Domestication of English in Africa via proverbial expressions: A lexico-semantic study of transliteration in the English of Akɔɔse native speakers in Cameroon

Abstract

In most countries where English functions as a second language, it is enriched by a variety of cultural and linguistic colouration. This is the case of Cameroon wherein remnants of the languages surrounding the acquisition of the English language are recurrent in the English that is spoken and written. This paper, therefore, explores the English of native speakers of Akɔɔse (an indigenous language spoken by a people known as Bakossi[1]) for proverbial expressions that denote their cultural and sociolinguistic world view. Findings reveal that this group of people provide local values, ethics, ideas, and traditions into the English language, in the process of imparting a moral lesson, expressing some truth ascertained by experience and observation, and giving a piece of advice or a warning on issues of life. As such, this paper argues that Akɔɔse native speakers transpose the Akɔɔse proverbs into the English language in order to make the language a chest with treasure which expresses their sociolinguistic world view.

[1] Akɔɔsә is a coastal Bantu language (with the code 652) of the Mbo Cluster Group (Gutherie, 1967) spoken by a people known as Bakossi.  This people are located in the Kupe-Muanenguba Division of the South West Region of the Republic of Cameroon..