Show simple item record

Exploring Yaoundé as a Linguistically Divided Capital City of an English and French Bilingual African Nation

dc.contributor.authorDassé, Théodore
dc.date.accessioned2025-12-11T15:33:40Z
dc.date.available2025-12-11T15:33:40Z
dc.date.issued2025-11-27
dc.identifier.issn2083-2931
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11089/56905
dc.description.abstractThis article examines the place of translation in the public space in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon, an African nation with a threefold (German, English, and French) colonial heritage. The collected quantitative and qualitative data consisted of public space literature, i.e. outdoor advertising in the streets and other urban spaces where francophone and anglophone communities interact. Data analysis combined with the theory of translationality proposed by Sherry Simon in 2014 and 2021 revealed that Yaoundé is not a dynamic translation zone, because the translational activity in this urban space is minimal. Instead, Yaoundé is almost distinctively monolingual in French and English, and quasi-untranslated. This quasi-absence of translation-mediated contact between the communities makes Yaoundé a linguistically divided city, where French-speaking and English-speaking citizens live in juxtaposition and co-exist in relative isolation. This adversely impacts the traffic of information and opportunities across linguistic borders.en
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherWydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiegopl
dc.relation.ispartofseriesText Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture;15en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
dc.subjecttranslationen
dc.subjecttranslationalityen
dc.subjectpublic space literatureen
dc.subjectYaoundéen
dc.subjectCameroonen
dc.titleExploring Yaoundé as a Linguistically Divided Capital City of an English and French Bilingual African Nationen
dc.typeArticle
dc.page.number53-72
dc.contributor.authorAffiliationUniversity of Yaoundé Ien
dc.identifier.eissn2084-574X
dc.referencesAndroutsopoulos, Jannis. “English on Top: Discourse Functions of English Resources in the German Mediascape.” Sociolinguistic Studies, vol. 6, no 2, 2012, pp. 209–38. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v6i2.209en
dc.referencesBlackwood, Robert, Stefania Tufi, and Will Amos, editors. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Linguistic Landscapes. Bloomsbury, 2024. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350272545en
dc.referencesBlumczynski, Piotr. Experiencing Translationality: Material and Metaphorical Journeys. Routledge, 2023. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003382201en
dc.referencesCariola, Laura Annamaria. Review of Cities in Translation, by Sherry Simon. Critical Discourse Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, 2014, pp. 118–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2014.938852en
dc.referencesCronin, Michael, and Sherry Simon. “Introduction: The City as Translation Zone.” Translation Studies, vol. 7, no 2, 2014, pp. 119–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2014.897641en
dc.referencesDassé, Théodore. “Official Language Bilingualism, Patriotism, and National Unity in Cameroon.” Le bilinguisme officiel au Cameroun, évolution actuelle et dynamique/Official Language Bilingualism in Cameroon: Current Insights and Dynamics, edited by George Echu, L’Harmattan, 2023, pp. 123–50.en
dc.referencesDemirkol Ertürk, Şule, and Saliha Paker. “Beyoğlu/Pera as a Translating Site in Istanbul.” Translation Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 2014, pp. 170–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2013.874538en
dc.referencesDjoum Nkwescheu, Angéline. “Les écrits urbains colinguistiques spontanés camerounais, révélateurs de la trajectoire multisituée des relations exogroupales des quartiers universitaires de Yaoundé I.” Le bilinguisme official au Cameroun, évolution actuelle et dynamique/Official Language Bilingualism in Cameroon: Current Insights and Dynamics, edited by George Echu, L’Harmattan, 2023, pp. 344–74.en
dc.referencesEberhard, David, Gary Simons, and Charles Fennig. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Twenty-Fifth Edition. SIL International, 2022.en
dc.referencesEchu, George. “The Language Question in Cameroon.” Linguistik online, vol. 18, no. 1, 2004, pp. 19–33. https://doi.org/10.13092/lo.18.765en
dc.referencesEchu, George, and Nsai Terence Kiwoh. “Evolution of the Public Linguistic Landscape in Cameroon Fifty Years after Reunification.” Cinquante ans de bilinguisme officiel au Cameroun (1691–2011), edited by George Echu and Augustin Emmanuel Ebongue, L’Harmattan, 2012, pp. 21–41.en
dc.referencesEloundou Eloundou, Venant. “Scripturalité automobile à Yaoundé et altérité sociale.” Le français en Afrique, no. 30, 2016, pp. 41–56.en
dc.referencesFonlon, Bernard. “A Case for Early Bilingualism.” ABBIA, no 4, 1963, pp. 56–94.en
dc.referencesKasanga, Luanga Adrien. “Streetwise English and French Advertising in Multilingual DR Congo: Symbolism, Modernity, and Cosmopolitan Identity.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language, vol. 206, 2010, pp. 181–205. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.2010.053en
dc.referencesKiwoh, Nsai Terence. “Official Language Bilingualism and Language Management in Cameroon.” 2010. University of Yaoundé I, unpublished PhD dissertation.en
dc.referencesKoskinen, Kaisa. “Tampere as a Translation Space.” Translation Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 2014, pp. 186–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2013.873876en
dc.referencesKouega, Jean-Paul. “Camfranglais: A Novel Slang in Cameroon Schools.” English Today, vol. 19, no. 2, 2003, pp. 23–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078403002050en
dc.referencesLandry, Rodrigue, and Richard Bourhis. “Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality: An Empirical Study.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology, vol. 16, no. 1, 1997, pp. 23–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X970161002en
dc.referencesMarais, Kobus, editor. Translation beyond Translation Studies. Bloomsbury, 2022. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350192140en
dc.referencesMeylaerts, Reine, and Maud Gonne. “Transferring the City—Transgressing Borders: Cultural Mediators in Antwerp (1850–1930).” Translation Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 2014, pp. 133–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2013.869184en
dc.referencesNoah Mbede, Daniel Anicet. Écrits dans la ville: l’imaginaire politique des Camerounais à travers les messages inscrits sur les taxis et les motos-taxi. Editions CLE, 2010.en
dc.referencesPütz, Martin. “Exploring the Linguistic Landscape of Cameroon: Reflections on Language Policy and Ideology.” Russian Journal of Linguistics, vol. 24, no. 2, 2020, pp. 294–324. https://doi.org/10.22363/2687-0088-2020-24-2-294-324en
dc.referencesRobinson, Douglas. Translationality: Essays in the Translational Medical Humanities. Routledge, 2017. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315191034en
dc.referencesSimon, Sherry. Cities in Translation: Intersections of Language and Memory. Routledge, 2012.en
dc.referencesSimon, Sherry. “The Translational City.” The Routledge Handbook of Translation and the City, edited by Tong King Lee, Routledge, 2021, pp. 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429436468-3en
dc.referencesSimon, Sherry. Translating Montreal: Episodes in the Life of a Divided City. McGill-Queen’s UP, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780773577022en
dc.referencesSywenky, Irene. “(Re)Constructing the Urban Palimpsest of Lemberg/Lwów/Lviv: A Case Study in the Politics of Cultural Translation in East Central Europe.” Translation Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 2014, pp. 152–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2014.882793en
dc.referencesValler, Matt. “Translationality: A Transformational Concept for Translation Studies?” Translation and Interpreting Studies, vol. 19, no. 2, 2024, pp. 323–33. https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.00057.valen
dc.referencesVan Mensel, Luk, Mieke Vandenbroucke, and Robert Blackwood. “Linguistic Landscapes.” The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society, edited by Ofelia García, Nelson Flores, and Massimiliano Spotti, Oxford UP, 1996, pp. 423–49.en
dc.contributor.authorEmailtheodore.dasse@univ-yaounde1.cm
dc.identifier.doi10.18778/2083-2931.15.03


Files in this item

Thumbnail
Name:
53-72_Dasse.pdf
Size:
717.9Kb
Format:
PDF
View/Open

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0