SIL International Publications

Cameroon is a country of considerable linguistic diversity. Linguists have identified more than 236 languages. The government favors the idea of developing all local languages, but realizes the practical limitations of doing so. I suggest promoting language standardization on the local level as one possible solution to Cameroon’s problem of language development. By this I mean promoting a process by which one form of a language, or of what some may have deemed “closely related languages,” becomes accepted in the whole community as the norm for writing the language. Variation in the spoken forms remains, but people share a single written form. I review language planners’ suggestions and look at case studies to identify positive factors in the acceptance of a standard form. I also consider specifically what it means to promote language standardization locally in Cameroon. I conclude with a proposal for the “Mpo” language situation of eastern Cameroon.