Language use and linguistic variation in multilingual speaker groups in Ngaoundéré (North-Cameroon) (II)

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Klaus Beyer
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages ; African, American and Oceania Studies
• Term: since 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 329897085

The focus of the second phase of the project on linguistic dynamics in multilingual contact situations in the capital of the Cameroonian Adamawa region, Ngaoundéré, lies on the documentation and grammatical description of variation in the two major languages of the city, Adamawa-Fulfulde and Ngaoundéré-Mbum. Both languages are less- or even non-standardized and the ubiquitous language-contact situations are an everyday experience of speakers with highly different linguistic, socio cultural and economic biographies. On the example of the professional group of motorcycle taxi drivers the linguistic interactions between such speakers will be tracked with contemporary sociolinguistic methodology mostly relying on natural speech data. The usage-based approach sets out to describe the dynamics of language change processes through mutual linguistic interference and to picture the propagation of innovations and/or retention of contact-induced variants through social networks. The two main objectives of the research are a) a detailed description of the intertwined processes that lead from speakers' interaction to linguistic variation and language change and b) the description of the speech group’s specific multilingual reality in terms of diasystematic construction grammar.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Cameroon
• Cooperation Partner: Professorin Dr. Léonie Métangmo-Tatou