Overview

Based on current data, the book provides a detailed sociolinguistic and structural description of Cameroon Creole English, with a special focus on aspects that are often used in creolistic literature as putative defining features of bona fide prototypical creoles. It is the first comprehensive research monograph on the language that describes and situates its sociolinguistic and structural aspects within the context of current creolistic debate and answers the following unanswered questions: How is the evolutionary trajectory of the language and which theory of pidgins and creoles genesis best accounts for its origin and development? What is its current sociolinguistic status? Is the language a pidgin or a creole? What is the typological distance between the language and its main lexifier? What is its relationship with the other West African contact languages and other creole languages? In spite of the controversy that characterizes the field of creolistics regarding the defining characteristics of pidgins and creoles, the book suggests, for instance, that, if the different routes to creolization are recognized, it will be much easier to come up with putative characteristics that define the developmental status of any contact language, as is the case with Cameroon Creole English.

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9781443897228

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Reviews

'Ngefac's volume substantially elevates the creolistic community's understanding about CCE's history and present status, achieving the stated goal of making this pidgincreole accessible for comparative study. [...] This book is ... deeply authoritative and informative, and it is highly recommended to students and scholars of creolistics for its wealth of information and rare sure-handed insider evaluations.'David Douglas RobertsonUniversity of VictoriaLINGUIST List 28.3226'It is my fervent wish and hope that this well-structured, well-researched, well-focused and well-argued investigation will contribute to reconcile and clarify most of the views that have been severally expressed about pidgins and creoles.'Paul N. MbangwanaProfessor Emeritus, University of Yaounde 1'It is clear from every page of this book that Aloysius Ngefac is a scholar who has used, studied and loved Cameroon Creole English. He tells the reader about its origins and evolution, set against a backdrop of informed discussions of pidgins and creoles in general and African varieties in particular. We learn about Cameroon Creole English sound patterns, its structure, its lexical inventiveness, its variety and its likely codification and, throughout the lucid descriptions, respect is paid to other workers in the field and to the Cameroonians who have made the language what it is.'Loreto ToddProfessor of Linguistics, University of Ulster

This book has come at a very opportune moment to shed more light on these important concepts of pidgins and creoles which have unfortunately stirred a lot of misunderstanding and palaver among all types of stakeholders: the government, educational institutions, parents and researchers. This investigation urges these stakeholders to rethink this vital linguistic medium and its variegated potentials which promise to be enlightening and enriching. It is my fervent wish and hope that this well-structured, well-researched, well-focused and well-argued investigation will contribute to reconcile and clarify most of the views that have been severally expressed about pidgins and creoles. -Paul N. Mbangwana, Professor Emeritus, University of Yaounde 1 It is clear from every page of this book that Aloysius Ngefac is a scholar who has used, studied and loved Cameroon Creole English. He tells the reader about its origins and evolution, set against a backdrop of informed discussions of pidgins and creoles in general and African varieties in particular. We learn about Cameroon Creole English's sound patterns, its structure, its lexical inventiveness, its variety and its likely codification, and, throughout the lucid descriptions, respect is paid to other workers in the field and to the Cameroonians who have made the language what it is. -Loreto Todd, Professor of Linguistics, University of Ulster

Author Information

Aloysius Ngefac is Associate Professor of English and Sociolinguistics at the Higher Teacher Training College Yaounde of the University of Yaounde 1, where he earned his PhD. He is the recipient of a number of awards and scholarships, including Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship, and DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). He is the author of Social Differentiation in Cameroon English (Peter Lang, New York, 2008) and many scholarly articles.

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