Cameroon

Varieties of English Around the World #T1

by Loreto Todd

This volume on the Cameroonian English contains two main sections. The first section is devoted to the history of language contact in Cameroon (contact with Islam and contact with Europeans); the development of English in Cameroon; the teaching of English in Cameroon in various stages of its history; and on idiosyncratic aspects of this variety of English. The second section is the text part of the volume consisting of sixteen printed texts (mostly modern but also five extracts of historical significance), eleven written texts (essays on pedagogical subjects, personal letters, a folk history, an academic paper, and literary extracts) and 13 oral texts (interviews, radio). These texts have been selected because of their linguistic interest and because of the information they provide on Cameroonian life and culture.

179 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Loreto Todd is Professor of English at the University of Ulster, Coleraine. Born in Northern Ireland, she attended Queen's University, Belfast where her classmates included poet Seamus Heaney and writer Seamus Deane. She worked in England for many years, and was director of the programme of World English Research at the University of Leeds, England.

She has travelled extensively and lectured in Africa, America (North and South), Asia (India and Singapore), Australia (Brisbane and Sydney), the Caribbean and the Pacific (Hawaii, Solomans, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea). She has written 30 books, over 80 articles and chapters in books; over 100 reviews, short papers and has edited several journals.

During her travels, she has amassed a collection of texts, as well as audio and audio-visual recordings, from around the world. These total in excess of 12 million words and include: Conversations; Descriptions of language choice and use; Oral and written literature. She is currently working on this archive material and translating the Pidgin and Creole texts.