Cameroonian Pidgin English

Cameroonian Pidgin English, or Cameroonian Creole, is a linguistic entity of Cameroon. It is also known as Kamtok (from 'Cameroon-talk'). Five varieties are currently recognised:

• Grafi Kamtok, the variety used in the grassfields and often referred to as 'Grafi Talk'
• liturgical Kamtok. This variety has been used by the Catholic church for three quarters of a century
• francophone Kamtok. This variety is now used mainly in towns such as Douala and Yaoundé and by francophones talking to anglophones who do not speak French
• Limbe Kamtok. This variety is spoken mainly in the southwest coastal area around the port that used to be called Victoria and is now Limbe.
• Bororo Kamtok. This variety is spoken by the Bororo cattle traders, many of whom travel through Nigeria and Cameroon.

Cameroonian Pidgin English is an English-based creole language. About 5% of Cameroonians are native speakers of the language, while an estimated 50% of the population speak it in some form.

The terms “Cameroonian Pidgin”, “Cameroonian Pidgin English”, “Cameroonian Creole” and “Kamtok” are synonymous appellations of what Cameroonians call Cameroon Pidgin English. It is a variety of West African Pidgin Englishes spoken along the coast from Ghana to Cameroon. It is a vehicular language that has been in active use in the country for over 500 years. It came into being in the Slave Trade Years (1400-1800). It preceded English in Cameroon: the first Baptist missionaries who arrived Cameroon in 1845 and introduced formal education in English, had to learn Pidgin. A few decades later during the German annexation period (1884-1914), Pidgin resisted a German ban. It took flight when it became a makeshift language used in German plantations and undertakings by forced labourers who were drawn from the hinterland and who spoke different indigenous languages. With time, it invaded the market place and was adopted by Baptist Missionaries as the language of their evangelical crusade. For many years, it has been used on school playgrounds and campuses and in political campaigns, and today, it is forcing its way into the spoken media scene. (For a comprehensive description of its linguistic features and its place in the language ecology of Cameroon, see amongst others, Kouega 2007 and 2008).

References

• Kamtok pages, University of New England (Australia) School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics. By Loreto Todd, with help from Martin Jumbam and Herbert Wamey.

Bibliography

• Hans-Georg Wolf: English in Cameroon. Contributions to the Sociology of Language, Volume 85. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, Germany 2001, ISBN 3-11-017053-1.
• Carole de Féral: Pidgin-English du Cameroun. Description linguistique et sociolinguistique. Peeters/Selaf, Paris, France 1989, ISBN 2-87723-023-6.
• Kouega, Jean-Paul (2001). Pidgin facing death in Cameroon. Terralingua

Web site: http://www.terralingua.org/DiscPapers/DiscPaper17.html

• Kouega, Jean-Paul (2007). The language situation in Cameroon. Current Issues in Language Planning (CILP), 8(1), 1-94.
• Kouega, Jean-Paul (2008). A Dictionary of Cameroon Pidgin English Usage: Pronunciation, Grammar and Vocabulary. Muenchen, Germany: Lincom Europa. ISBN 9783895862045

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