AN ANALYSIS OF PHONOLOGICAL CONVERGENCE BETWEEN CAMEROON PIDGIN AND CAMEROON ENGLISH: A REAL-TIME INVESTIGATION (1960-2005)

ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ ФОНОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ КОНВЕРГЕНЦИИ МЕЖДУ КАМЕРУНСКИМ ПИДЖИНОМ И КАМЕРУНСКИМ АНГЛИЙСКИМ: АНАЛИЗ В РЕАЛЬНОМ ВРЕМЕНИ (1960-2005)

Нгаан Сара Персид

студент, факультет искусств и гуманитарных наук, Университет Нгаундере,

Камерун, г. Нгаундере

Ндам Нгушем Раима

студент, факультет искусств и гуманитарных наук, Университет Яунде I,

Камерун, г. Яунде

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that Cameroon Pidgin (CamP), once a linguistically distinct language, is undergoing significant phonological convergence with Cameroon English (CamE). Employing a real-time investigative methodology, this study compares empirical data on CamP pronunciation from 1960, as documented by Schneider, with new data collected in 2005 from educated speakers. The central finding is that historical phonological peculiarities of CamP—such as consonant cluster simplification via vowel epenthesis and the influence of indigenous languages—are rapidly disappearing in favor of CamE pronunciation norms. This phonological restructuring suggests that the structural gap between the two languages is shrinking, leading to the conclusion that CamP and CamE may be forming a linguistic continuum.

АННОТАЦИЯ

В данной статье утверждается, что камерунский пиджин (CamP), некогда являвшийся лингвистически обособленным языком, претерпевает значительную фонологическую конвергенцию с камерунским вариантом английского языка (CamE). Используя методологию исследования в реальном времени, данная работа сравнивает эмпирические данные о произношении в CamP за 1960 год, задокументированные Шнайдером, с новыми данными, собранными в 2005 году среди образованных носителей.

Ключевой вывод заключается в том, что исторические фонологические особенности CamP — такие как упрощение сочетаний согласных с помощью вставки гласных и влияние автохтонных языков — быстро исчезают, уступая место нормам произношения CamE. Эта фонологическая перестройка позволяет предположить, что структурный разрыв между двумя языками сокращается, что приводит к выводу о возможном формировании между CamP и CamE лингвистического континуума.

Keywords: Cameroon English; Cameroon Pidgin; continuum; depidginization; language change; phonology; real time; vowel epenthesis.

Ключевые слова: камерунский английский; камерунский пиджин; континуум; депиджинизация; языковые изменения; фонология; реальное время; вставка гласных.

I. Introduction

The status and future of Pidgin in Cameroon have long been subjects of scholarly debate, with researchers offering diverse perspectives captured in works by authors such as Alobwede d’Epie, Kouega, and Ayafor [1, 2, 4]. Previous studies have largely centered on extra-linguistic factors, such as government policy, public attitudes, and the language's functional domains. While these external pressures are significant, this paper presents a new perspective by providing empirical evidence of a critical internal linguistic threat: the profound and accelerating phonological influence of the English language on Cameroon Pidgin.

The central thesis of this article is that Cameroon Pidgin's phonological structure has been so significantly affected by Cameroon English that it is rapidly losing its historical peculiarities. This process of assimilation is reshaping CamP to such an extent that it is moving towards a continuum with English, blurring the structural lines that once clearly separated the two.

This paper will begin by providing the necessary socio-historical context to understand Cameroon's unique linguistic landscape. It will then critically assess previous, often conflicting, scholarly statements on the vitality of CamP to identify the research gap this study addresses. This analysis is grounded in a detailed comparison of phonological data from CamP in 1960 with data from 2005. Finally, the discussion will interpret these findings to evaluate the prospects for CamP in light of this structural convergence.

To appreciate the forces driving this phonological convergence, it is first necessary to examine the unique socio-historical context in which both Cameroon Pidgin and Cameroon English evolved.

II. Historical and Sociolinguistic Context

To grasp the dynamics between Cameroon Pidgin (CamP) and Cameroon English (CamE), one must first appreciate the nation's complex linguistic history. This history, shaped by centuries of interaction between European colonial powers and approximately 248 indigenous linguistic communities, created the unique crucible in which CamP developed, expanded, and now co-exists with French and English as official languages.

The origins of CamP are rooted in early trade contacts. Following the arrival of Portuguese settlers in 1472, a Portuguese-based Pidgin emerged. However, British commercial and political dominance by the 18th century led to its gradual replacement with an English-based variant. This evolution was further complicated when Germany annexed Cameroon in 1884. Although the Germans initially discouraged Pidgin, they soon recognized its utility as the only viable lingua franca for penetrating the indigenous population. This led to a policy of using Pidgin for general communication, which resulted in significant linguistic infiltration from both German and local Cameroonian languages [3, p. 403].

Today, despite competition from numerous languages, CamP functions as an indispensable lingua franca across a vast range of social and economic domains. Its contemporary uses, identified by scholars such as Mbangwana, Chumbow and Simo Bobda, and Ayafor, include [2, 3, 5]:

• Petty trade and large-scale business transactions
• Political campaigning
• Communication in courts, the civil service, and with traffic police
• Doctor-patient interaction
• Broadcasting on radio and television

However, this widespread utility is juxtaposed with persistently negative attitudes towards the language. Many Cameroonians, particularly among the educated, view it as a "debased" form of English and a cause of falling educational standards. A survey conducted by Kouega highlights the depth of this sentiment [4]:

1. 85.1% of informants reported that they do not allow their children to speak Pidgin.
2. 30% stated they were not officially allowed to speak Pidgin in their offices or schools.
3. Only 20.1% believed CamP could be adopted as the official language of instruction in the first three years of primary school.

This negative perception has fueled a desire among many speakers to "modernize" CamP by aligning its structure and pronunciation with English canons, a phenomenon that sets the stage for the intense academic debate over the language's future.

III. Assessing the Scholarly Debate and Identifying the Research Gap

The existing academic conversation about CamP's vitality has been framed as a debate focused primarily on external, extra-linguistic factors. One viewpoint argues for its decline, while the other champions its expansion. This section critically evaluates these conflicting claims to establish the specific gap in research—the internal structural transformation of the language—that this paper aims to fill.

Two opposing viewpoints dominate the discussion. First, Kouega asserts that CamP is "facing death" [4]. His claim is based on survey data revealing informants' overwhelmingly negative attitudes toward the language. While these attitudes are undeniably prevalent, this view is limited; a negative perception alone does not necessarily predicate the death of a language, especially one with such a high functional load.

In direct opposition, Ayafor argues persuasively that CamP is "gaining serious ground" [2]. Her optimism is founded on its indispensable role as a lingua franca, its dominance in the national economy, and the growing body of documentation in and about the language. From this perspective, a language that serves as the "unavoidable companion" for most Cameroonians is far from moribund.

This study addresses an unexplored dimension that lies beyond the scope of these extra-linguistic arguments. Neither Kouega nor Ayafor assesses the internal structural threat posed by the pervasive influence of English [2, 4]. Hints of this structural convergence have appeared in other works, such as Simo Bobda and Wolf's concern with the "shrinking of the structural gap" between English and CamP [12, p. 101] and Sala's prediction of a "future marriage between both idioms" [8, p. 402–8]. However, these observations have remained largely sociolinguistic statements without detailed empirical investigation.

This paper moves beyond general statements by providing a systematic, data-driven analysis of this internal transformation. The study's unique methodological approach is designed to offer empirical proof of the structural convergence that others have only hypothesized.

IV. Methodology: A Real-Time Phonological Investigation

This study employs a "real-time investigation," a methodological approach that allows for the direct comparison of language changes over a defined historical period. This method is relatively uncommon in sociolinguistics, where apparent-time studies (which compare speakers of different ages at a single point in time) are more prevalent. The real-time design offers a unique and powerful advantage by tracking linguistic evolution across a concrete time span.

The analysis is based on a direct comparison of two distinct data sets representing two different eras of Cameroon Pidgin:

Baseline Data (1960): The historical benchmark for this study is Reverend G.D. Schneider's 1960 manuscript, "Cameroons Creole Dictionary" [9]. This document provides a detailed record of the phonological characteristics, vocabulary, and structure of CamP as it was spoken in the mid-20th century.

Contemporary Data (2005): To capture the current state of the language, new data was collected from a test involving 150 educated speakers of CamP. Informants were provided with English words found in Schneider's manuscript and were asked to construct oral Pidgin sentences using them. Their pronunciations were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed to provide a snapshot of contemporary educated CamP.

Spanning a 45-year period from 1960 to 2005, this comparative framework is designed to empirically measure the nature and degree of English's phonological influence on CamP. This approach allows for a direct assessment of which historical features have been retained, which have been lost, and the extent to which CamE norms have been adopted.

The following section presents the core findings from this comparative analysis.

V. Findings: A Comparative Analysis of Cameroon Pidgin Pronunciation (1960 vs. 2005)

The comparative analysis reveals a stark contrast between the phonology of Cameroon Pidgin in 1960 and in 2005. The data from 1960 documents a language characterized by features derived from indigenous Cameroonian languages, such as vowel epenthesis to simplify consonant clusters. In contrast, the 2005 data from educated speakers shows a language that increasingly mirrors the pronunciation norms of Cameroon English (CamE).

The table below presents a sample of the comparative data, illustrating the shift in pronunciation for twelve target words.

Table 1.

Evolution of Lexical Forms in Cameroon Pidgin (CamP): 1960 vs. 2005

1. Complete Phonological Replacement

For a significant number of words, the historical 1960s variants have completely disappeared from educated usage and have been replaced by a single form that is identical to the Cameroon English pronunciation. In these cases, 100% of the 2005 informants used the CamE variant.

• brother: The 1960s variants mbelala, mblala, mbrela, and blada are now obsolete. The universal form today is brfda, which is identical to the CamE form.
• twenty: The indigenous-influenced form tu tali has been entirely replaced by twenti.
• never: The historical variants neba and noba have disappeared in favor of neva.
• story: All four 1960s variants (tfli, tfri, sitfri, stfri) have been replaced by the single CamE form stfri.
• motor: Of the four older forms (matua, motua, motu, moto), only moto, the form closest to the CamE realization, has survived.
• cross: The variants kilfs, kirfs, and klfs, which demonstrate consonant cluster simplification, are no longer in use. All speakers now use krfs.
  2. In-Progress Phonological Shift

For another set of words, the phonological shift is still in progress, with historical forms co-existing alongside newer, English-influenced variants.

• grassfield: The older forms gilafi, ŋglafi, and glafi, characterized by vowel epenthesis or phoneme substitution, have disappeared. However, a residue of indigenous influence remains in the variant ŋgrafi (25.3%), which features the pre-velar nasal cluster /ŋg/. The majority form, grafi (74.7%), is much closer to the English target.
• mouth: In 1960, several variants existed (muf, mft, mff, mfp), none of which included the English diphthong /au/. Today, the near-English form maut is used by 34.7% of speakers, co-existing with the surviving 1960s form mfp (65.3%). The emergence and significant usage of maut represents a major shift.
• hospital: The seven documented variants from 1960 have been reduced to just two: hfspito (62.7%) and hfspitel (37.3%). Both are very close to the English form and lack the distinctive phonological processes (e.g., /w/ replacing /h/) seen in older variants like watapita.

The data provides clear, empirical evidence that CamP is systematically losing its historical phonological variants and assimilating forms from CamE, laying the groundwork for a broader discussion of the implications of this convergence.

VI. Discussion: Interpretation of Findings and the CamP-CamE Continuum

The phonological changes documented in the previous section are not random but indicate a systematic restructuring of Cameroon Pidgin under the pervasive influence of English. This sustained assimilation is causing the structural demarcation between CamP and CamE to erode, suggesting the two languages are forming a linguistic continuum. The analysis reveals that several key phonological processes, which once defined the unique character of CamP, are now largely obsolete in educated speech.

These disappearing features include:

Consonant cluster simplification through vowel epenthesis, as seen in historical forms like gilafi for grassfield or kilfs for cross.

Infiltration of the pre-velar nasal /ŋ/ at the word-initial position, a feature derived from indigenous languages, which now persists only as a recessive trait.

Replacement of phonemes, such as the substitution of /r/ with /l/ or /d/ with /l/, which was common in 1960s CamP.

Use of varied epenthetic vowels, such as /a/, /u/, and /ɔ/ in the numerous 1960s variants for hospital.

The variants that are now dominant in educated CamP are often identical to those found in CamE. This convergence blurs the line between the two idioms to such an extent that it is becoming difficult to distinguish the Pidgin spoken by educated Cameroonians from basilectal varieties of Cameroon English. What was once a distinct, simplified language is now moving towards becoming a variety of CamE.

Connecting these findings back to the central hypothesis, we can predict that if this trend continues across all linguistic levels—including syntax, lexis, and morphology—CamP's traditional function as a communicative bridge between literate and non-literate speakers may be compromised. As Sala predicted, CamP and CamE appear to be "moving towards the same direction," converging on a common norm [8, p. 402–8].

This detailed analysis of phonological restructuring provides a strong empirical foundation for understanding the future trajectory of Cameroon Pidgin.

VII. Conclusion and Prospects

This paper has demonstrated through a real-time analysis spanning 1960 to 2005 that Cameroon Pidgin is undergoing a clear and substantial assimilation of English phonological forms. The evidence shows a systematic replacement of historical, indigenous-influenced features with pronunciations that align with Cameroon English norms. This internal linguistic pressure represents a more profound threat to the traditional structure of CamP than the widely discussed external factors, such as negative public attitudes.

Despite this internal restructuring and external pressures, it is premature to "announce the death of CamP." The language's functional load as a lingua franca remains immense, and many Cameroonians continue to perceive it as a neutral and linguistically distinct code, separate from English. Its vitality is not in question, but its structural identity is in flux.

The findings of this study lead to a forward-looking conclusion: Cameroon Pidgin and Cameroon English appear to be converging towards a common norm, effectively forming a continuum. This process represents not a death of the language, but a profound transformation of its structure and identity, reshaping its place within Cameroon's complex linguistic ecosystem.

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