Code Choice in Cameroon Creative Writing in English: A Case Study of The Immortal Seed by Tah Protus

Abstract

This paper is a sociolinguistic study which examined code choice in Cameroon creative writing in English, notably The Immortal Seed by Tah Protus. It also investigated on the paralinguistic functions of language variation in the novel and the writers‟ concerns emerging from the multilingual writing techniques employed. The data collected were mainly corpus-based characterized by assorted language varieties singled out from the book the researcher perused. The study drew inspiration from Sumarsono (2009) and Myers-Scotton (1993, 1998) theoretical frameworks. The findings revealed that the writer, in the narrative process, intertwined English with miscellaneous linguistic codes to negotiate sundry social relationships and to hook readers. The narrator and characters alternated between codes: they mixed English with indigenous languages (Bafut language), lingua francas (pidgin-English, Fulfulde) and foreign languages (French, Spanish) to achieve functions such as sarcastic irony, humour, equivalence, loyalty, ethnicity, solidarity, explanation, clarity, imitation, snobbism, class and multilingual competence. Concerns underlying the writer‟s multilingual writing strategies include the language question in British Cameroon State institutions, language stereotypes and stigmatisation, the promotion of multilingual literacy, pacific coexistence, living together and social integration.