An Introduction To Cameroonian Pidgin

This volume represents a comprehensive description of the structure of Cameroonian Pidgin, including an overview of its socio-cultural context, writing system, sounds, word formation, word classes and sentence structures. It comprises a corpus of 540 Cameroonian Pidgin proverbs and a rich glossary of over 1000 words and expressions typical of Cameroonian Pidgin which are helpful in understanding the characteristic features of the language, as well as the cultural, the social, and the philosophical contexts of the Cameroonian Pidgin speaker. Written with the first-hand experience of a “native speaker”, it will be of interest to ordinary users, as well as students, researchers and professional linguists interested in the way the language functions. Indeed, it represents a useful resource for anyone wishing to learn or know about Pidgin, especially tourists and professionals traveling to West and Central Africa.

Cameroon Pidgin English (CPE) is an English-lexified Atlantic expanded pidgin/creole spoken in some form by an estimated 50% of Cameroon’s population, primarily in the anglophone west regions, but also in urban centres throughout the country. Primarily a spoken language, CPE enjoys a vigorous oral presence in Cameroon, and the linguistic examples illustrating this description are drawn from a spoken corpus consisting of a range of text types, including oral narratives, radio broadcasts and spontaneous conversation. The authors’ typologically-framed investigation of the features of the language, from its phonetics, phonology and lexicon to its syntax and discourse structure, allows the reader a clear view of the linguistic character of CPE, offering a comprehensive description of the language that will be of interest to creolists as well as linguists interested in African languages, contact linguistics and comparative linguistics.

This timely book brings together research on the features and evolution of Cameroon English and Cameroon Pidgin English, approached from a variety of innovative multilingual frameworks that focus on the emergence of mother tongue speakers. The authors illustrate how language and population contact, history (colonialism), multilingualism, translation, and indigenization have contributed to shaping the norms of postcolonial Englishes and Pidgins. Employing naturalistic data, the volume provides a new fascinating perspective that better situates and supplements existing research in the fields of African Englishes and Creolistics. It is particularly of key interest to sociolinguists, contact linguists, Africanists, Anglicists, creolists and historical linguists.

Cameroon Pidgin English (CPE) is an English-lexified Atlantic expanded pidgin/creole spoken in some form by an estimated 50% of Cameroon's population, primarily in the anglophone west regions, but also in urban centres throughout the country. Primarily a spoken language, CPE enjoys a vigorous oral presence in Cameroon, and the linguistic examples illustrating this description are drawn from a spoken corpus consisting of a range of text types, including oral narratives, radio broadcasts and spontaneous conversation. The authors' typologically-framed investigation of the features of the language, from its phonetics, phonology and lexicon to its syntax and discourse structure, allows the reader a clear view of the linguistic character of CPE, offering a comprehensive description of the language that will be of interest to creolists as well as linguists interested in African languages, contact linguistics and comparative linguistics

'Once upon a time' is the English translation of the title of this collection of twenty-eight Pidgin tales from Cameroon in West Africa, first published in 1979. These are richly illustrative of the various folklore genres of the region and are presented in a modified standard orthography, with an English translation facing the original Pidgin text. Notes are provided on each tale with the intention of illuminating some of their unique stylistic and linguistic patterns. The tales are often witty, never protracted, and are pleasurable in their own right. They also provide linguistic and folkloristic material not available elsewhere. In a lengthy introduction, Dr Todd discusses the history of Cameroon and the development and use of Pidgin English there. A simple grammar of Pidgin English is included to aid scholars not already familiar with the language to make full use of the Pidgin texts.

A clear and concise introduction to the study of how new languages come into being.