Maurice Tadadjeu (1950-2012 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 ...

) was a Vice-President of the African Union's Economic, Social and Cultural Council 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 ...

. He was a co-creator of the

General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages. Consonant and vowel letters are not to contain diacritics, though is a temporary excep ...

in the late 1970s. In 1996 he became Founding Director of NACALCO Center for Applied Linguistics in

Yaoundé Yaoundé (; , ) is the capital of Cameroon and, with a population of more than 2.8 million, the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala. It lies in the Centre Region of the nation at an elevation of about 750 metres (2,50 ...

, Cameroon. From 1993 to 1997 Prof. Tadadjeu was Head of the Department of African Languages and Linguistics at the

University of Yaoundé The University of Yaoundé (french: Université de Yaoundé) was a university in Cameroon, located in Yaoundé, the country's capital. It was built with the help of France and opened in 1962 as the Federal University of Yaoundé, dropping the "Fe ...

. He was also Professor of Linguistics at the

. Prof. Tadadjeu was a founding member of the

African Academy of Languages The African Academy of Languages (ACALAN; french: Académie Africaine des Langues; pt, Academia Africana de Línguas or ) is a Pan-African organization founded in 2001 by Mali's then-president Alpha Oumar Konaré for the development and promotio ...

. He died on December 30, 2012.

Selected works

*Démocratie de Partage du Pouvoir : Pour le Modèle P3 au Cameroun cademic Literature, ANACLAC/NACALCO, 1997*Confédération des Etats Unis d'Afrique cademic Literature, Editions BUMA KOR, 1996*Training manual for the teaching of national languages in primary schools eference book, Collection PROPELCA, 1991 *Le defi de Babel au Cameroun cademic Literature, Collection PROPELCA, 1990(Co-authored with Elisabeth Gfeller and Gabriel Mba)

Achievements

In 2005 Prof. Tadadjeu was awarded the

Linguapax Prize The International Linguapax Award is awarded annually on International Mother Language Day International Mother Language Day is a worldwide annual observance held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversit ...

.Linguapax website

References

1950 births 2012 deaths University of Yaoundé faculty Economic, Social and Cultural Council officials Cameroonian diplomats Indigenous linguists 20th-century linguists {{Cameroon-politician-stub