It facilitates social intercourse among people who originate from different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. It sustains a world view, culture and way of life.
It has relatively high prestige, and is preferred informally among Africans of different ethnic groups, ranking just below French and English as a vehicle for mobility from rural villages into modern urban life.
Kamtok has various forms, reflecting the age, education, regional provenance, mother tongue, and linguistic proficiency of its users. It is a blend of English, French and indigenous languages. It is an English-based creole language spoken by about 5% of Cameroonians (as native speakers of the language), while an estimated 50% of the population speaks it in some form. Its speakers usually call it pidgin or country talk and linguists refer to it as Cameroon(ian) Pidgin (English), but recently the media has begun to use Kamtok, to stress that it is local and useful, despite having no official status. Cameroonian Pidgin English, discussed in this paper, is a linguistic entity of Cameroon.
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