150. Speaking Babanki & Cameroon Pidgin

Speaking Tongues

Hello Language Lovers! Welcome back to a new episode of Speaking Tongues. This week, we’ve reached episode 150 and I’m so proud to share this conversation about Babanki & Cameroon Pidgin with Pius Akumbu. Pius is a Cameroonian linguist working at LLACAN, a laboratory of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) that specializes in the study of the languages and cultures of Africa. He is also one of the language revitalization mentors of the Endangered Languages Project (ELP).

In this conversation we discuss:

🇨🇲 Pius’s first language, Babanki, also known as Kejom, and how it is used beside Cameroon Pidgin, English,

🇨🇲 The linguistic landscape of Cameroon, including the bilingual nature of the country with English and French-speaking regions.

🇨🇲 The structure and characteristics of Babanki, including its noun class system and tonal nature.

🇨🇲 The FASCINATING cultural and linguistic diversity within the Grassfields region of Cameroon

🇨🇲 The impact of colonialism on Cameroonian languages and the challenges faced in language preservation and revitalization.

🇨🇲 The role of Cameroon Pidgin as a language of wider communication and its spread across different regions.

🇨🇲 Efforts to promote and preserve Babanki, including community initiatives and the use of technology and social media.

🇨🇲 Cultural highlights of Cameroon, including traditional foods, music, and notable figures like MMA champion Francis Ngannou.

🇨🇲 We also learn about the importance of language and cultural identity, and Pius shares some fascinating insights into the unique aspects of Babanki, including honorific language used to address the chief of the Babanki kingdom.

Thank you to Pius for sharing your knowledge, your culture, and your languages with us. If you enjoy this episode of Speaking Tongues, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review the Speaking Tongues Podcast on Apple Podcasts and like and subscribe on YouTube so that other language lovers like ourselves can find the show! If you’ve been a long-time listener of the show or a recent listener, you can now pledge ongoing support for the show on Buy Me a Coffee dot com or on Patreon dot com. And as you know, I wrote a book! My food ‘zine of international language and cuisine, Taste Buds Vol 1. is available now for purchase! Check social media for the sneak peek inside of the book and make sure you purchase for yourself and your friends! Links to all platforms are below!

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