Introduction
This paper identifies and describes five major varieties of Cameroon English (hereafter CamE) in Cameroon audio-visual materials. These five ‘audio-lects’ are Pidginized, Mainstream, Near-RP, Americanized and Frenchized CamE. The paper argues that these audio-lects mostly tie with real-life CamE, but differ from the latter phonostylistically. The utterances of 80 Cameroonian actors, actresses and musicians excerpted from 100 audio-visual materials constituted data for the paper. The audio-visual materials and artists were randomly selected to represent, as much as possible, CamE speakers from different socio-cultural spheres within Cameroon. The findings indicate that these audio-lects largely resemble real-life CamE varieties, which reflect the socio-ethnic, academic and professional diversity of CamE speakers.
Background
Cameroon exists in one of the most linguistically complex environments in the world, with over 800 languages spoken (Nanfah, Reference Nanfah, Mbangwana, Mpoche and Mbuh2006; Fasse, Reference Fasse, Harrow and Mpoche2008). Consequently, Chumbow (1980: 281, cited in Nanfah, Reference Nanfah, Mbangwana, Mpoche and Mbuh2006) described Cameroon as a ‘laboratory for linguistic experimentation’. In an environment where English cohabits with hundreds of indigenous Cameroonian languages, it is not surprising to note that English in Cameroon has naturally taken on a number of different forms. These forms of English, which are phonologically, grammatically and lexically Cameroonian (Simo Bobda, Reference Simo Bobda1994; Mbangwana, Reference Mbangwana1987), constitute what previous researchers have termed Cameroon English (henceforth CamE). Kouega (Reference Kouega1999: 540) argues that ‘[s]ociolinguistically, four major types of English can be distinguished … Pidgin English, Pidginized English, General Cameroon English and Educated Cameroon English.’ This could arguably be reduced to just three varieties, since Pidgin English is arguably not English but a distinct language in its own right (Echu, Reference Echu2004; Ngefac, Reference Ngefac2009).
Simo Bobda and Mbangwana (Reference Simo Bobda and Mbangwana2004: 199–100), for their part, identify CamE varieties as Educated Cameroon English and francophone English (Atechi, Reference Atechi2010; Safotso, Reference Safotso2012), which they regard respectively as just a performance variety, and the near-native variety. However, other scholars have argued for a more holistic identification capable of expressing the Cameroonian identity or, simply put, the English used by Cameroonians, whether francophones or anglophones (Nkwetta, Reference Nkwetta2011).
CamE, which varies geographically and, particularly ethno-sociologically, features in Cameroon Audio-visual Materials (henceforth CAMs), especially in pop music and movies. The remainder of this paper describes a study that identified five main variant forms of CamE in these materials. These five ‘audio-lects’ (as they will be called in this paper) will be described in detail below. First, however, the paper will briefly summarize the methodology of the study.
Methodology
Data for this paper constitute the utterances of 80 actors, actresses and musicians from 100 CAMSs in English. Of the 80 audio-visual informants, 40 were female and 40 were male. The informants (actors, actresses or musicians) were randomly selected to represent, as much as possible, speakers from the different socio-cultural spheres of Cameroon, mainly Anglophone Cameroonians from the North West and South West regions but also Francophone Cameroonians from the other regions. The imbalance is because most CAMs in English are produced by anglophone Cameroonians. Of the 100 CAMs, 50 were movies and 50 songs – all produced in the 21st century, as the paper deals with contemporary phonological trends in CamE.
The data collection procedure involved watching and listening to each movie or song several times in five stages. Stage one was aimed at grasping the storyline in each movie or song so as to understand the words and expressions within the context of use. The second phase was to identify and choose informants mainly by matching the cast and the roles in CAMs. Phase three comprised identifying and excerpting salient phonological CamE features whereas stages four and five entailed phonologically transcribing the excerpts, using the 10 L transcription system, and qualitatively analysing the productions in relation to variability and styles in pronunciation.
Discussion
Using the methodology described above, five audio-lects were distinguished in the CAM data. Each of these audio-lects will now be discussed in turn below.
Pidginized AVCamE
Pidginized CamE (hereafter AVCamE 1) is primarily shaped by Pidgin English (henceforth CamPE) and Cameroon indigenous languages (Kouega, Reference Kouega1999; Ngefac, Reference Ngefac2010). In real life, this audio-lect is so close to CamPE that some researchers have not differentiated it from CamPE at all (Kouega, ibid). In CAMs, AVCamE 1 is the most basilectal form of English with different sub forms such as Kenyang English, Lamso English, Akoosee English and Bafut English (Fonyuy, Reference Fonyuy2011, Reference Fonyuy2012). Due to Cameroon's exoglossic language policy of excluding indigenous languages, identifying CamE ethnologues is more fluid than it is in Nigeria, where Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, together with nine other languages, are all recognised by Nigeria's language policy (Omodiaogbe, Reference Omodiaogbe1992; Omoniyi, Reference Omoniyi2012).
However, in this article I will prefer to bundle up AVCamE 1 subvarieties into North West Pidginized English (NW AVCamE 1) and South West Pidginized English (SW AVCamE 1). Phonologically, some NW AVCamE 1 speakers change /əʊ/ to /u/ such that bone /bəʊn/ is rendered /bun/; /ε/ is realized as /i/ in some words as enter /εntə/ which turns to /inta/; /p, b/ are interchangeably used as in /bita/ for Peter and /r/ is rendered /l/ such that ran and land are homophonously /lan/. These realizations have been noted in real-life basilectal CamE ethnologues (Fonyuy, Reference Fonyuy2012; Ngefac, Reference Ngefac2010). Data for this paper shows that some speakers of SW AVCamE 1 also realize /ԑ/ as /i/ in some environments.
AVCamE 1 is not necessarily used by uneducated Cameroonians, though the audio-lect coincides with the uneducated varieties of real-life CamE. Commenting on real-life users of this variety, Kouega (Reference Kouega1999: 541) reports that
Pidginised English … is spoken by young job seekers, especially Primary School leavers and Secondary School dropouts, most of whom take up practical jobs like mechanics, woodwork, metalwork, or set up small enterprises like shop-keeping. This variety of English has received very little scholarly attention as it is not easy to differentiate it from Pidgin English. … Its users have some education (Penn, 1984), and can therefore write letters or read newspapers, though with [less understanding as compared to mainstream CamE speakers].
In line with this, AVCamE 1 is used in CAMs by primary school leavers or secondary school dropouts who have menial blue collar jobs, or is consciously employed by some quite educated Cameroonian actors and actresses to depict Cameroonians who, in real life, are unprivileged and uneducated with such menial jobs as house helps, babysitters and lay mechanics. Compared to others, this audio-lect is usually not very present in movies because it is perceived negatively in real life and used passively by minor characters (Ngefac, Reference Ngefac2010; Atechi, Reference Atechi2010). This audio-lect is the most grammatically inconsistent, its users often code-switching to CamPE and Camfranglais. Another major characteristic of AVCamE 1 is that it usually contains many exaggerations of real-life productions because characters have the latitude to imitate the speech of people of different ethnic groups with indigenous languages different from those of the characters themselves.
Mainstream AVCamE
Mainstream AVCamE (henceforth AVCamE 2) is spoken by the majority of Cameroonians who have English as a medium of instruction in school. Simo Bobda and Mbangwana (Reference Simo Bobda and Mbangwana2004: 199-100, citing Masanga, 1983) situate real-life mainstream CamE ‘between the speech of secondary school leavers and that of University graduates’. AVCamE 2 is the mainstream audio-lect, transcending ethnic, regional and educational backgrounds. The real-life equivalent of this audio-lect appears to be the most favoured CamE variety (Atechi, Reference Atechi2010; Ngefac, Reference Ngefac2010). Atechi (Reference Atechi2010:205) reports that this is ‘the variety that Cameroonians are used to … the variety most heard in formal settings in the country.’ Ngefac (Reference Ngefac2010: 4) concurs, noting that its ‘features … are uttered by a majority of Cameroonian speakers’. Though AVCamE 2 differs from native English varieties at all phonological levels, its phonological characteristics typically include the following:
1. Vowel conflation, e.g. RP /ɪ/ and /i/ merge to AVCamE /i/;
2. Vowel harmony, as in /folo/ for /fɒləʊ/;
3. Vowel fronting or retraction, e.g. /ɜ/ is fronted to /ε/ or retracted to /ɔ/;
4. Diphthongs are either monophthongized or restructured;
5. Central triphthongal /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ are replaced by /j/ and /w/ respectively;
6. There are fewer vowels in AVCamE 2 than in RP and GenAm;
7. /θ/ and /ð/ become /t/ and /d/;
8. Consonant devoicing; /ʧ/ replaces /ʤ/, /ʃ/ replaces /ʒ/, /s/ for /z/ etc mostly word-finally;
9. consonant cluster simplification mostly through consonant apocope.
In CAMs, AVCamE 2 is the most heard variety that suits almost all contexts except roles of pendants, DJs, MCs or city-based broadcasters. Speakers in CAMs mainly use this audio-lect to play averagely educated Cameroonians with middle-ranking social status.
Near-RP AVCamE
Near-RP AVCamE or AVCamE 3 is spoken by Cameroonians who strive to speak RP in CAMs. Commenting on real-life speakers of this variety, Sala (Reference Sala2010: 2) asserts that ‘[o]ther pronunciations that approximate RP, as noticed with a restricted caste of people who have had stays abroad, is acrolectal … ’ Speakers of this sub-variety often display native English features as liaison and coalescent assimilation, though usually in a Cameroonian way. AVCamE 3 distinguishes itself from other CamE audio-lects in that its speakers realize RP vowels which are not in AVCamE 1, AVCamE 2, CamPE or Cameroonian indigenous languages. The main phonological traits of AVCamE 3 are as follows:
1. there can be durational difference between lax and tense vowels so that /ɪ, ʊ, ɒ, ə/ are distinguishable from RP /i, u, ɔ, ɜ/;
2. RP vowels as /æ, ɪ, ʊ, ɑ, ɔ, u/ do occur though they do not normally feature in AVCamE 1 and AVCamE 2;
3. central vowels as /ɜ/ and /ə/ do occur;
4. there is the STRUT vowel, /ʌ/, a vowel that is often replaced by CamE /ɔ/ in AVCamE 1 and 2;
5. diphthongs and triphthongs formed with RP central /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ also occur;
6. more vowels exist in AVCamE 3 than in AVCamE 1 and AVCamE 2;
7. /θ/ and /ð/ feature in AVCamE 3, especially when they are represented by the th grapheme;
8. speakers of AVCamE 3 endeavour to differentiate between /s/ and /z/;
9. efforts are made to realize word-final consonant clusters without deleting or devoicing some;
10. speakers of AVCamE 3 attempt to realize lexical stress as in RP; e.g. they use ʹmadam instead of AVCamE 1 and AVCamE 2 maʹdam.
Speakers of AVCamE 3 characteristically realize certain phonological features with idiosyncrasies, particularly as pertaining to vowel length, voicing and stress, which they sometimes realize, as in RP, but also backslide to mainstream CamE forms. Though speakers of AVCamE 3 can articulate some RP vowels as /ʌ, ɜ, ʊ, ɪ, ɔ, ɑ/ which are normally not in AVCamE 2, they often backslide to AVCamE 2 renderings for these vowels, especially in fast speech, but sometimes resort to hypercorrect forms as /ə/ for RP /ʌ, ɜ/. Consequently, words as nurse /nɜs/ and cut /kʌt/ are hypercorrectly realized as /nəs/ and /kət/. In other cases, users of AVCamE 3 do target RP /ɑ/ in an attempt to avoid AVCamE 2 /a/ though they end up obtaining hypercorrect /a:/ since they fall short of getting an unrounded back vowel. Since most AVCamE 3 speakers are persons who must have been exposed to RP or had some special speech training, somehow, their productions depend greatly on their mastery and conscious employment of RP phonological rules. Thus, AVCamE 3 is not highly uniform amongst its speakers.
As in Nigerian movies, AVCamE 3 is often used consciously and stylistically in CAMs, to portray highly educated persons, such as newscasters, successful politicians, educated pastors, international businessmen, university lecturers, diplomats and statesmen, who are perceived as out of touch with their fellow countrymen and assumed to have had some exposure to other native varieties. These roles and phonological occurrences usually feature in city-based films with opulent settings and exaggerated achievements that do not reflect the lives or experiences of the masses. While AVCamE 2 is the most intelligible within Cameroon, AVCamE 3 seems to be more intelligible internationally.
Americanized AVCamE
Americanized AVCamE (or AVCamE 4 for short) is principally a blend of AVCamE 2, AVCamE 3 and GenAm. In CAMs, this audio-lect is mostly spoken, like in NAs, by a few young actors when they play characters with a tough guy image, young and fashionable lovers, MCs or ‘been-tos’ (people who have studied or worked in foreign countries, especially Western ones); and, in a few cases, some young Cameroonian pastors of the new generation of evangelical churches. This audio-lect is increasingly used by youngsters who identify with hip hop culture and perform American-based music brands such as hip hop, rap, rock and R&B in English, or broadcast such styles on private radio stations (Ketcha, Reference Ketcha2015). Though the main characteristic features of AVCamE 4 phonology is its rhoticism exhibited by the pronunciation of post-vocalic /r/ and the alveolar tap /ɾ/, the following characteristics are often noticed as well:
1. the substitution of RP /ɒ/ with /ɑ/, /a/ or /a:/, depending on the speaker's mastery of phonetics and GenAm phonological rules;
2. 2.the use of mid-low front unrounded vowel, /ε/ instead of low front unrounded /æ/ as TRAP vowel;
3. RP /əʊ/ easily becomes /ou/;
4. RP /aɪ/ is monophthongized to /i/ in words as neither and either pronounced /niðǝr, iðǝr/, /nidǝr, idǝr/ or /nidar, idar/ instead of AVCamE 2 /naid, aida/;
5. the use of the alveolar tap, /ɾ/, instead of intervocalic /d/ and /t/; e.g. mainstream CamE /wata, wɔta/ water becomes /waɾər, waɾar/ or /wɔɾər, wɔɾar/;
6. the realization of silent post-vocalic /r/ as in /fɑ/ far rendered /fɑr/, /fa:r/ or /far/;
7. yod deletion as in student /stjudnt/ rendered in AVCamE 4 as /studεn/ or /studənt/;
8. /t/deletion after /n/ resulting in /sεnεns, senens/ instead of AVCamE 2 /sεntεns/ or RP /sεntəns/ sentence;
9. RP /w/ is rendered /hw/ as in /hwat/ instead of CamE 2 /wat, wɔt/ or RP /wɒt/ what;
10. Syllable ultimate stress is replaced with penultimate stress so that, for example, mis'take and re'search turn to ‘mistake and ‘research respectively.
Like AVCamE 3, AVCamE 4 is flooded with idiosyncrasies and, consequently, is far from uniform amongst its speakers.
Frenchified AVCamE
Frenchified AVCamE (henceforth AVCamE 5) is the audio-lect spoken by Francophone Cameroonians, and, as expected, is the most influenced by French phonology. Its real-life equivalent, CamFE, has been phonologically identified by some scholars (Safotso, Reference Safotso2012; Ketcha, Reference Ketcha2014). CamFE is spoken by Cameroonians who have French as their second language and language of instruction but have English as a subject in school (Zogang, Reference Zogang, Harrow and Mpoche2008; Mbangwana, Reference Mbangwana, Mbangwana, Mpoche and Mbuh2006). Commenting on CamFE, Simo Bobda and Mbangwana (Reference Simo Bobda and Mbangwana2004: 200) note that some of these francophone Cameroonians ‘may have a high command of English’.
In CAMs, AVCamE 5 is not very present given that most movies in English almost exclusively feature Anglophone characters. However, some French songs with code-switching/ code-mixing with English have features that match with CamFE. Though there is diversity in the speech traits of AVCamE 5 speakers, the following phonological features are fundamental in defining this audio-lect:
1. the omission of word-final plural /s/ or /z/ such that shops and runs are pronounced /ʃɔp/ and /rɔn/ (Safotso, Reference Safotso2012:2472);
2. the tendency to sway towards Americanisms, e.g. substituting /æ/ with /ε/ so that marry /mærɪ/, for example, becomes /mεri/;
3. realizing /ε/ instead of /eɪ/ as in crazy /krεzi/ and take /tεk/ instead of RP /kreɪzɪ/ and /teɪk/ or mainstream CamE /krezi/ and /tek/;
4. Rendering RP /əʊ/ as /ɔ/ or /o/, as in don't /dəʊnt/ often pronounced /dɔn/ or /don/;
5. The /kw/ cluster is realized as /k/ such that /kwεsʧən/ question can be rendered /′kεstiɔn/;
6. RP /aɪ/ is sometimes monophthongized to /a/ so that /laɪf/ life is rendered /laf/ instead of mainstream CamE /laif/. This feature is common in the most basilectal forms of CamE;
7. The tendency to always have a word-initial stressed syllable like in the case of mainstream CamE de′velop and chal′lenge, which gets to be pronounced as ′develop and ′challenge, respectively (also see Safotso, ibid).
There are not many users of AVCamE 5 in CAMs. This audio-lect is employed mostly in minor roles that depict real-life francophone Cameroonians, but is also used by francophone Cameroonians who try to sing or code-switch/code-mix with English when they sing in the French language and other Cameroonian indigenous languages.
Conclusion
This paper has identified and described the five audio-lects of CAMs, namely, Pidginized AVCamE (AVCamE 1), Mainstream AVCamE (AVCamE 2), Near-RP AVCamE (AVCamE 3, Americanized AVCamE (AVCamE 4) and the Frenchized AVCamE (AVCamE 5), which may occur naturally or artificially depending on the communicative context. The paper has argued that these audio-lects occur spontaneously when users unconsciously speak or sing, especially in fast speech, and when they seek a desired effect. However, these audio-lects occur artificially when speakers or singers deliberately employ them to suit the role played in movies or to suit the genre of music they sing. As discussed in this paper, the audio-lects tie with several real-life varieties but differ from the latter in that they contain several idiosyncrasies and are stylistically used by people who do not necessarily speak them in real-life.
RAPHAEL TEGHA KETCHA holds a PhD and an MA in phonology with a BA and a Grade II Teacher Certificate in English Modern Letters, all obtained from the University of Yaounde I, Cameroon. He currently lectures in the Department of Linguistics and African Languages and the Department of English in the Faculty of Arts, the University of Bamenda, Cameroon. His areas of interest include the phonology and sociolinguistics of the New Englishes and Cameroonian indigenous languages. Email: kechteg@yahoo.com
Appendix
List of artists and audio-visual materials
