Deceptive similarities between British English and Cameroon Pidgin English: A lexico-semantic investigation

Samuel Atechi

doi:10.31295/ijhla.v1n1.29

Authors

Samuel Atechi University of Yaounde I, TU Chemnitz

Keywords:

British English, Deceptive similarities, Cameroon Pidgin English

Abstract

It has now been clearly established that although the English Language is the highest donor of words to CPE, most of these words have undergone some changes in their meanings. This may equally imply that perhaps the meanings of some words from other sources have developed some changes. The probability of this being true is very high considering the fact that PE is the most widely used lingua franca in Cameroon and this, not withstanding, PE has not been standardized, neither has it been codified. But, one thing remains very clear that in the case of a codification, the various alterations which exist in CPE must be accommodated to a certain extend. The data so far examined are items that mostly feature in the speeches of typical users of CPE. As mentioned above, some of these users are quite conscious of these variations and as such, they sometimes (in certain milieus) avoid some of them. The result is the Anglicization of PE which of course narrows the degree of intelligibility between these users and some classes of people.

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