Cameroonian English
Dialect of English
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Through Postcolonialism
It is a postcolonial variety of English, long in use in the territory (Southern Cameroons, now split into Northwest and Southwest). Over the years, it has developed characteristic features, particularly in lexis but also in phonology and grammar. Those characteristics were once regarded as errors but are now increasingly accepted as distinctive Cameroonian contributions to the English language.
History
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Varieties
There are differences between the formal, "institutional" variety of Cameroonian English, which is based on British English and is taught in schools in Cameroon, and the indigenised "communal" variety, which is the more innovative form spoken in Anglophone communities. Varietal differences also exist between speaker communities of various indigenous languages such as Nso and Akoose.
Phonology
Cameroonian English is a non-rhotic dialect, meaning that it drops syllable-final . It exhibits the following 7-vowel phonology:
The phonemes , and tend to merge to /ɔ/, making "caught", "cut" and "cot" homophones. Similarly, "lock" and "luck" are pronounced alike, and "white-collar worker" sometimes becomes "white-colour worker" in Cameroon. The phonemes and are merged into /a/. Other mergers, such as the foot-goose merger and the fleece-kit merger are also present.
Despite being non-rhotic, linking and intrusive R are not present in Cameroonian English. Neither are the dental fricatives or , generally seeing TH-stopping, that is, pronouncing them as alveolar stops /t/ or /d/. Final obstruents are devoiced, pronouncing words such as lab, bad, George, Steve as [lap, bat, dʒɔtʃ, stif]. Before , is deleted, rendering human as [juman].
Grammar
Morphology
Syntax
Vocabulary
The Cameroon English lexicon is characterised by significant lexical innovation, including various types of word formation such as borrowing, derivation and semantic change.
Characteristic turns of phrase in the country or local coinages:
- "detailly" = in detail
- "to see with me" = to agree with me; to see my point of view
- "installmentally" = by installments
- "of recent" = recently; lately