Kamtok
| Kamtok (Cameroonian Pidgine English) | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Cameroon | |
| speaker | approx. 7–8 million | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -2 |
cpe |
|
| ISO 639-3 | ||
Kamtok (own name Pidgin , English Cameroon Pidgin English , Cameroonian Pidgin / Creole or Kamtok ) is a Creole language in Cameroon .
history
Since the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade in the 15th century, various Portuguese-based pidgin languages have presumably been spoken on the west coast of Africa . The first Portuguese came to Cameroon after 1472 at the earliest, when a Portuguese expedition led by Fernão do Pó reached the island of Fernando Póo (today Bioko) off the coast of Cameroon. These languages served as lingua franca in trade with the natives until the end of the 16th century .
It is not certain why Portuguese lost its influence on the West African coast at this time. It is conceivable that English-based pidgins emerged because the Portuguese began to work with British pirates who were supposed to ensure communication with the local peoples on the West African coast. In this way, the inhabitants of what would later become Cameroon could have come into contact with their first English words. The situation finally changed when trade in West Africa was dominated by the British from 1618 onwards. They not only continued the slave trade started by the Portuguese, but also built factories along the entire coast from 1800 onwards. From 1800 an English-based pidgin was already established in Cameroon.
It is believed that the Kamtok in its current form is heavily influenced by the Krio , a Creole language in Sierra Leone . On the one hand, the British traders themselves brought the pidgin they had heard and learned in Sierra Leone. On the other hand, from 1844 , Baptist missionaries founded Christian settlements on the coast of Cameroon, including the settlement of Victoria (today Limbe ) in 1845 by Alfred Saker . Liberated slaves who had learned a pidgin in Sierra Leone and came to Cameroon via Nigeria were the first to settle in these mission foundations. The variety they spoke enjoyed a great reputation in the area at the time.
During the period of German colonial rule in German Cameroon (1884-1914), the German colonial administration tried to push back the Kamtok, which was widespread on the coast, and instead to establish German as the lingua franca . The administration soon realized that this goal could not be achieved in Cameroon and that Kamtok was essential for communication with the local peoples. On German plantations , the people working there, who came from different parts of the country and spoke different indigenous languages, could only communicate with the help of the Kamtok. In this way and due to the work of the Baptist missionaries who used Kamtok to spread Christianity , Kamtok was able to spread to the Cameroonian hinterland .
After the First World War , Cameroon fell under the British and French League of Nations mandate, after the Second World War under British and French trusts . In British Cameroon , Kamtok was able to spread unhindered in addition to the official language English and absorbed many influences from English. In the French administered part of the country, Kamtok was less important, but it was able to survive and retained more of its original characteristics.
Todays situation
_in_Cameroon.svg)
Today, Kamtok is spoken as a second language by around 50% of the country's population and as a first language by a growing number of people . Although the main distribution area of Kamtok is still the two Anglophone provinces of South-West and North-West, a large part of the population of the neighboring provinces and many residents of larger cities throughout the country also speak the language. The long division of the country, however, is still reflected today in the fact that Kamtok must primarily be differentiated into two larger varieties, an Anglophone and a Francophone variety.
In the Anglophone part of the country in particular, more and more children are learning Kamtok as one or only first language, so that in a survey in 2003, 42% of those surveyed in Buea and 36% of those in Bamenda said this language was their mother tongue . But in the francophone part of the country, too , the language has more and more native speakers. In the same survey, for example, 30% of those questioned in Yaoundé said Kamtok as their first language.
As a Creole language, Kamtok is spoken in almost all areas of public life despite the stigmatization of the public: in families, among friends, in trade, at work, in churches and schools. The language is also being used more and more in the media (television, radio and internet) and in literature.
literature
- Kouega, Jean-Paul (2008). A Dictionary of Cameroon Pidgin English Usage: Pronunciation, Grammar and Vocabulary . Munich: Lincom Europe. ISBN 978-3-89586-204-5
- Menang, Thaddeus (2008). Cameroon Pidgin English (Kamtok): phonology. In Bernd Kortmann et al. (Ed.). A Handbook of Varieties of English. A Multi-Media Reference Tool. Part 1: Phonology . Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-017532-5
- Ngefac, Aloysius (2010). Linguistic Choices in Postcolonial Multilingual Cameroon. In Nordic Journal of African Studies 19 (3): 149-164.
- Schneider, Gilbert (1966). West African Pidgin English. A Descriptive Linguistic Analysis with Texts and Glossary from the Cameroon Area . Hartford, Connecticut: Hartford Seminary Foundation.
- Schröder, Anne (2003). Status, Functions and Prospects of Pidgin English. An Empirical Approach to Language dynamics in Cameroon . Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. ISBN 3-8233-5821-9
Individual evidence
- ^ Schröder, Anne (2003). Status, Functions and Prospects of Pidgin English. An Empirical Approach to Language dynamics in Cameroon . Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. P. 85.