Adinkra Symbols - An Ideographic Writing System - A MA Thesis by Jasmine Danzy (2009).pdf

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Adinkra Symbols:
An Ideographic Writing System
A Thesis Presented
by
Jasmine Danzy
to
The Graduate School
in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements
for the Degree of
Master of Arts
in
English
Stony Brook University
May 2009
Stony Brook University
The Graduate School
Jasmine Danzy
We, the thesis committee for the above candidate for the
Masters of Arts degree, hereby recommend
acceptance of this thesis
Professor Rowan Ricardo Phillips –Thesis Advisor
Assistant Professor, English
Patrice Nganang–Reader
Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
This thesis is accepted by the Graduate School
Lawrence Martin
Dean of the Graduate School
ii
Abstract of the Thesis
Adinkra Symbols:
An Ideographic Writing System
by
Jasmine Danzy
Master of Arts
In
English
Stony Brook University
2009
In this paper I will discuss Adinkra symbols, a Ghanaian writing system.
First, I will introduce the symbols explaining where they are from, how they are
used and how they originated. Then I will describe how Adinkra symbols are a
writing system. Although Adinkra is an ideographic writing system, I will discuss
the prevailing ideas of leading historic linguists such as Walter Ong and John
DeFrancis who define certain writing systems as ‘true scripts,’ which are
essentially scripts that are phonetic, meaning their symbols represent sounds of
speech. Then I will make the claim that these linguists’ definition of some scripts
as ‘true’ reflects a hierarchy in which different cultures’ writing systems are
valued based on how they measure up to the dominant society’s writing system.
Since, Western society is the dominant society in today’s world; writing systems
are measured by how phonetic they are because Western systems of writing are
phonetic. As a result of this bias, every other writing system around the world and
throughout time is placed in stages—basic, intermediary, or advanced—to
measure how they compare to the Western model. I will use Ghana’s Adinkra
symbols to show that, although it is a writing system, it is not recognized as such
because of what linguists define as a ‘true script’. However, Adinkra is a writing
system, which bears many similarities to other writing systems, and should be
recognized as such.
iii
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations……………………………………………………………………….v
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1
I. What are Adinkra Symbols………………………………………………….....2
II. The Debated Origin of Adinkra………………………………………………...7
III. Adinkra vs. DeFrancis over ideographic scripts……………………………13
IV. Adinkra vs. Ong’s Definition of a True Script……………………………….19
V. Adinkra and Other Writing Systems…………………………………………24
VI. The Global Problem…………………………………………………………...28
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...31
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………….33
Appendix………………………………………………………………………………..35
iv

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