sound of “sh” with a bit more force, more vigour. There is a reason these letters were added to the word “yeah” to create what our friends at Urban Dictionary call “an exclamatory statement of unexplained joy” (chyeah!). Chale bursts from the lips with the same vigour as chyeah, only to resolve gently in the “le” sound.

And there is the history: the story of how chale came to Ghana, a comment on the flexibility, the absorbency of culture. In the 1940s, Ghana, still under British rule, sent troops to fight in the second world war; the allies’ West African Division fought in Burma against the Japanese.

Meanwhile, a number of American soldiers were stationed in Accra, where they used the term Charlie often in their radio broadcasts. The story goes: Ghanaian soldiers at the American base adopted – and adapted – the term, turning Charlie into chale.

In a sense, this process of adoption and adaptation – this history of encounter, willing and otherwise – informs my very identity. I like to think that chale and I come from the same place: a West Africa shaping the world in its image, not the other way round.

Source: Theguardian.com

By: Taiye Selasi ( Taiye is a writer and photographer of Nigerian and Ghanaian origin. )

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