This highly engaging and innovative book about the Cameroonian youth language Camfranglais explores gender-based differences in exposure to, and usage of, the variety through a comparative study. It thus adopts a rare gender-based approach to the highly complex linguistic phenomenon Camfranglais, a mix of French, Verlan, English, Pidgin and Cameroonian languages. While youth language studies flourish in sociolinguistic research, this book’s explicit focus on female speakers, their linguistic attitudes and experiences of exclusion, is unique.
It investigates which factors influence language choice among young, urban speakers and especially what contributes to the overall male dominance in the usage of Camfranglais. To achieve this goal, the attitudes of both adolescents and adults as well as the channels of reproduction and distribution of the variety are examined. A special focus is laid on the processes of conscious transformation and exclusion by which male speakers try to restrict the access for female speakers. The book will appeal to academic scholars from a wide variety of fields, such as (African) linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and gender-studies, as well as the general reader who wants to learn about an exciting language contact scenario and its outcome.
