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Multilingualism as a model: Fifty-four years of coexistence of English and French with native languages in Cameroon / Modèle de multilinguisme : Cinquante-quatre années de coexistence de l’anglais et du français avec les langues maternelles au Cameroun

by Lozzi Martial Meutem Kamtchueng (Volume editor) Pauline Lydienne King Ebéhédi (Volume editor)
©2017 Edited Collection 299 Pages

Summary

The authors in this volume study various facets of the long-term coexistence of French and English with native languages in Cameroon. This coexistence has many linguistic, educational and political implications. The data analyzed in the papers are collected through various methods and from various sources: questionnaires, interviews, participant observation, online sources, social media, written documents, recorded speeches and informal conversations, etc.
Les auteurs de ce volume étudient sur plusieurs facettes la coexistence de longue date entre le français, l’anglais et les langues maternelles au Cameroun. Cette cohabitation offre beaucoup d’implications linguistiques, éducatives et politiques. Les données analysées par les différents contributeurs ont été collectées au moyen de méthodes et sources diverses : questionnaires, interviews, observations participantes, sources internet, réseaux sociaux, documents écrits, discours enregistrés et conversations informelles, etc.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Acknowledgements
  • Table of contents
  • Préface
  • Introduction
  • Part I: Language Contact and Linguistic Creativity
  • L’enrichissement de l’anglais camerounais par le français (Edmond Biloa)
  • Multilingual admixture in the Cameroonian mobile telecommunication advertisements (Michael Etuge Apuge & Dongoye Foudangwa Foudangwa)
  • Multilingualism in Cameroon Social Media (Camilla Arundie Tabe)
  • De la pratique et de l’usage du français en milieu éducatif anglophone: vers un particularisme linguistique (Ntsama Essengue Salomé Chantal)
  • Manifestations du Plurilinguisme au Cameroun (Pauline Lydienne King Ebéhédi)
  • De l’alternance codique: essai d’analyse de trois œuvres camerounaises et d’une œuvre française du XXIème siècle (Sosthène Marie Xavier Atenké Étoa)
  • Lexico-Semantic Creativity in Linus Asong’s Prose Fiction (Lozzi Martial Meutem Kamtchueng)
  • Problématique du multilinguisme dans le roman camerounais: une modalité d’écriture? Le cas de l’alternance codique chez Patrice Nganang (Simplice Aimé Kengni)
  • Part II: Language Policy and Translation
  • Que signifie être « francophone » ou « anglophone » au Cameroun? (Wega Simeu)
  • Langues locales, français et anglais: Problématique de la cohésion nationale au Cameroun (René Ndedje)
  • La traduction au service du bilinguisme: Splendeurs et misères de la pratique au Cameroun (Laurentine Ebinengue)
  • L’implicite dans la traduction des énoncés moundang en français (Mairama Rosalie)
  • Le bilinguisme d’étiolement linguistique: analyse de la situation sociolinguistique au Cameroun (Jean Paul Balga)
  • Part III: Language Description and Language in Education
  • Some features of new words in Grassfields languages: The case of Fe’efe’e (Jean-Paul Kouega)
  • Impact de l’enseignement des langues nationales dans le système éducatif au Cameroun: le cas du mboum, dii, haoussa et fufuldé au Lycée classique et moderne de Ngaoundéré (Guemdjom Kengne Candice)
  • General Conclusion
  • Index of keywords
  • Index of key authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Series Index

← 8 | 9 →

Préface

Le paysage sociolinguistique camerounais a déjà fait l’objet d’une recherche abondante en milieu universitaire et scientifique national et international. Cette abondance est attribuable non seulement à la complexité de la situation camerounaise mais aussi à la multiplicité des approches à partir desquelles elle peut être analysée. Alors que plusieurs travaux se sont surtout confinés aux aspects phonétiques, morphosyntaxiques et lexico-sémantiques (voir Anchimbe, 2012; Biloa, 2003; Kouega, 2006; Mendo Zé, 1999; Nzesse, 2015, entre autres), on note ces dernières années, un intérêt croissant pour les dimensions pragmatiques des pratiques langagières dans différents types de discours camerounais (voir Anchimbe, 2011, 2015; Mulo Farenkia, 2008, 2016; Nkwain, 2014; Tsofack et Feussi, 2011; etc.).

Il existe une bibliographie très riche sur le dynamisme linguistique en contexte camerounais dont le présent collectif constitue ici un bel exemple. Un ouvrage de plus sur les pratiques langagières au Cameroun? Je crois qu’il serait légitime de se poser cette question.

Dans le sillage des célébrations des Cinquantenaires de l’Indépendance et la Réunification du Cameroun, il était tout à fait normal d’interroger les jeux et enjeux de la cohabitation du français et de l’anglais, langues officielles et héritage linguistico-culturel de la colonisation, avec les langues locales dans le vécu discursif des Camerounais. Une journée d’études a eu lieu, à cet effet, à l’université de Maroua, à l’initiative des éditeurs du présent collectif, intitulé Modèle de multilinguisme: 54 Années de coexistence de l’anglais et du français avec les langues locales au Cameroun. Cette publication collective permet aux participants de partager les fruits de leurs réflexions et échanges avec un large public.

Contrairement aux autres collectifs publiés autour de ces « cinquantenaires » et qui se focalisent beaucoup plus sur le bilinguisme officiel (voir Echu et Ebongue, 2012; Guimatsia, 2010), Modèle de multilinguisme: 54 Années de coexistence… est un ouvrage consacré, comme son titre l’indique de façon explicite, aux divers rapports entre le français et l’anglais d’une part et entre ces deux langues et les langues camerounaises, d’autre part.

Au-delà de cette différence, je vois dans le présent collectif plusieurs autres apports. Un des intérêts qu’il présente est l’approfondissement des analyses sur la créativité langagière et les pratiques plurilingues, présentées comme des témoins ← 9 | 10 → de la mise en mots des réalités et représentations sociales dans diverses situations de communication. Ces pratiques y sont également appréhendées comme des phénomènes attribuables à la politique linguistique et aux modes de transmission et de perpétuation des langues, des indices de la vernacularisation du français et de l’anglais, des stratégies pertinentes dans les discours littéraires et médiatiques et les pratiques traduisantes. Autant de thématiques qui permettent d’appréhender plusieurs aspects du dynamisme linguistique camerounais et que l’on retrouve dans ce collectif dont les contributions sont déployées en trois parties. La première, qui comporte huit contributions, est consacrée au contact des langues et à la créativité linguistique. La deuxième partie comporte cinq études sur la politique linguistique et la traduction. La dernière partie comporte deux contributions focalisées sur l’analyse linguistique et la didactique des langues.

A la grande diversité et l’originalité des sujets traités, s’ajoutent la diversité des langues et variétés de langues abordées (français, anglais, pidgin english, camfranglais, fulfulde, fefe, mundang, dii, mboum, hausa, etc.), la variété des observables et approches utilisées ainsi que celle des espaces géographiques et culturels étudiés. On remarque avec bonheur que les deux langues officielles et internationales, le français et l’anglais, se côtoient from cover to cover et, dans une proportion bien significative, comme langues de diffusion des résultats. Cela constitue à mes yeux une très belle mise en page de la convivialité linguistique et scientifique entre les chercheurs camerounais d’expression française et anglaise. L’ouvrage s’en trouve d’une certaine manière plus accessible à la communauté scientifique nationale et internationale.

Qu’il me soit permis de saluer, une fois de plus, cette belle initiative des éditeurs de l’ouvrage et des contributeurs et de les remercier pour avoir voulu partager cette diversité de regards sur les interactions entre le français, l’anglais et les langues locales au Cameroun. Ces réflexions permettront certainement d’apprécier diverses modalités d’actualisation du dynamisme linguistique constitutif de l’identité camerounaise et d’inspirer d’autres travaux.

Bernard Mulo Farenkia

Professeur titulaire de français et de linguistique

Cape Breton University

Sydney, Nouvelle- Écosse, Canada ← 10 | 11 →

Références bibliographiques

Anchimbe, Eric. A. (2015) Code-switching: Between identity and exclusion. In: Stell, Gerald &Yakpo, Kofi (eds.), Code-Switching between structural and sociolinguistic perspectives, 139–161. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Anchimbe, Eric. A. (ed.) (2012). Language contact in a postcolonial Setting. The Linguistic and social context of English and Pidgin in Cameroon. De Gruyter: Boston/Berlin.

Anchimbe, Eric. A. (2011) On not calling people by their names: Pragmatic undertones of sociocultural relationships in a postcolony. Journal of Pragmatics 43, 1472–1483.

Biloa, Edmond (2003) La langue française au Cameroun. Berne: Peter Lang.

Echu Georges & Ebongue, Augustin Emmanuel (dir) (2012) Cinquante ans de bilinguisme officiel au Cameroun (1961–2011). État des lieux, enjeux et perspectives / Fifty years of official language bilingualism in Cameroon (1961–2011)- Situation, Stakes and Perspectives. L’Harmattan: Paris.

Guimatsia, Sa’ah François. (2010) Cinquante ans de bilinguisme au Cameroun. Quelles perspectives en Afrique? L’Harmattan: Paris.

Kouega, Jean-Paul (2006) Aspects of Cameroon English usage: A lexical appraisal. LINCOM Europa: Munich.

Mendo Zé, Gervais(1999) Le français, langue africaine: enjeux et atouts pour la francophonie: éléments de stratégies. Paris: Publisud.

Mulo Farenkia, Bernard (éd.) (2016) Im/politesse et rituels interactionnels en contextes plurilingues et multiculturels. Situations – stratégies – enjeux. Frankfurt/M: Peter Lang.

Mulo Farenkia, Bernard (éd.) (2008) De la politesse linguistique au Cameroun – Linguistic Politeness in Cameroon. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Nkwain, Joseph (2014) Address strategies in Cameroon Pidgin English: A socio-pragmatic perspective. In Anchimbe Eric (ed.), Structural and Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Indigenisation: On Multilingualism and Language Evolution, 189–205. Dordrecht (Netherlands): Springer.

Nzesse, Ladislas (2015) Inventaire des particularités lexicales du français au Cameroun (1990–2015). Numéro spécial, Le français en Afrique 29.

Tsofack, Jean Benoit et Feussi, Valentin (éds.) Langues et discours en contextes urbain au Cameroun. (Dé) constructions – complexités. Paris: L’Harmattan. ← 11 | 12 →

← 12 | 13 →

Introduction

Cameroon, a country of 475000 km2, is one of the African countries with a very complex linguistic situation: 248 home languages (Boum Ndongo-Semengue and Sadembouo, 1999:67–95) spread across three linguistic phyla, more precisely, the Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan and Niger-Kordofanian; two languages of European importation namely French and English, and two hybrid languages, Cameroon Pidgin English and Camfranglais. It is on the basis of these clues that it has been qualified as a “linguistic melting-pot or patchwork” (Biloa, 2004:1). Fifty-four years after the reunification of the West and East Cameroons, which had English and French respectively as their official languages, various salient linguistic issues concerning language policy, use, attitudes, contact, etc. have evolved and need to be addressed. These issues, addressed in the book in the form of papers, are articulated in three parts. Part One is entitled “language contact and linguistic creativity”. It comprises eight contributions.

Biloa’s paper studies the enrichment of Cameroon English by the French language. It is argued in the paper that the French language has significantly influenced Cameroon English. This influence is attributed to the demographic weight of French speakers, governmental, administrative and political discourses which are overwhelmingly French-dominated. Linguistically speaking, the influence of the French language on Cameroon English is materialized through the use of French lexemes, acronyms, female first names with French suffixes, French terms in the Cameroon administration and French professional forms of address.

In Apuge and Dongoye’s paper is studied the appropriation of the multilingual heritage of Cameroon by advertisers in the mobile telecommunication sector in the Far-North region so as to produce appealing and innovative advert messages. Drawing data from slogans, SMS adverts, interviews and using an eclectic framework, which combines Scotton’s Matrix Language Frame Model (1993), Giles’ Communication Accommodation Theory (1973) and Sankoff’s analysis of language contact outcomes (2001), the study reveals that there is an interplay of English, French, Pidgin English, Camfranglais and Fulfulde in the building of advertisement discourses. This gives room to various inventive switching patterns, borrowing cases, and morphological neologism in the sentential frames.

Tabe’s paper entitled “Multilingualism in Cameroon Social Media” sets out to investigate the languages used by Cameroonians on social media platforms, and the value of English and French on these Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) interfaces used by Cameroonians after 50 years of official bilingualism. ← 13 | 14 → Drawing data from Anglophone Cameroon e-mails, Facebook chats, mobile telephone short message service (SMS), and questionnaires, the study reveals that English, French, Kamtok or Cameroon Pidgin English (CPE), Camfranglais and mixture of languages are used on Cameroon social media platform. Besides, English dominates French and other languages on these interfaces and is held in high esteem by Anglophone Cameroonians.

The work of Ntsama Essengue consists of studying the linguistic features that derive from the practice and use of English and French in an Anglophone environment. Data for the study were collected in the North-West region, more precisely at the Higher Teacher’s Training College of Bambili. It is found that, due to environmental factors, French-speaking lecturers and students are prone to use in their French productions English words or expressions although their equivalents are attested in French. These lexes and expressions are generally related to persons, space, departments, university activities, documentation and events.

What is studied in King’s paper is the impact of the complex linguistic situation of Cameroon due to the language contact phenomenon on language use in various domains. She points out that this complex linguistic situation can be observed in Cameroonian popular talks, written songs, literary works, media and advertising slogans. Linguistically speaking, this complex multilingual situation is materialized by borrowing from home languages, literal translations, geolinguistic connotations, just to name these few.

The aim of Atenke’s paper is to study code alternation in literary works. Data for the study are drawn from three Cameroonian literary works of French expression and one French literary work of the XXIth century. It is found in the study that the combinatory patterns of languages involved in these works follow the movement of linguistic communication of younger generations who draw from their official, foreign and second languages. The author considers these combinatory patterns as communicative strategies which consist in incorporating in their written productions lexes from various languages so as to enrich their discourse linguistically and culturally.

The phenomenon of lexico-semantic creativity in Linus Asong’s prose fiction is studied in Meutem Kamtchueng’s paper. Data for the study are drawn from the following nine novels written by the Cameroonian novelist Linus Asong: No Way to Die (Asong, 1991), A Legend of the Dead (Asong, 1994a), A Stranger in his Homeland (Asong, 1994 b), The Crown of Thorns (Asong, 1995), Salvation Colony (Asong, 1996 a), The Akroma File (Asong, 1996 b, Chopchair (Asong, 1998), The Craps of Bangui (Asong, 2005) and Doctor Frederick Ngenito (Asong, 2006). The work is discussed from the vantage point of contact linguisticsas explained in ← 14 | 15 → Kachru (1986), more precisely, in the tenth chapter (The bilingual’s creativity and contact literatures) of the book entitled The Alchemy of English. Linguistically speaking, the phenomenon of lexico-semantic creativity in Asong’s prose fiction can be analysed under the following headings: lexical transfers, loan shifts, coinages, analogical creation, lexico-semantic duplications and redundancies, collocational extensions and newly created idioms. The paper argues that this phenomenon can be attributed to the need-filling motive, the influence of background languages, the insufficient exposure of non-natives to exonormative models and the willingness to emphasise some linguistic elements. This paper shows the dynamism of the English language in the Cameroonian sociocultural setting.

Multilingualism, more precisely, code alternation in Patrice Nganang’s novels, is analysed in Kengni’s paper. Drawing data from two novels of this writer, namely, Promesse des fleurs (1997) and Temps de chien (2001), the study investigates the pragmatics of code alternation in a multilingual context. Using linguistic constructivism propounded by Phillippe Blanchet (2000:69) as theoretical framework, the study has identified two patterns of code alternation (French-Cameroon Pidgin English, French-home languages) in the Nganang’s literary works. Besides, the contributor demonstrates that code alternation in these literary works displays both sociolinguistic and sociopragmatic functions.

Part Two of the book is entitled “Language policy and translation” and comprises five contributions.

The aim of Wega’s paper is twofold. First of all, it seeks to study the evolution of the meaning of concepts “anglophones” and “francophones” in Cameroon, 54 years after the reunification of the country. Secondly, the study shows how the country has been forever marked by its colonial past at the level of national education. This is materialized by the two sub-systems of education which Cameroonians are proud of, given that they are free to choose either of them irrespective of where they come from. After analyzing the data obtained from 120 informants and using Saussure’s (1916) structuralism theory and Durante’s (2004) anthropolinguistic approach that derives from Lévi-Strauss’s (1953–1973) structural anthropology theory, the paper concludes that the concepts of “anglophone” and “francophone”, from a social perspective, refer to a geographic and historic reality rather than a linguistic one, no matter what the suffix “-phone” may imply.

In Ndedje’s paper are discussed the local languages, French and English, with regard to the question of national cohesion in Cameroon. First of all, the paper argues that the coexistence of English, French and local languages has not always been a harmonious one and secondly, it demonstrates that there is a necessity to ← 15 | 16 → establish a genuine partnership among them since linguistic diversity is an element in the construction of the national unity.

What is handled is Balga’s paper is the sociolinguistic analysis of Cameroon laying emphasis on the influence of official languages on local languages. He observes that local languages are relegated to the background in favour of official languages since the former are used only for the safeguard of national cultures as opposed to the latter which are used in almost all domains of life. He therefore recommends the setting up of a diglossic platform which will assign some domains of the Cameroon national life to local languages.

Using the comparative method and data which consist of natural occurring Mundang sentences translated into French by the researcher since she is a Mundang native speaker, Mairama’s paper aims at studying the implicit markers in the translation of Mundang sentences into French. It is upheld in the paper that the translation from Mundang into French may pose problems if attention is not paid to some implicit markers found in Mundang, which can influence the meaning of sentences and therefore affect their translations into French. The paper concludes that while translating Mundang sentences into French, the translator should pay attention to these implicit markers and their context of occurrence in sentences.

The ups and downs of the practice of translation are examined in Ebinengue’s paper. The researcher starts by observing that translation stands as an outstanding instrument in the consolidation of bilingualism in Cameroon given that it helps to bridge the linguistic barriers to effective and efficient communication. However, Cameroonians tend to use translation not to serve this purpose but for personal gains. Drawing data from institutional and translated advertising texts, the paper brings out the positive and negative aspects of the practice of translation as well as the advantages of using translation as an instrument for effective bilingualism in Cameroon.

Part Three of the book focuses on language description and language in education. It comprises two papers.

Details

Pages
299
Year
2017
ISBN (PDF)
9783631715802
ISBN (ePUB)
9783631715819
ISBN (MOBI)
9783631715826
ISBN (Hardcover)
9783631715796
DOI
10.3726/b10686
Language
English
Publication date
2017 (July)
Keywords
Bilingualism Appropriation Translation Languages Culture
Published
Frankfurt am Main, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2017. 299 pp., 6 b/w tables

Biographical notes

Lozzi Martial Meutem Kamtchueng (Volume editor) Pauline Lydienne King Ebéhédi (Volume editor)

Lozzi Martial Meutem Kamtchueng holds a PhD in English Language Studies from the University of Yaounde I, Cameroon. He is a Senior Lecturer in English Linguistics in the Department of Bilingual Letters of the Faculty of Letters and Social Sciences of the University of Maroua, Cameroon. His research interests include English language use in non-native contexts as well as hybrid languages such as Camfranglais, with emphasis on lexicosemantics and morphosyntax. Lozzi Martial Meutem Kamtchueng est titulaire d’un Doctorat/PhD ès Lettres modernes anglaises obtenu à l’Université de Yaoundé I, Cameroun. Il est Chargé de cours de linguistique anglaise au Département de Lettres bilingues à la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines de l’Université de Maroua, Cameroun. Ses travaux de recherches portent sur les usages de la langue anglaise en contexte non-natif, des parlers hybrides à l’instar du camfranglais, avec encrage sur la lexicosémantique et la morphosyntaxe. Pauline Lydienne Ebéhédi King holds a Doctorate Degree «Nouveau régime» in Stylistics/Poetics obtained at the University of Cocody (now Félix Houphouêt Boigny University), Abidjan, Ivory Coast. She is Head of the Department of Bilingual Letters of the Faculty of Letters and Social Sciences at the University of Maroua, Cameroon. Pauline Lydienne Ebéhédi King est titulaire d’un Doctorat «nouveau régime» en stylistique/poétique obtenu à l’Université de Cocody  (aujourd’hui Université Félix Houphouêt Boigny) à Abidjan en Côte d’Ivoire. Elle est actuellement Chef de Département de Lettres bilingues à la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines de l’Université de Maroua au Cameroun.

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Title: Multilingualism as a model: Fifty-four years of coexistence of English and French with native languages in Cameroon / Modèle de multilinguisme : Cinquante-quatre années de coexistence de l’anglais et du français avec les langues maternelles au Cameroun
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