Nkonkonsa Celebrity Gossip From Africa
Media figure, Deloris Frimpong Manso, commonly called Delay, claims the regular use of the regional dialect Twi has raised the status of the language in the nation.
Delay claims that when she first entered the media industry a few years ago, she discovered that there weren’t many media outlets using the regional dialect.
She admitted that despite receiving harsh criticism at the time for using Twi on the radio, it still bothered her.
Speaking in an interview with Kumasi-based Pure FM, ‘Bar4Bar’, hosted by Kojo Sebor, Delay disclosed that when she started her show in the local dialect on radio some years back, she was tagged as a “villager and weird”.
“Of course, of course, I will boldly chest out to say I have made Twi language usage prestigious on the airwaves. When I came on television the first time, years ago, some people tagged me as a villager and illiterate for speaking Twi.”
“At that time, the likes of Maame Dokono and some oldies were frequenting the Twi language while for the youngsters, the English Language was the thing”, Delay answered.
Delay intimated that she appeared to be the only strange person among the chickens due to the language she spoke on the radio at the time.
“The likes of Wolf, Caroline Simpson, Jeremy, Doreen Andoh, and other known faces were all English Speakers and I was like the weird person.”
“But today, corporate brands like Coca-Cola, Vodafone, and Ideal Milk are all going along with some appealing Twi slogans for advertisement purposes. Twi has become the new flex,” She intoned.
In addition, she spewed, “I believe it is the way to go because Germans don’t speak English and Italians don’t utter Turkish. So we need to accept what we have and be proud of it.”
NKONKONSA.com
