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Intonation in Cameroon English

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Structural and Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Indigenisation

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Abstract

The focal point of this contribution is to review, elaborate on, and characterise some aspects of intonation in Cameroon English. In other words, it aims to provide, though not exhaustively, a somewhat panoramic account or overview of the intonation patterns of this variety of English. It will, first of all, revisit the intonational highlighting or marking of information in Cameroon English discussed in Ouafeu (2006): Intonational Meaning in Cameroon English Discourse: A Sociolinguistic Perspective; and Ouafeu (2007) in English World-Wide 28(2): 187-199 before, secondly, delving into some intonational phenomena in Cameroon English. Also investigated here is the use of tones at intermediate phrase boundaries as well as at intonation phrase boundaries. Examining tones at intermediate and intonation phrase boundaries is intended to help arrive at a preliminary establishment of the frequency of tone distribution in Cameroon English.

†This chapter is published posthumously in profound memory of my friend, colleague, and long time school mate, Yves, who passed away suddenly on 3 January 2011 after a heart failure. He had submitted the paper a few months before. He was a young and dedicated scholar. We will always miss him. RIP! (Eric A. Anchimbe).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Montréal School Board, Montréal, Canada

    Yves Talla Sando Ouafeu

Authors
  1. Yves Talla Sando Ouafeu
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of English Linguistics, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

    Eric A. Anchimbe

Appendices

Appendix 1: Sample Conversation. (Conversation No. 155 with Female Speaker)

Interviewer:

Good morning, my dear.

Informant:

Good morning.

Interviewer:

How are you?

Informant:

Fine, thanks.

Interviewer:

So what about your age? […]?

Informant:

I am called […] and I am twenty years old.

Interviewer:

Now tell me something about your level of education.

Informant:

I am in the University of Yaounde I, second year, bilingual studies.

Interviewer:

Ok. You said you were born and bred in Bamenda.

Informant:

Yes.

Interviewer:

What […] brought about that situation?

Informant:

… my father was transferred there, […].

Interviewer:

I see. […]. Throughout was in Bamenda, am I right?

Informant:

Yes.

Interviewer:

Which school did you go to?

Informant:

GBHS, Bamenda.

Interviewer:

Bamenda?

Informant:

Yes.

Interviewer:

I see. […], could you remember a number of things?

Informant:

Actually.

Interviewer:

All right. Now, tell me: could you remember the number of teachers you had when you were there?

Informant:

Mm, approximately seven. I had seven teachers.

Interviewer:

Yeah, in terms of the subjects they taught you…

Informant:

Yes, you wish to know…

Interviewer:

The subjects, not…

Informant:

Ok, we had Mr […].

Interviewer:

Their names are not important.[…].

Informant:

We had a Geography class, History class, Chemistry, Math, Biology, French and English.

Interviewer:

Right. And, er, […]. Who was your favourite teacher then and why did you like him best?

Informant:

I think my favourite teacher was Mr […].

Interviewer:

Who was that?

Informant:

The French teacher. He was somebody very calm and also very welcoming.

Interviewer:

So is that the reason why you decided to […]?

Informant:

Not really. […].

Interviewer:

All right. And you are doing really well. Fine. What about a book you read […]?

Informant:

[…] a tragedy. Yes. It was, er, er,

Interviewer:

What is that?

Informant:

La Croix du Sud.

Interviewer:

La Croix du Sud, Ngoue.

Informant:

Ngoue.

Interviewer:

So what is it about, La Croix du Sud?[…].

Informant:

Yes, it’s a type of a representation of those dramas from 18th century and it is talking about […] racism in that time, the main subject was, er, […].

Interviewer:

All right. […]. So what is the moral lesson that you can draw from La Croix du Sud?

Informant:

Actually (fall), something very sticking that I remember, that I still have in my head till today is that one has not to reject his origin. […].

Interviewer:

All right. […]. So what are the main seasons in Bamenda and what characterises each of those seasons?

Informant:

I think there are just two main seasons: what actually characterises them is that namely the rainy season is that there is too much rain. There are days when one cannot even step outside […].

Interviewer:

Ok. […]. … yellow shoes… which one will you choose?

Informant:

I prefer dark colours.

Interviewer:

Dark.

Informant:

Yes.

Interviewer:

It means that you […] choose black…

Informant:

Black shoes, […].

Interviewer:

So why don’t you like those colours? People like flashy things, you know.

Informant:

I know but […]. I think I prefer the dark colour (fall) because it brings out the colour of my skin.

Interviewer:

Right, when do you intend to go to your village and pay a visit to your family members?

Informant:

[…] in my plans, but I would think of it.

Interviewer:

All right. Ok, thank you very much indeed.

Informant:

Yes.

Appendix 2: Text

In tropical Africa, there are two main seasons: these two seasons vary in terms of the proximity or nearness of the region to or its distance away from the Equator. The rainy season1 usually starts from March and ends in October and witnesses the planting of crops. The dry season2 starts from October and ends in early March. A farmer relates the plight of the villagers in his area in 1993: “In 1993, there was a terrible dearth of food supply in the village due to drought. All farmers were expecting rain to begin in March as usual. In May, there was still no drop of rain3 in the village. The farmers decided to consult the oracle to find out what was wrong. The oracle told the people in the village that if no sacrifice was made, famine would wipe out the whole population because the God of their ancestors was angry with them. Then the villagers asked the oracle: ‘What type of sacrifice should we make to appease the God?’ The oracle told them: ‘There are many girls in this village. You should look for the fairest girl4 and give her to the village chief as the 15th wife’. The sacrifice was performed and within a few days a driving rain5 pelted down in the village. After the rain, the villagers thought about the gift to offer the oracle. They decided to sacrifice a goat for him. The oracle told the villagers: “This is a wonderful gift6 indeed. I thank you very much for your gratitude.”

In the temperate, there are four seasons7, namely winter, summer, spring and autumn. The types of clothes or garments people wear vary from one season to another. Winter is the coldest season and people wear thick and heavy clothes8. In summer, people wear lighter garments9 because the temperature is usually hot.

NB: The superscript in the above text represents the carrier phrases embedding the new/given information contrast.

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Ouafeu, Y. (2014). Intonation in Cameroon English. In: Anchimbe, E. (eds) Structural and Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Indigenisation. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7881-8_5

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