Jean Paul Kouega Boeken

Camfranglais: A glossary of common words, phrases and usages Jean-Paul Kouega University of Yaounde I Camfranglais is a composite language variant, a type of pidgin that blends in the same speech act linguistic elements drawn first from French and secondly from English, Pidgin English, widespread Cameroonian languages, and other European languages like Latin and Spanish. It is used by secondary school pupils to discuss, among themselves to the exclusion of non-members, such issues as food, drinks, money, sex, physical look and the like. This speech form has been in use in Cameroon for barely three decades. Though a very young language variant, it is as widespread as Fulfulde that has been used in the northern area of the country since the 15th century, as Pidgin English that has developed in the south-western areas since the 16th century and as Beti, a language group whose dialects have been natively spoken in the south-eastern areas. The present work is divided into two parts. Part One focuses first on the sociolinguistic contexts in which Camfranglais evolved and then on the linguistic features of this speech form. Part Two is a glossary which provides a lexical inventory of the most frequent Camfranglais terms used within the last decade. ISBN 9783862884513. LINCOM Studies in Pidgin and Creole Languages 13. 323pp. 2013.

Pidgin English has been in active use in Cameroon for over 500 years; it started in the Slave Trade years, resisted a German ban during the German annexation period (1884-1914) and survived post-independence neglect. It took flight when it became a makeshift language used in plantations and, today, it has left the plantations for the homes and other domains of public life. The first attempt to codify this language was made by the Catholic Church, which used it to produce a number of religious materials including the catechism. The second attempt was made by textbook writers for American Peace Corps, who have to learn the language when they arrive Cameroon as they need it to communicate with people in rural areas. The present work sets out to bring together, in a single document, the characteristic features of this language. The work is divided into two parts. Part One comprises two chapters. The first gives background information on Cameroon, focusing on its geographic and economic sit

This book initiates the process of codification of a postcolonial variety of English, namely Cameroon English. It focuses on the present-day lexicon of this non-native variety of English. English has been in use in this territory for a long period of time and over the years, it has developed some characteristic lexical features which have not as yet been described fully. Previous researchers have been regarding linguistic innovations as cases of lexical errors or Cameroonisms; as a result, teachers and language purists have been discouraging their usage. Today, it is obvious that these innovations have come to stay; they are specific to Cameroon and therefore constitute Cameroon’s contribution to the development of world language English. The book is divided into two parts. Part One gives background information on Cameroon (physical and human geography, economy and geopolitics), the language situation in Cameroon (ancestral and vehicular languages, major lingua francas and official languages) and the linguistic features of English in Cameroon (phonology, grammar and lexicology). Part Two describes the research design (textual material, method of data collection and informants) and provides a lexicographic description (spelling, word formative process, definition) of characteristic Cameroon English lexemes.