Article use in Cameroon English and in non‐standard British English

  This study is concerned with the various uses of articles in certain non‐standard dialects of British English and in Cameroon English (CamE). Variations in the use of definite and indefinite articles are dealt with. More specifically, the paper examines various contexts in which definite and indefinite articles are used in Cameroon: specific and non‐specific reference, institutional and non‐institutional meaning, count and noncount uses, among others. This paper is based on the observation that the influence of the British colonists, especially missionaries (many of whom were not always speakers of Standardized varieties of British English), on various CamE grammatical usages in general and article use in particular has so far been grossly under‐researched. In fact, in some contexts, a sizable portion of educated CamE speakers use the articles in much the same way as speakers of certain non‐standard dialects of the British Isles. One of the conclusions this paper arrives at is that the history of colonization and evangelization through mission schools might have played a major role in the transportation to, and transplantation into, the colonies (Cameroon in this case), of British non‐standard dialects, many features of which eventually took root.