I’ve spent some time learning terms of endearment, and they are very commonly used in Twi- much more than they are used when speaking English in the U.S. My mother, for example, doesn’t really call her sister by her name. Instead, she says, “my sibling” in Twi. Knowing these terms are important to becoming fully conversational in Twi, because of how often they are used.
| ɔdɔ | love |
| me dɔ | my love |
| ɔdɔfoɔ | loved one; beloved; lover |
| me dɔfo | my loved one; my beloved; my lover |
| ɔdɔ yɛ wu | LITERALLY: love is death (worth-dying-for love; eternal love) |
| akoma mu tɔfe; akomam’ tɔfe | sweetheart (LITERALLY: candy of the heart) |
| ɔhemmaa | queen |
| me hemmaa | my queen |
| ahoɔfɛ | beauty |
| ahoɔfɛ dua | beauty tree (embodiment of beauty) |
| me bibini | my African/black person |
| me buroni | my Caucasian/white person |
| me bibini-buroni | my African-Caucasian; my black-white person |
| ahwene pa | good (precious) bead(s) |
| ɔbaa pa | good woman |
| m’ade pa | my good thing |
The words, me bibini, and me buroni struck me because of how blatantly racial they are. I thought that they were strange and asked my dad about them, and he informed me that not many people in Ghana say them, but it’s not unusual to hear. I think that these words exemplify how language is impacted by culture, and vice versa. Ghana is largely homogenous, resulting in a lack of racial diversity. That means that race and ethnicity don’t play as much as a role in identifying people. As a result, calling attention to race isn’t as taboo as it would be in other cultures, because of this homogenous population.