Language Endangerment in Cameroon: State of Affairs and Prospect
摘要
This chapter examines the situation of language endangerment in Cameroon today against the backdrop of efforts on documentation activities on threatened languages. The ultimate goal is to present the situation of language and culture endangerments and take stock of what has been done so far, especially in a country where some areas are completely inaccessible for safe documentation activities because of the insecurity due to civil wars (the Boko Haram uprising and Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis). Unfortunately, research is paying a high price for this turmoil. In Cameroon, language endangerment takes the form of a linguicide orchestrated by the exclusive use of English and French, the two official languages of Cameroon, in all aspects of the daily life of Cameroonians, implying that children, especially those living in urban centers, no longer speak local, national languages. Despite these challenges, documentation activities are still happening in safe places, a testament to the resilience of the researchers. However, funding agencies are reluctant to support documenters conducting fieldwork in unsecured places when the application is not simply turned down despite its quality and utility. Language documenters, mainly linguists worldwide, received small, medium-sized, or major grants for language documentation, revitalization, or preservation. Because of the inaccessibility of the threatened languages, mapping Cameroon’s yet unattended endangered languages constitutes a step toward strategizing how to forge ahead despite the geographical restrictions.