Maurice Tadadjeu

Last updated

Maurice Tadadjeu (1950-2012 in Cameroon) was a Vice-President of the African Union's Economic, Social and Cultural Council of Central Africa.

Contents

He was a co-creator of the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages in the late 1970s. [1]

In 1996 he became Founding Director of NACALCO Center for Applied Linguistics in Yaoundé, Cameroon. From 1993 to 1997 Prof. Tadadjeu was Head of the Department of African Languages and Linguistics at the University of Yaoundé. He was also Professor of Linguistics at the University of Yaoundé. [2]

Prof. Tadadjeu was a founding member of the African Academy of Languages. [3]

He died on December 30, 2012. [4]

Selected works

Achievements

In 2005 Prof. Tadadjeu was awarded the Linguapax Prize. [5]

Related Research Articles

Mbum Proper is a Adamawa–Ubangi language of Central Africa. It is spoken by about 50,000 people in Cameroon and the Central African Republic.

Basaa, or Mbene, is a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon by the Basaa people. It is spoken by about 300,000 people in the Centre and Littoral regions.

Dr. Samuel Efoua Mbozo’o Is a politician from Cameroon who has served as the Secretary General of the Cameroon National Assembly (1988–1992)and as a Member of Cameroon Parliament (1997–2002) He is an honorary member of Global Unification International.

Zumaya is an extinct Chadic language once spoken in Cameroon. It is known only from a few words recorded from the last speaker. It may have been divergent within the Masa branch of Chadic.

Bulu is a Bantu language of the Bulu people of Cameroon. The language had 174,000 native speakers in 1982, with some 800,000 second language speakers in 1991. Its dialects include Bene, Yelinda, Yembana, Yengono, and Zaman. Bulu was formerly used by colonial and missionary groups as a lingua franca in the region for commercial, educational, and religious purposes, though it is today becoming less frequent in those spheres.

Ewondo or Kolo is the language of the Ewondo people of Cameroon. The language had 577,700 native speakers in 1982. Ewondo is a trade language. Dialects include Badjia (Bakjo), Bafeuk, Bamvele, Bane, Beti, Enoah, Evouzok, Fong, Mbida-Bani, Mvete, Mvog-Niengue, Omvang, Yabekolo (Yebekolo), Yabeka, and Yabekanga. Ewondo speakers live primarily in Cameroon's Centre Region and the northern part of the Océan division in the South Region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Cameroon</span>

Cameroon is home to at least 250 languages. However, some accounts report around 600 languages. These include 55 Afro-Asiatic languages, two Nilo-Saharan languages, four Ubangian languages, and 169 Niger–Congo languages. This latter group comprises one Senegambian language (Fulfulde), 28 Adamawa languages, and 142 Benue–Congo languages . French and English are official languages, a heritage of Cameroon's colonial past as a colony of both France and the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1961. Eight out of the ten regions of Cameroon are primarily francophone, representing 83% of the country's population, and two are anglophone, representing 17%. The anglophone proportion of the country is in constant regression, having decreased from 21% in 1976 to 20% in 1987 and to 17% in 2005, and is estimated at 16% in 2015.

Kako is a Bantu language spoken mainly in Cameroon, with some speakers in the Central African Republic and the Republic of the Congo. The main population centres of Kako speakers are Batouri and Ndélélé in the East Region of Cameroon.

Mpadə is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in northern Cameroon and southwestern Chad. Dialects are Bodo, Digam, Mpade (Makari), Shoe (Shewe), and Woulki.

Baldemu, or Mbazlam, is a nearly extinct Afro-Asiatic language spoken in northern Cameroon. Baldamu is spoken in Bogo commune, Diamaré department, Far North Region by only 5 speakers as of 2012. Speakers have been shifting to Fulfulde.

Mbuko is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in the canton of Doulek, Méri subdivision, department of Diamaré, and also in parts of the canton of Serawa, Tokombéré subdivision, department of Mayo-Sava, in the Far North Region of Cameroon.

Mofu-Gudur, or South Mofu, is a Chadic language spoken in northern Cameroon. Dialects are Dimeo, Gudur, Massagal, Mokong, Njeleng, and Zidim.

Vame or Pelasla is an Afroasiatic language spoken in northern Cameroon.

Gude is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Nigeria in Adamawa State in Mubi LGA and in Borno State in Askira-Uba LGA. It is also spoken in neighboring Cameroon. Different dialects are spoken in Nigeria and Cameroon.

The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Cameroonian languages. Consonant and vowel letters are not to contain diacritics, though ⟨ẅ⟩ is a temporary exception. The alphabet is not used sufficiently for the one unique letter, a bilabial trill, to have been added to Unicode.

Baka is a dialect cluster of Ubangian languages spoken by the Baka Pygmies of Cameroon and Gabon. The people are ethnically close to the Aka, the two together called the Mbenga (Bambenga), but the languages are not related, apart from some vocabulary dealing with the forest economy, which suggests the Aka may have shifted to Bantu, probably 15000 people have shifted.

Yɛmba or Yemba, also Yémba or Bamiléké Dschang, is a major Bamileke language of Cameroon. It was spoken by 300,000 or so people in the West Region in 1992.

Mpiemo (Bimu) is a Bantu language of the Central African Republic. The Atlas linguistique du Cameroun gives the name Mpo.

Peter Wuteh Vakunta is an author, literary theorist, poet, and professor, noted for his work in and on hybrid languages, including Camfranglais, Cameroonian Creole, linguistic indigenization, and multilingual educational systems. He is originally from Bamunka-Ndop, in the Northwest Region of the Republic of Cameroon, and currently teaches French language and literature and serves as Chair of the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Indianapolis.

Gervais Mendo Ze was a Cameroonian linguist, academic, author, and government official. He directed Cameroon Radio Television from 1988 to 2005.

References

  1. Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979. Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounaises. Departement des Langues Africaines et Linguistique, Université de Yaoundé, Cameroun.
  2. "Scholars Divided Over A United States Of Africa". Up Station Mountain Club. Retrieved 2021-09-07.
  3. "Obituary: Professor Maurice Tadadjeu, PanAfricanist and One of Cameroon’s Finest Linguists, Dies," Cameroon Web News, 30 December 2012 (accessed 22 February 2013)
  4. "CAMEROON WEB NEWS | Professor Maurice Tadadjeu, PanAfricanist and One of Cameroon's Finest Linguists, Dies". cwn.shreejitechs.com. Archived from the original on 30 June 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  5. Linguapax website Archived 2007-12-23 at the Wayback Machine