| Cameroon Pidgin English | |
|---|---|
| Kamtok | |
| Wes Cos | |
| Native to | Cameroon |
| Region | Northwest Region,Southwest Region,littoral Region |
| Speakers | 12 million (2017)[1] |
English Creole
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wes |
| Glottolog | came1254 |
| Linguasphere | 52-ABB-bg |
_in_Cameroon.svg) Distribution of Kamtok | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Cameroonian Pidgin English, orCameroonian Creole (Cameroon Pidgin:Wes Cos, from West Coast), is a language variety ofCameroon. It is also known asKamtok (from 'Cameroon-talk'). It is primarily spoken in theNorth West andSouth West English speaking regions.[2] Cameroonian Pidgin English is an English-basedcreole language. Approximately 5% of Cameroonians are native speakers of the language, while an estimated 50% of the population speak it in some form.[3]
The terms "Cameroonian Pidgin", "Cameroonian Pidgin English", "Cameroonian Creole", and "Kamtok" are synonyms for what Cameroonians call Cameroon Pidgin English. Several speakers of Cameroonian pidgin refer to Standard English as "Grammar", and recognize the difference between the two. It is a variety of West African English Pidgins spoken along the coast fromGhana to Cameroon. It is a vehicular language that has been in active use in the country for over 200 years. It came into being in the Slave Trade Years (1440 to early 1800s).[4] It preceded English in Cameroon: the first Baptist missionaries who arrived in 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 thehinterland and who spoke different indigenous languages. With time it passed into use in 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 spoken media.
Five varieties of Cameroonian Pidgin English are currently recognised:
Like most West African languages, Kamtok has sevenvowels, with two mid vowels: open and closed (Schneider 1966:14–17). Schneider spells the mid vowels as closedey andow vs. opene ando but Todd spells them as closede ando vs. openeh andoh.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
The palatal approximate/j/ is writteny, the palatal affricates/t͡ʃ/ and/d͡ʒ/ are writtench andj, and the palatal and velar nasals/ɲ/ and/ŋ/ are writtenny andng (Schneider 1966:12–14). Some of these consonants, such as/r/ and/l/, are not distinguished by speakers who lack such distinctions in their localsubstrate languages (1966:225–229).
| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pb | td | t͡ʃd͡ʒ | kɡ | |
| Fricative | f | s | ʃ | h | |
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
| Lateral | l | ||||
| Approximant | w | j | |||
| Rhotic | r |
The basic pronoun system of Kamtok distinguishes three persons and two numbers. In most cases, the shape of the pronoun does not change to show grammatical function. Two exceptions involve the first person singular, wherea serves as a subjectclitic onverbs, as inmi, a mos go 'I must go', andma is thepossessive pronoun, as inma bele 'my stomach'. The other major exception is-am in place ofi ordem as an objectsuffix on verbs, except when the referent is human, as ina go was-am 'I'll wash it'. (Schneider 1966:64–68).Acrolectal speakers, however, are more likely to usedei fordem in subject position andohs forwi in object position (Todd, n.d.).
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | mi, a, ma | wi |
| 2nd | yu | (w)una |
| 3rd | i, -am | dem, -am |
Verbs are not inflected to showgrammatical tense,aspect,modality, ornegation. Instead, these notions are conveyed by a small set of preverbal auxiliaries (Schneider 1966:69–72, 95–104).
Examples:
The rendition of a short passage from English to Cameroon Pidgin:
English language:
The boy who came yesterday was annoyed that he was not accepted. After a quarrel with me, he went off sorry for himself. We were later told that he told our boss that he was rejected because I hated him. The boss later called me to his office and questioned me about the reasons I refused to take in the boy in question and I told him. Tanga (the boy) was noted as a notorious thief and he is a mischief in the community.
Cameroon Pidgin:
The boy whe cam yesterday be vex say them no gri yi. After whe yi quarrel with me, e comot go, sorry sorry. After them be tell we say e go tell wah boss say we no take yi because i hate yi. Wa boss bin call me for yi office, and question me for know the reason why i no take the boy. I tell yi the truth. That boy Tanga na tif man and no some very bad boy for quarter.
In pidgin unlike in English,-s is not used at the end of nouns to mark their plural state. Instead, this is what is used:
