The Sociolinguistics of Kenyang Names: Phase One

Kenyang is a language spoken in the Manyu Division in the South-West Region of the Republic of Cameroon in Central Africa. It has an increasing population of over 65.000 speakers spread out across three sub-divisions in two divisions of the South-West Region; Manyu division, in Upper and Central parts; and Koupe Muanegouba, at the west part of Nguti sub-division. The language is developing and has a written code (Latin script) but dominated by English graphemes for popular readability. Neighbouring languages result to three dialects; Upper Kenyang (“Kɛnyaŋ mfay” or Haut Kenyang); Lower Kenyang (“Kɛnyaŋ Ntɛn” or BasKenyang), Lower Kenyang is the reference dialect. Its developing status is endangered by the presence of the strong and influential spread of the dominant world language (English). The concern of this paper is on reconsidering the appellation of Kenyang proper names in view to revitalize their connotations in the language. Considering the fact that naming in Kenyang is a socio-cultural-bound phenomenon, these proper names have not only lost their morphophonetic representation, but have lost its semantic properties. The proper or personal names considered are randomly selected names of persons, and places in the central, lower and upper Banyang in Manyu Division. What, and how are these names pronounced, written, and what do they signify given these are not arbitrarily assigned names? Interviews of 10 elderly people and 6 young adults native speakers in three villages of Upper, Central, and Lower Banyang and in three towns of Southwest; Mamfe, Kumba, and Buea were conducted. An ethnogpraphic method through participant observation and vox pops provided the data that is explained using the Quan-qualitative approaches. The result shows that Kenyang proper names have been devalorised. Thus revitalisation is imperative since the language is undergoing linguistic development.