Cameroon English is an English dialect spoken predominantly in
Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...
, mostly learned as a
second language
A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...
. It shares some similarities with English varieties in neighbouring
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
, as Cameroon lies at the west of
Central Africa
Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, ...
. It is primarily spoken in the
Northwest
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...
and
Southwest
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
regions of Cameroon.Anchimbe, Eric A. "Multilingual backgrounds and the identity issue in Cameroon." Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca" Julio de Urquijo" 39.2 (2011): 33-48.
It is a
postcolonial
Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...
variety of English, long in use in the territory (
Southern Cameroons
The Southern Cameroons was the southern part of the British Empire, British League of Nations mandate territory of the British Cameroons in West Africa. Since 1961, it has been part of the Republic of Cameroon, where it makes up the Northwest Re ...
, now split into Northwest and Southwest). Over the years, it has developed characteristic features, particularly in lexis but also in phonology and grammar. Those characteristics were once regarded as errors but are now increasingly accepted as distinctive Cameroonian contributions to the English language.
Phonological features
The phonemes , and tend to
merge
Merge, merging, or merger may refer to:
Concepts
* Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road
* Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program
* Merger (politics), the comb ...
to , making "cot", "caught" and "cut" homophones. Similarly, "lock" and "luck" are pronounced alike. And "
white-collar worker
A white-collar worker is a person who performs professional, desk, managerial, or administrative work. White-collar work may be performed in an office or other administrative setting. White-collar workers include job paths related to government, ...
" sometimes becomes "white-''colour'' worker" in Cameroon.
Expressions
Characteristic turns of phrase in the country or local coinages:
*"detailly" = in detail
*"to see with me" = to agree with me; to see my point of view
*"installmentally" = by installments
*"of recent" = recently; lately
See also
*
Languages of Cameroon
Cameroon is home to at least 250 languages. However, some accounts report around 600 languages. These include 55 Afro-Asiatic languages, two Nilo-Saharan languages, four Ubangian languages, and 169 Niger–Congo languages. This latter group co ...
**
Cameroonian Pidgin English
Cameroonian Pidgin English, or Cameroonian Creole ( wes, Wes Cos, from West Coast), is a language variety of Cameroon. It is also known as Kamtok (from 'Cameroon-talk'). It is primarily spoken in the North West and South West English speaking re ...
**
Camfranglais
Camfranglais, Francanglais, or Francamglais (portmanteau of the French adjectives ''camerounais'', ''français'', and ''anglais'') is a vernacular of Cameroon, containing grammatical and lexical elements from Cameroonian French, Cameroonian Engli ...
(when mixed with French)
*
Anglophone Cameroonian
Anglophone Cameroonians are the people of various cultural backgrounds, most of who hail from the English-speaking regions of Cameroon (Northwest and Southwest Regions). These regions were formerly known as the British Southern Cameroons, being p ...
*
*Kouega, Jean-Paul (1999). Some Major Speech Traits of Cameroon Media News in English. ''English Studies'' 80(6), 540-555
*Kouega, Jean-Paul (2000). Some Aspects of Cameroon English Prosody. ''Alizes'', 19, 137-153
*Kouega, Jean-Paul (2003). Influence of Contacts between Western and African Cultures on English in Cameroon. ''Proceedings of the Unifying Aspects of Cultures conference at Vienna'', Austria, November 7–9.
*In: TRANS. Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften. No. 15/2003, (2003). WWW: http://www.inst.at/trans/15Nr/07_2/kouega15.htm.
*Kouega, Jean-Paul (2005). The Effects of French on English L2 in Cameroon. In J. Cohen, K. T. McAlister, K. Rolstad, and J. MacSwan (Eds.) ''ISB4: Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism'' (pp. 1201–1210). Somerville, MA, USA: Cascadilla Press.
*Kouega, Jean-Paul, (2006). ''Aspects of Cameroon English Usage: A Lexical Appraisal''. Muenchen, Germany: Lincom Europa.
*Kouega, Jean-Paul (2006c). Interplay of Accent and Orthography in L2 English in Cameroon. ''Annals of the Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences'', University of Yaounde 1(5), 183-197
*Kouega, Jean-Paul (2007) Forenames in Cameroon English speech The International Journal of Language, Society and Culture ', 23, 32–46.
*Talla Sando Ouafeu Yves (2006). Intonational meaning in Cameroon English discourse: a sociolinguistic perspective. Goettingen: Cuvillier Verlag
Dialects of EnglishLanguages of Cameroon
{{Cameroon-stub