THE UNIVERSITY OF YAOUNDE 1 UNIVERSITE DE YAOUNDE 1 REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON REPUBLIQUE DU CAMEROUN Peace-Work-Fatherland Paix-Travail-Patrie ***** ***** FACULTY OF ARTS, LETTERS AND FACULTE DES ARTS, LETTRES ET SOCIAL SCIENCES SCIENCES HUMAINES ***** ***** POST GRADUATE SCHOOL FOR CENTRE DE RECHERCHE ET DE ARTS, LANGUAGES AND CULTURE FORMATION DOCTORALE EN ARTS, ***** LANGUES ET CULTURES DOCTORAL RESEARCH UNIT FOR ***** ARTS, LANGUAGES AND UNITE DE RECHERCHE ET DE LITERATURE FORMATION DOCTORALE EN ARTS, ***** LANGUES ET LITTERATURE DEPARTMENT OF AFRICAN ***** LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS DEPARTEMENT DE LANGUES ***** AFRICAINES ET LINGUISTIQUE ***** MULTI LINGUALISM AND LANGUAGE IDEOLOGY: AN ETHNOGRAPHICALLY–INFORMED SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE IN THE STUDY OF LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY IN LOWER BAFUT, NORTH-WEST CAMEROON A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF A DOCTORATE DEGREE IN LINGUISTICS BY MARGARET NEH CHENEMO B.A. in English DIPES 2 in English M.A in Linguistics Supervised by ETIENNE SADEMBOUO Professor University of Yaounde 1 January 2018 DEDICATION To my beloved late father, Vincent Chenemo and mother, Rachael Lum who sacrificed their lives to raise me up to what i am today. And to my dear husband for his moral, intellectual and financial assistance throughout my postgraduate studies. Finally, I dedicate this work to all women who suffered from breast cancer and survived. I know your pain, I have been there too, but all is not lost when life continues. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The realization of this academic exercise has been made possible not only by my effort but also by contributions of other people. I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the Department of African Languages and Linguistics, The University of Yaounde 1, under whose canopy and guidance I have been able to carry out this academic exercise. I also wish to acknowledge the role played by the following libraries in furnishing me with authentic material on the study: The University of Yaounde 1, SIL, CERDOTOLA and NACALCO. My heart-felt gratitude goes to my supervisors, Pr. Etienne Sadembouo and Dr Pierpaolo Di Carlo, for their relentless devotedness in directing this work. I wish to acknowledge that, through them, I have been led into the world of scientific research. Equally, I express much appreciation to the KPAAM-CAM Project and Pr. Jeff Good of The State University of New York at Buffalo for the sponsorship of this research work. In the same vein, I feel especially indebted to my husband, Mr Numfor Crispus for moulding me in creative writing skills throughout my doctoral studies. Also, I owe much gratitude to my beloved daughter, Evangeline Numfor, and my son-in- law, Lieutenant Commander Philip Odoi-Narh, for being a motivational and inspirational force behind this exercise. Similarly, my sincere thanks go to the paramount Fon of Bafut, Abumbi II, chief Ngwandum III of Buwi, chief Ngwa Mulah of Mbakong, chief Nanoh III of Obang, chief Konegum II of Butang, Antoh Mantaa, chief Ndongyam of Otang and Chief Nfonteh Chrisantus of Agah for authorizing me to carry out research in their localities, and to all the quarter-heads and consultants for their cooperation throughout my research period. I also owe much gratitude to Donald Dou and my sister, Chenemo Relindis, members of my research team; my brother, Chenemo Francis, and Mr Che Job who were my field guides. I equally extend my sincere thanks and gratitude to my sister, Eunice Sirri, and my brothers, Christopher Chenemo and Humfred Chenemo, and Beicho Vivian for their moral support. Finally, I am grateful to my proof-readers: Dr Nguh Augustin and Mr Crispus Numfor, my editors: Mr Edwin Neba‟a and Mr Emil Ngwa, the secretaries: Mr Elmer Numfor, Mr Donald Ngwa and Miss Yvette Asoh for their indefatigable effort in producing this write- up. May all honour and praise go to God Almighty. ii ABSTRACT This work entitled “ Multilingualism and Language Ideology: an Ethnographically-Informed Sociolinguistic Perspective in the Study of Linguistic Diversity in Lower Bafut, Mezam Division, North West Region of Cameroon sets out to discuss multilingualism as a phenomenon that is both geographical and societal with regard to Lower Bafut a locality in Bafut Sub division in Mezam Division, North West region of Cameroon. The study is an attempt at exploring new dimensions, other than political and financial, in which the people of the area try to gain societal influence through linguistic acquisition. Inspiration for the work was prompted by an article entitled “Multilingualism, Solidarity and Magic” DI CARLO (2012). In the write-up, he discusses Multilingualism both as a societal and geographical phenomenon in Lower Fungom, which has a direct bearing on, and similarities with, Lower Bafut. The main objectives were first to investigate the natural dispositions and prejudices of an individual or a group of people vis –a-vis the languages they speak or languages spoken around them, and then to state the existence of the languages of Lower Bafut against the pressures of the dominant Bafut culture. The main research techniques were a sociolinguistic questionnaire, an ethnographic questionnaire the Global Group Appraisal (GGA), the Recorded Text Testing (RTT), the Lexicostatistics and the Matched-Guise Technique (MGT). All interviews were audio recorded, annotated and the MGT spoken text and wordlist transcribed. A metadata was written on all audio files. The total number of respondents were 200 (GGA-60, RTT-80, MGT-36, Lexicostatistics-24). The research was carried out in three phases. The first phase involved a sociolinguistic survey of the speech communities and the administration of the sociolinguistic questionnaire, the GGA and RTT. The second phase consisted of the administration of the ethnographic questionnaire and the MGT; and the last phase was the administration of the Lexicostatistics and the wordlist. The sociolinguistic approach focused on the evaluation of intelligibility and inter-comprehension between the eight linguistic varieties in the Bafut Fondom through the application of the Global Group Assessment by Sadembouo, E. (1980), the Lexicostatistics by SWADESH (1950) and the Recorded Text Testing (RTT) by CASAD (1974). The Matched-Guise Technique (MGT) by LAMBERT (1959) was used to measure people‟s opinions of a language. It addressed the following issues: What are the assumptions and projections about a language? Do people speak a language because the native speakers are perceived as possessing certain desirable personal and moral qualities, or it is a cultural practice to affiliate? The application of the comparative method in a multilingual context enables us to realize four types of intelligibility: mutual intelligibility, acquired intelligibility, neighbour intelligibility, and non-reciprocal intelligibility. The evaluations revealed that Mbakong, Butang, Obang, Mantaa, Buwi, Otang are not dialects of other languages, but different languages of their own. From the Matched-Guise Technique (MGT) we observed the following results: i)Both essentialism and indexicality are present in Lower Bafut. ii) The absence of prestige is revealed in the indexical use of the languages of Lower Bafut, while the presence of prestige is seen in the essential use of these languages. On the whole, inasmuch as the groundwork covered statistically through an inter-disciplinary approach is considerable, yet it provides even a greater impetus for more research work to be carried out in Lower Bafut. iii RÉSUMÉ Notre travail intitulé “ Multilinguisme, et Idéologie de Langue : une perspective sociolinguistique ethnographiquement-informée dans l’étude de la diversité des langues du Bas-Bafut dans l’arrondissement de Bafut, Département de la Mezam, Région du Nord-ouest du Cameroun, vise à prouver la véracité de l‟assertion si le multilinguisme est un phénomène géographique ou sociétal. A partir d‟une double perspective sociolinguistique ethnographiquement-informée pour diagnostiquer les idéologies qui sous-tendent la résilience de ces différentes langues dans ce milieu multilingue soumis à de nombreuses influences ; nous entendons également déterminer ce qui motive les personnes plurilingues. Notre inspiration vien de Di Carlo (2012) dans l‟article “Multilinguisme, Solidarité et Magie” dans son travail de Bas-Fungom sur le multilinguisme est un phénomène géographique ou sociétal. Les Objectifs : Ce travail vise à déterminer les dispositions naturelles d‟un individu ou d‟un groupe de personnes ainsi que les préjudices qu‟ils causent aux langues qu‟ils parlent ou qui sont parlées autour d‟eux. Prouver l‟existence et la résilience des langues du Bas-Bafut face aux pressions de la culture Bafut dominante. Les principaux instruments de recherche utilisés étaient un questionnaire sociolinguistique, un questionnaire ethnographique, des interviews, le Matched-Guise Technique (MGT) (technique des codes appariés), et une liste de mots. Toutes les interviews ont été audio enregistrées, annotées et le texte parlé MGT et la liste de mots ont été transcrits. Et des métadonnées ont été inscrites sur tous les fichiers audio. Cette recherche a été effectuée en trois phases : la première phase consistait en l‟étude sociolinguistique de la communauté linguistique et l‟administration d‟un questionnaire. La deuxième phase était l‟administration du questionnaire ethnographique et des interviews ; et il s‟agissait dans la dernière phase d‟administrer le MGT et de collecter la liste de mots. L‟administration du questionnaire