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Cameroon Pidgin English: Kamtok

Tense

Lexicon

  • Present tense uses the base verb form:
  • Wi bai bif. = We buy beef.

  • Simple past uses “bi” to show tense
  • Wi bi bai bif. = We bought beef.

  • Future tense uses “go” to show the tense
  • We go bai bif. = We will buy beef.

Video Links

  • Shortening occurs to create some Kamtok out of English and French words:
  • dentiti = identity card
  • kos = customer
  • silota = slaughter house

Lexicon

  • A process called inversion also occurs in Kamtok. Inversion flips the order of compound words, like the following:
  • Kot-shot = short-cut
  • Tron-het = head-strong

Grammar

  • 3 Different Tenses-- Past, Present, Future

References

Phonetics and Phonology

  • Lexical verbs (non-auxiliary verbs) do not inflect to indicate the person which means:
  • I/you/he/she/we all carry the same form of the verb
  • A wikop fo 8 oklock = I wake up at 8 o'clock.
  • Yi wikop fo 8 oklock = He wakes up

at 8 o’clock.

Consonants

Kouega, Jean-Paul. A Dictionary of Cameroon

Pidgin English Usage: Pronunciation, Grammar and Vocabulary. MuÌnchen: Lincom Europa, 2008. Print.

Vowels

Basic Vowels

Phonological Processes of Consonants

Consonant Devoicing

Final consonants, such as /d, g, v, z/ are devoiced to /t, k, f, s/ when followed by a word that begins with a voiceless consonant. Eg. /bat tiŋ/ 'bad thing'

Cluster Simplification

Can happen at the beginning, middle, or end of a word. Deletion of one or more consonants in words adopted from English. Eg. /graun/ instead of /graund/ 'ground'

Resurfacing of θ and ð

/θ/ and /ð/ are replaced by /t/ and /d/

Vowel Combinations

1.

2.

Four recent usages that are similar to dipthongs:

Overview

Echu, George. "Influence of Cameroon Pidgin English on the Linguistic and Cultural Development of the French Language." IULC Working Papers 3 (2003): 1-5. Indiana University. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.

Lexicon

3. Mesthrie, Rajend. Africa, South and Southeast Asia. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter, 2008. 138-48. Print.

  • Cameroon Pidgin English is also known as Kamtok
  • It is the lingua franca of the country

  • It is actually a creole-- it became a fully-developed

pidgin passed on through the generations

  • In fact, it is often learned bilingually

by children at an early age

  • Kamtok vocabulary comes from Cameroonian English & French (the two official languages of Cameroon), and from Cameroon indigenous languages.

Lexicon

History and Development

Lexicon

  • Kamtok uses reduplication to emphasize things:
  • fain = pretty
  • fain-fain = very pretty

  • brok = to break
  • brok-brok = to break into tiny pieces

  • kwik = fast
  • kwik-kwik= very fast

  • Usage similar to intensifiers such as “very”,

“super”, “extremely”, or “really”

  • Originated during the slave trade (14th-18th century).
  • Amalgamation of English, French, and African languages.
  • Became widespread during German ownership of the colony, where it was used on large plantations.
  • Diversified after British and French Cameroon combined.
  • There are several recognized varieties.
  • Grassland variety, of the North-West province.
  • Bororo variety, spoken by the Bororo people.
  • Coastal variety, of the South-West province.
  • Francophone variety, spoken by Francophones.
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