Cameroonian Pidgin English
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| Cameroon Pidgin English | ||
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| Spoken in: | Cameroon | |
| Total speakers: | unknown | |
| Language family: | English Creole Cameroon Pidgin English |
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | none | |
| ISO 639-3: | wes
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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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
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