The social stratification of English in Cameroon  

Oleh:

Ngefac, Aloysius

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: World Englishes (Full Text) vol. 27 no. 3/4 (2008), page 407–418.
Fulltext: WE_27-03&04_2008_NGEFAC.pdf (97.28KB)

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Unlike Labov’s (1966) and Ngefac’s (2006) investigations, which were concerned with the correlation between a Western model of English and social stratification, this study investigates the correlation between mainstream Cameroon English and a model of social structure that is significantly different from the social class structure upon which Labov’s (1966) study was based. The investigation reveals that stigmatized deviations from mainstream Cameroon English that are rooted in substrate effects were more dominant in the speech of lower-status speakers than in the speech of their counterparts with a higher social status, as postulated in Labov’s study. But stigmatized deviations from mainstream Cameroon English that result from the speakers’ unsuccessful attempt to approximate a Western model of English were, on the contrary, more dominant in the speech of higher-status speakers than in the speech of their counterparts, and this rather contradicts the pattern reported in the Western world. These findings imply that in Cameroon the type of correlation pattern between English linguistic variables and social hierarchy depends on the variety of English upon which informants are evaluated, the variety of English informants strive to approximate, and the model of social structure that is correlated with the speakers’ English linguistic output.

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