Reading Practice: Cameroon Pidgin English

Because pidgins are commonly used as a second language, or lingua franca, during trade and other working environments, and creoles are the fully formed version of the pidgin spoken as a first language, pidginisation is often identified with linguistic simplification and creolisation with expansion (Kouwenberg and Singler, 2008). Indeed, unlike a creole, a pidgin could be described as being ‘no-one’s first language’ (Todd, 1990, p. 03) – suggesting that pidgins are expanded by the offspring of their speakers to allow for the normal interactions afforded by a fully fledged language. Although this first- and second-language demarcation functions well for a sociologically based classification, due to the complex nature of the regions in which these languages develop, some misnomers do exist. Cameroon Pidgin English is one such misnomer, as are the many pidgin Englishes of West Africa. 4

While pidgin and creole languages may be encountered in any part of the world in which slaves were taken or a lingua franca was an absolutely necessary among the working class, no region on Earth has a higher concentration of speakers of these language types than in West Africa. At least seven varieties of restructured English exist between the Gambia and Equatorial Guinea alone, all of which owe their existence to contact with European colonialists (Weber, 2012). While languages such as Ghanaian Pidgin English and Nigerian Pidgin English are creolised in the sense that they are the primary languages for many of their speakers, each of these West African varieties have become incorrectly known as pidgin Englishes – affording them little political or social prestige. 5

Cameroon Pidgin English is one of the most important regional lingua francas for millions of speakers in the Republic of Cameroon. However, like many pidgins and creoles, this language suffers from low levels of prestige and is rarely used in official domains (Schröder, 2003; Anchimbe, 2012). With over 20,000,000 people speaking some 286 indigenous languages (Yuka, 2014, p. 15) and a long Portuguese, British, French and German colonial history, it is no easy feat to summarise Cameroon’s linguistic breadth. Indeed, the country is one of the ‘most linguistically diverse’ (Schröder, 2003) in the world. 6

Officially, the Republic of Cameroon is English/French bilingual with the pidgin acting as a regional lingua franca used more often by lower socioeconomic groups (Schröder, 2012) and afforded generally higher favourability from Anglophones than Francophones (Bobda and Wolf, 2003). Although predominantly English-lexified, its most relaxed form (its basilect) is almost mutually unintelligible with Standard English (Gilman, 2008) and at least twelve other Indo-European and Niger-Congo languages contribute to its lexis (Ayafor, 2004, p. 910). 7

Much like the situation in other West African countries, Cameroon Pidgin English exists alongside an official English variety called Cameroon English. Cameroon English and Standard English continue to ‘exert an influence’ (Todd, 1990, p. 36) over the pidgin variety to the point where very few speakers prefer to ‘overtly identify’ (Anchimbe, 2012, p. 14) with the pidgincreole over the official varieties. While the language may be prohibited in most schools and other official platforms, Schröder (2003, p. 114) argues that CPE is nevertheless ‘seen as a language of intimacy and informality’ that is ‘used in many if not all domains of social life’ (p. 176). She recommends that its significance to Cameroonians should therefore not be misconstrued or underestimated by researchers. However, unlike for the many indigenous languages of Cameroon which rural children tend to acquire first, this pidgincreole fails to qualify as a language the people ‘readily want to identify with’ culturally (Schröder, 2003, p. 177), thus making it unlikely in its current state to ever receive official status. 8