25.1034, Welcome to Sub-Saharan Africa!

[linguist at linguistlist.org]

LINGUIST List: Vol-25-1034. Mon Mar 03 2014. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 25.1034, Welcome to Sub-Saharan Africa!

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Rajiv Rao, U of Wisconsin Madison
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Anja Wanner, U of Wisconsin Madison
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Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2014 10:37:38
From: LINGUIST List [linguist at linguistlist.org]
Subject: Welcome to Sub-Saharan Africa!

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Region 3 | Sub-Saharan Africa | Fund Drive 2014

After a lengthy flight, the LINGUIST List crew is excited to touch down in
Yaoundé, Cameroon. We can’t wait to get out and stretch our legs.

>From here, we’ll be exploring Sub-Saharan Africa, home to the world’s largest
language family, the world’s largest phonemic inventory, and (probably!) the
world’s first human languages. We’re looking forward to meeting local
linguists, visiting linguistic institutions, and learning how to say “more
palm wine, please!” in a variety of languages.

We start our whirlwind tour by exploring Cameroon. With a staggering 281
living languages from 4 language families (Afroasiatic, Niger-Congo,
Nilo-Saharan, and Indo-European), Cameroon is a hotspot of linguistic
diversity. In fact, among African countries, it’s second only to its neighbor
Nigeria (with an estimated 516 living languages) in number of languages. While
Cameroon’s official languages are English and French, only a fraction of the
population are actually fluent French speakers, and even fewer are English
speakers. Other widely spoken lingua francae include Fulfulde and Cameroon
Pidgin English, and most people speak one or more local languages.

At the University of Buea, we notice some interesting signage concerning
Pidgin, and many of us are now itching to do some field research on linguistic
prestige and language policy.

We take some time to see the sights in Yaoundé, where in any given
marketplace, we overhear animated conversations in dozens of languages. The
sociolinguists among us are entranced by the rapid-fire code-switching and had
to be dragged away before they started to formulate grant proposals to study
it.

We move on and stop by the ANACLAC (National Association of Cameroonian
Language Committees) headquarters. ANACLAC is an NGO that promotes education
and literacy in Cameroonian languages and focuses especially on creating
teaching materials in children’s mother tongues. With hundreds of languages to
work with, ANACLAC’s member organizations have a challenging mission, but an
important one.

>From Yaoundé, we head northwest to the Lower Fungom region, one of the world’s
most densely-packed areas of language diversity. Seven languages (or small
language clusters) are spoken in thirteen villages in a 10 km by 10 km area.
It is astonishing to be able to walk two kilometers and find ourselves in a
town with a completely different language; we are even more astonished by, and
frankly a little jealous of, the hyperpolyglots of Lower Fungom. Many
inhabitants know a large number of their neighboring languages, as well as
Pidgin English. We even meet a man who claims to speak seventeen languages,
which isn’t unheard of in Cameroon!

After saying our goodbyes in Lower Fungom, we head down to the the University
of Buea, site of the most recent World Congress of African Linguistics and
home to a thriving linguistics department. Having browsed the linguistics
section of the library, we decide to take a hard-earned break from our madcap
journey. After watching the sun set over Mount Cameroon, we down a few local
beers, eat some tasty fried fish, and dance the night away (like most college
towns, Buea has great nightclubs). Finally, exhausted but delighted, we can
make our way back to our (t)rusty airplane.

Stay tuned for the featured linguists for this region and as always, remember
to donate to support your favorite linguistic subfield!

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LINGUIST List: Vol-25-1034	
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