Language choice in multilingual socio-religious settings in southwest Cameroon

Abstract

This paper examines the factors motivating language choice in church in two semi-urban, multilingual localities of Anglophone Cameroon, namely, Kumba and Mundemba. The informants were priests, catechists, choir leaders and parishioners; and the data were collected through participant observation and a questionnaire. The structural-functional model proposed by Kouega (2008) was adopted. The findings revealed amongst other facts, that the languages used in these two places were English, Pidgin English, Latin, Lingala and Lamnso' and those used in one or the other locality were Oroko and Bamileke. These languages were found to be chosen for one or more of the following reasons: the priests were proficient in them, the parishioners understood them, there were religious materials available in them, there were choirs singing in them and, lastly, there existed a collection of captivating lyrics in them. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.