![]() I am going me and The Nfo (the chief) is coming tonight are further examples of the influence of the two varieties on each other.Ī version of this text in Cameroon Pidgin English is available here. It is not uncommon to hear a Cameroonian say I am going me nau ‘I have to leave now’ or I had to travel to Mamfe but I hear the roads are very bad wetti man go do. This is manifested through linguistic features such as borrowings, code-switching, and code-mixing. This means that Camtok poses a permanent threat to Standard English. One reason for this linguistic prejudice is that the two languages are very similar and yet so different. In terms of status, Camtok is still marginalized even by some educators who themselves are speakers of the variety. In the two English speaking provinces (North-West and South-West) it has acquired L1 status for most children. Camtok is spoken in eight of the ten provinces (regions) of Cameroon. Today, most Cameroonians are multilingual and able to speak at least two languages. Cameroon Pidgin, on the other hand, was discouraged and thought of as an inferior variety. This meant a final consolidation of the English language in the country because English forms of education were institutionalized and English became an official language in the then Western Cameroon. It is a variety of West African Pidgin Englishes spoken along the coast from Ghana to Cameroon. Many speakers are unaware that this language is different from Standard English. After the defeat of Germany in the First World War, Cameroon as a UN protectorate was partitioned between France and Britain. The terms 'Cameroonian Pidgin', 'Cameroonian Pidgin English', 'Cameroonian Creole' and 'Kamtok' are synonyms for what Cameroonians call Cameroon Pidgin English. This variety spread very fast among the multiethnic workers who travelled home to the hinterlands. The 18th century saw the institution of colonialism, and even though the Germans were the earliest colonial powers in Cameroon, they had very little interest in enhancing their own language.Ĭameroon Pidgin English was born in the German owned plantations. British missionaries, who came with the aim of evangelism to win souls for their religion, brought their language with them. The language gained grounds in the 17th century. This sociolinguistic scenario is made even more complex by the existence of Cameroon Pidgin English (Camtok) which serves as a very important lingua franca.Įnglish first arrived in Cameroon around the 16th century when the British together with the Dutch established slave deports at the coast of Bimbia. The two official languages coexist with about 270 indigenous languages. Cameroonian Pidgin, hereafter CP, is a variety of English spoken in the coastal and highland areas of the Cameroonian Republic. This means that the country enjoys official bilingualism in English and French. Here are some Cameroonian wise sayings expressed in Pidgin English: 1) Tiko drink, Kumba drunk. Our good friend Nyango from Cameroon was kind enough to get us started with some Cameroonian sayings. The appellations “Francophone” and “Anglophone” give Cameroon a linguistic uniqueness in the African continent. We thought it would be interesting to collect wise sayings and proverbs from around the world. ![]()
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