Pidginization of language in African linguistic culture

The article examines the specifics of pidginization and creolization. The aim of the research is to identify the key properties of Pidgin English functioning in Ghana, one of the largest countries in West Africa. In the context of interlanguage and intercultural interaction with local linguistic cultures in African countries, English has remained a foreign language for a long period, inaccessible to the vast majority of the population. This has led to the need for its linguistic and cultural adaptation and significant simplification in use as a means of daily communication. As a result of the interaction between numerous languages and cultures in Ghana and British English, Pidgin English emerged. This language variant is characterized by simplification at all levels. The research revealed the functional features of Pidgin English in Ghana, which are as follows: reduction and epenthesis at the phonetic level; reduplication at the morphological level; direct word order at the syntactic level; and word meaning expansion at the lexical level. The research results can be used as theoretical and practical material to study the phenomena of pidginization and creolization in other African countries, such as Nigeria, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, and others.