Languages of Cameroon

Cameroon is home to over 230 national languages.

These are 55 Afro-Asian languages, two Nilo-Saharan languages ​​and 173 Niger - Congo languages ​​. The Niger - Congo languages ​​are divided into a West Atlantic language, Adamawa - Ubangi 32 languages ​​and 142 Benue - Congo languages ​​. Within the Benue - Congo languages ​​, in turn, are 130 Bantu languages ​​( about 40 % of the total population). The main languages ​​of the north, the West Atlantic language Fulfulde, the sahara African language Kanuri, the Kotoko languages ​​and Schuwa, in the south mainly Bantu languages ​​( Duala, Basaa, Kpe - Mboko, Malimba - Yasa, Makaa, Njem, Ndsimu, Ngoumba, Kounabémbé and Beti -Fang various dialects, including Ewondo, Bulu and Fang). About 20 % speak Sudanese and Az- sands languages. The rest of the population, in the grasslands of western Cameroon, speaks the languages ​​of Semibantu such as Ngemba.

Official languages

French and English are the only official language of the country, a legacy of the history of Cameroon as a mandate of both the United Kingdom and France from 1916 until 1960. From 1884 to 1916 Cameroon was a German colony, the number of German-speaking by the English and French rule has been steadily reduced from 1916: today it is less than 25,000 speakers of German. Native speakers of German, there are hardly any. German, however, has taught as a foreign language a high priority and is at almost every high school. Situated on the border with Equatorial Guinea also Spanish is spoken more often.

The government of the new nation sought Cameroon since independence to bilingualism: A small proportion of the population speaks both English and French, but many still speak only their African mother tongue. We have established several bilingual schools in order to force the teaching of both languages ​​stronger. Cameroon is both a member of the Francophonie, and the Commonwealth of Nations.

Traffic languages

Most of the inhabitants of the former British mandate Südkameruns, so Northwest and Southwest provinces speak Cameroonian Pidgin English as the lingua franca. Fulfulde has the same function in the north and the Bantu language Ewondo has influence in many areas of the center, the south and the eastern provinces. Camfranglais (or Frananglais ) is a relatively new kind of pidgin English, which has developed into the major cities and other contexts where Anglophone and Francophone meet and interact. Well-known singers have used this hybrid language and helped to their popularity. European influences are detectable in different languages. "Break " means, for example, in Ngemba bread, Fara in Ewondo the pastor, " Karl" in Bassa the French name Charles.

Situation of the national languages

There is hardly any literature, radio broadcasts or television programs in the local Cameroonian languages. Nevertheless, a large number of Cameroonian languages ​​fonts, alphabets or other writing systems - many developed by the group SIL International, which have the Bible, Christian hymns and other materials translated into the indigenous languages. The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages ​​was developed in the 1970s as an ortho graphical system for all Cameroonian languages.

Sultan Ibrahim Njoya developed the Bamun font for Bamun language.

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