This open access edited volume brings together a team of linguists to explore how indigenized varieties of English and multilingualism interact with the holistic transformation of Africa. Contributors discuss the transformative development vision for Africa with a focus on ex-colonial languages, indigenized varieties and indigenous mother tongues. In doing so, they explore linguistic evolution and developments towards endonormativity, investigate the correlation between the Africanisation of English and transformative development, the indiginization of medical terminology in HIV/AIDS consultations, the interactions of Romance languages with local English varieties, and resonances between decolonizing multilingualisms in Singapore and Africa.
Going beyond traditional emphases on economic and industrial progress, the authors gathered here ultimately develop new analytical frameworks that align with African realities and priorities and ultimately promote the decolonisation of the African minds, which remains a work in progress.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Bloomsbury Open Collections Library Collective.
Table of Contents:
Editors’ preface
Aloysius Ngefac, Paul Zang Zang, Thorsten Brato and Jakob R. E. Leimgruber
Part One: Introduction and a transformative development vision
Introduction
Aloysius Ngefac, Paul Zang Zang, Thorsten Brato and Jakob R. E. Leimgruber
A case for a transformative vision in the development agenda of postcolonial Africa: A Focus on colonial languages, indigenized varieties, and indigenous mother tongues
Aloysius Ngefac
Part Two: African Englishes and the transformative development of postcolonial Africa
African Englishes – towards endonormativity?
Edgar W. Schneider
The Africanization of English as a significant step towards the transformative development of postcolonial Africa
Aloysius Ngefac
Exploring the evolution of African Englishes through diachronic corpora
Thorsten Brato
The Indigenization and appropriation of the English language in medical discourse in a post-colonial setting: the case of L1 features in doctor-patient HIV/AIDS consultations in some clinics in South Africa
Diana B. Njweipi-Kongor
Complex modification in a postcolonial contact language: The case of Cameroon Pidgin
Bonaventure M. Sala
The stress behaviour of words from romance languages in a postcolonial English: the case of Cameroon English
Clement Kouam
Cameroon English accent as the model for the Cameroonian classroom: Challenges, prospects and policy implications
Patrick Rodrigue Belibi Enama
The ‘Doctor’ title: Assessing its elastic usage in postcolonial Cameroon
Jude T. Berinyuy
Part Three: Multilingualism and the Transformative Development of Postcolonial Africa
Multilingualisms, identities and policies in Singapore: Lessons for the transformative development of postcolonial Africa?
Jakob R. E. Leimgruber
From independence to linguistic partnership for the development of Africa
Paul Zang Zang
Linguistic preferences in a postcolonial multilingual setting: The case of Cameroon
Wenslus Asongu
Notes on Contributors
Index
About the Author :
Aloysius Ngefac is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon. He is the founder and general coordinator of TRANG (Transformative Research and Networking Group). He has published several books related to his research interests in sociolinguistics, world Englishes, postcolonial pragmatics, creolistics, transformative research, and transformative development.
Gratien Atindogbe is Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Buea, Cameroon. He obtained his PhD from the University of Bayreuth, Germany. His research includes phonology, language planning, language acquisition and sociolinguistics.
Paul Zang Zang is Professor of French linguistics at the University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon. He has published widely on the contribution of linguistics to the emergence of nation-states in Africa. He is coordinator of the Ifacam projects (Inventory of lexical particularities of French in Cameroon) and one of the pioneers of studies on spoken French in Cameroon.
Thorsten Brato is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Regensburg and the University of Bayreuth, Germany. His research interests include structural nativization in Ghanaian English, phonological acquisition of English as a second language in Cameroon, diachronic World Englishes, and English in West Africa.
Jakob R. E. Leimgruber is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Regensburg, Germany. His research interests include world Englishes, language planning and policy, sociolinguistics, and phonetics.
Review :
This groundbreaking volume invites readers to rethink development in postcolonial Africa through fresh, interdisciplinary perspectives. By centering African voices, languages, and realities, it challenges outdated models and proposes a bold, inclusive vision for the continent’s transformation. Highlighting the power of multilingualism and Africanized Englishes, the book is essential reading for scholars, policymakers, and anyone committed to decolonizing knowledge and advancing sustainable, culturally grounded development in Africa.
[This book] offers a collection of carefully curated and innovative contributions on the complex roles of Englishes in African multilingual contexts. The editors and contributors address critical questions on the ambivalent conceptualization of English on the African continent, coming to important educational and sociolinguistic implications. Visionary and inspiring, this volume will be essential reading in African Studies and the field of World Englishes alike.
