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Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2020

Multilingualism among the Mbororo of the North-West Region of Cameroon: An overview

Résumé

This study examines the languages used by the Mbororo living in Badem, Kejom Ketinguh (Babanki Tungo), in the NorthWest Region of Cameroon, to shed light on the factors responsible for their multilingualism. The NorthWest Region has been recognized as one of the country's most linguistically heterogenous regions (Eberhard, Simons, and Fennig 2019), with about a hundred languages spoken by around two million people in a total surface area of 17,812 square kilometers (UCCC 2014). Many people in this region, like in the rest of English-speaking Cameroon, are multilingual in their mother tongue, Cameroon Pidgin English (CPE), and at least one other language. The seminomadic Mbororo cattle-rearers dispersed throughout the region are highly multilingual, but no study thus far has sought to understand the conditions of their multilingualism. Observations, questionnaires, and discussions with speakers reveal that most of the Mbororo in Badem above six years of age are multilingual in at least Fulfulde, CPE, and Babanki, the indigenous language of Kejom Ketinguh. The Mbororo hold a language ideology where Fulfulde is "primary" and other languages are learned for specific purposes (integration, grazing, trade, travel, etc.); for this reason, their children are monolingual during their early years before they begin to acquire other languages.

Domaines

Linguistique
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Dates et versions

hal-03691745 , version 1 (01-09-2022)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-03691745 , version 1

Citer

Pius W. Akumbu, Esther P. Chie. Multilingualism among the Mbororo of the North-West Region of Cameroon: An overview. Pierpaolo Di Carlo; Jeff Good. African multilingualisms: Rural linguistic and cultural diversity, Lexington Books, pp.3-14, 2020, 978-1-4985-8895-9. ⟨hal-03691745⟩
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