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Sociolinguistic
and Structural Aspects
of Cameroon Creole
English
Sociolinguistic
and Structural Aspects
of Cameroon Creole
English
By

Aloysius Ngefac
Sociolinguistic and Structural Aspects of Cameroon Creole English

By Aloysius Ngefac

This book first published 2016

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2016 by Aloysius Ngefac

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-4438-9722-1

ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-9722-8
 To
Edgar W. Schneider
University of Regensburg

For many years of persistent support prior to my Alexander von Humboldt

(AvH) stay;
For his unflinching support during my entire AvH stay;
For inspiring and initiating me into the study of Pidgins and Creoles;
For diligently proof-reading every page of this book and making highly
insightful suggestions; and
For having a great head and a great heart!

To
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

For providing me the financial opportunity and resources to accomplish

my professional and research goals!
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword ..................................................................................................... x
Loreto Todd

Author’s Preface ....................................................................................... xiv

List of Abbreviations and Symbols ......................................................... xvii

Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1

Introduction
1. Background........................................................................................ 1
1.1 Objectives ........................................................................................ 4
1.2 Research questions ........................................................................... 5
1.3 Scope................................................................................................ 6
1.4 Sociolinguistic, creolistic and structural significance ...................... 7
1.5 Methodology: the informants, methods of data collection
and the analytical approach .............................................................. 8
1.6 Structure of the work and highlights ................................................ 9

Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 13

Contact Languages: Earlier Views, Theories of Genesis and Defining
Characteristics
2. Introduction ...................................................................................... 13
2.1 Earlier impressionistic views about pidgins and creoles ................ 14
2.2 Theories of genesis ........................................................................ 16
2.3 Defining characteristics of jargons, pidgins, pidgincreoles
and creoles...................................................................................... 24
2.4 Conclusion ..................................................................................... 43

Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 45

Cameroon Creole English within the Historical and Sociolinguistic
Realities of Cameroon
3. Introduction ...................................................................................... 45
3.1 The origin and developmental itinerary of Cameroon Creole
English ........................................................................................... 45
3.2 Cameroon Creole English within the sociolinguistic realities
of its habitat .................................................................................... 55
3.3 Conclusion ..................................................................................... 81
viii Table of Contents

Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 84

The Developmental Status of Cameroon Creole English: Is the Language
a Variety of its Main Lexifier, a Pidgin or a Creole?
4. Introduction ...................................................................................... 84
4.1 Is Cameroon Creole English an impoverished offspring of its main
lexifier? .......................................................................................... 85
4.2 Is Cameroon Creole English a pidgin or a creole? ......................... 91
4.3 Cameroon Creole English and the impact of a renewed contact
with English, its main lexifier ........................................................ 97
4.4 Conclusion: the sociolinguistic, political and pedagogic
implications .................................................................................. 101

Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 104

The Orthography of Cameroon Creole English
5. Introduction .................................................................................... 104
5.1 An appraisal of the English orthography for Cameroon Creole
English ......................................................................................... 105
5.2 An appraisal of a phonetically based orthography ....................... 110
5.3 An orthography that befits the aspects of Cameroon Creole
English ......................................................................................... 113
5.4 Conclusion ................................................................................... 119

Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 121

Variation in Cameroon Creole English and the Issues of Codification
and Standardization
6. Introduction .................................................................................... 121
6.1 Phonological Variation ................................................................ 122
6.2 Lexical Variation ......................................................................... 124
6.3 Morphological Variation .............................................................. 130
6.4 Syntactic Variation....................................................................... 132
6.5 Semantic Variation....................................................................... 135
6.6 Conclusion ................................................................................... 139

Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 141

Phonological Aspects of Cameroon Creole English
7. Introduction .................................................................................... 141
7.1 Cameroon Creole English Vowels ............................................... 143
7.2 The consonant system of Cameroon Creole English ................... 149
7.3 Syllable structure ......................................................................... 158
7.4 Tone and stress............................................................................. 162
7.5 Conclusion ................................................................................... 166
 Sociolinguistic and Structural Aspects of Cameroon Creole English ix

Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 167

Syntactic Aspects of Cameroon Creole English
8. Introduction .................................................................................... 167
8.1 Cameroon Creole English verbal system ..................................... 169
8.2 Subordination ............................................................................... 187
8.3 The structure of Cameroon Creole English simple sentence........ 190
8.4 Conclusion ................................................................................... 192

Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 194

Conclusion
9. Overview........................................................................................ 194
9.1 Highlights of the findings ............................................................ 195
9.2 Synopsis and the political/pedagogic implications of the findings ... 204

Appendix 1 .............................................................................................. 206

Questionnaire 1 and a sample response

Appendix 2 .............................................................................................. 211

Questionnaire 2

Appendix 3 .............................................................................................. 215

Sample of spontaneous conversation between a Cameroon Creole English
speaker and a field assistant

Appendix 4 .............................................................................................. 218

Radio news sloth in Cameroon Creole English

Appendix 5 .............................................................................................. 221

Cameroon Creole English words and expressions collected during
informal discussions among its speakers

References ............................................................................................... 227

Index ........................................................................................................ 236

 FOREWORD

Language exerts hidden

power, like a moon on the
tides. (Rita Mae Brown1,
Starting from Scratch,
1988)

This book by Aloysius Ngefac is the story of the history and development
of one of Cameroon’s most useful languages: a language known by many
names - Pidgin English, Cameroon Creole, Cameroonian, Kamtok,
Cameroon Creole English - but universally accepted as a fully functioning
tongue, capable of carrying the experiences, needs and hopes of its many
users.

Providing new and reconsidered information on a language serves many

purposes: it adds to our knowledge of the linguistic creativity of human
beings who can mould even the most rudimentary of lingua francas into
flexible, vibrant communication systems; it allows us to compare across
barriers of both time and space; and it enables us to evaluate theories on
acquisition, growth and future possibilities of one more human
communication system.

It is clear from every page of his book that Aloysius Ngefac is a scholar
who has used, studied and loved Cameroon Creole English. He tells the
reader about its origins and evolution, set against a backdrop of informed
discussions of pidgins and creoles in general and African varieties in
particular. We learn about Cameroon Creole English sound patterns, its
structure, its lexical inventiveness, its variety and its likely codification
and, throughout the lucid descriptions, respect is paid to other workers in
the field and to the Cameroonians who have made the language what it is.

There is, of course, natural speculation about exactly when and where
Cameroon Creole English was originally conceived. It may have been as
early as the 16th century or as recent as the nineteenth; it may, in part, be a
relexification of a Portuguese Pidgin that may go back to the fifteenth
century and the earliest days of Portuguese exploration; it may owe more

1
Brown, Rita Mae 1989. Starting from Scratch. Bantam.
 Sociolinguistic and Structural Aspects of Cameroon Creole English xi

than is often appreciated to Sierra Leone’s Krio; it is certainly indebted to

the speakers of Cameroonian languages who exploited its usefulness as a
communication system among Cameroonians and between Cameroonians
and speakers of European languages.

If we could only wind the clock back four hundred and fifty years – a mere
tick of the timepiece that measures human habitation on the planet – we
might be in a better position to evaluate the development of English-
related Pidgins and Creoles in West Africa. Was there a viable form of
communication English on the West African coast as early as the second
half of the sixteenth century? If only we had more information on the
language used by John Hawkins and his crew during his three slaving
missions to Africa! And yet, because his expeditions were so profitable,
there is more information on them than we might otherwise expect. His
first recorded visit to West Africa was to Sierra Leone in 1562. J.A.
Froude2, in his lecture ‘John Hawkins and the African Slave Trade’ tells us
that Hawkins and his crew:

…sailed in October 1562. They called at the Canaries, where they were
warmly entertained. They went on to Sierra Leone, where they collected
300 negroes. They avoided the Government factories, and picked them up
as they could, some by force, some by negotiation with local chiefs…

Froude does not consider the plight of the Africans or tell us much about
the language used by Hawkins’s crewmen on this particular voyage. In an
earlier lecture, however, he describes the makeup of Elizabethan crews.
They were:

…English from the Devonshire and Cornish creeks, Huguenots from

Rochelle; Irish kernes [‘fighters’] with long skenes [‘knives’], desperate,
unruly persons with no kind of mercy…

With crew members speaking different languages and dialects, it is likely

that a simplified, composite dialect of English would already have
developed on the ship and been passed on to some of the 300 Africans
during the lengthy voyage and it is probable that elements of the
composite dialect were used in contacts with coastal African middlemen.
There would certainly have been plenty of opportunities to make use of
such a dialect. Between 1562 and 1567, Hawkins made three journeys to
West Africa and between then and 1807, in excess of 11,000 ships left

2
Froude, J.A. 1896. English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century, London: Longman,
Green and Co.
xii Foreword

English ports to travel to West Africa to participate in this most profitable

but inhuman trade in African men, women and children.

Sierra Leone was a favoured port of call for European ships mainly
because of its excellent natural harbour at Freetown, the third largest
natural harbour in the world and the largest in Africa. In spite of its
expanse of coast, Africa has few natural harbours and, in the past, small
ships needed the security of a port like Freetown if they were to avoid the
perils of rocks, coral reefs and tropical storms. The fortress built near
Freetown harbour by the Portuguese in 1495 was regularly visited by
English slavers and may well have had people there who had the ability to
communicate in some form of English. By the end of the 18th century,
parts of Sierra Leone had been settled by African Americans who had
fought for the British during the American War of Independence, by
Jamaican Maroons and by thousands of freed slaves who had originally
come from many different parts of West Africa. Their lingua franca
became known as Krio and the term ‘Krio’ was also applied to its
speakers. Many of the Krios travelled to other parts of Africa, mainly as
missionaries, traders and clerks and their descendants can be found in the
Gambia, Nigeria, Cameroon and Fernando Po. Creoles related to Krio
were also established in these countries but, whereas Fernando Po’s Pichi
has borrowed heavily from Spanish, Gambia’s Aku has used English as a
linguistic repository.

The links between Sierra Leone Krios and Cameroonians are well
documented3, and the linguistic debt that Cameroon Creole English owes
to Krio is apparent at every level4 and is most particularly marked when
Cameroon English and Krio share words and calques from African
languages that are not found in or near Cameroon.

Scholars will continue to debate many of the issues raised by this book,
issues for example, regarding the genesis and defining characteristics of
creoles in general and Cameroon Creole English in particular. Is
Cameroon Creole English a pidgin or a creole? Is it a tone language? Is it a
variety of English or an African language? How can it best be codified?
Many such questions are raised, discussed and evaluated here and readers

3
See, for example, Gwei, Solomon N. 1966. History of the British Baptist Mission
in Cameroon with Beginnings in Fernando Po, 1841–1886. B.D. thesis, Baptist
Theological Seminary, Ruchlikon-Zurich, Switzerland.
4
See, for example, Todd, Loreto 1979. ‘Cameroonian: a consideration of ‘What’s
in a Name?’, Journal of Creole Studies, pp. 281-94
 Sociolinguistic and Structural Aspects of Cameroon Creole English xiii

will be left with a clear understanding of the power and scope of this
language. To date, it has not been fully utilised in education but Ngefac’s
book may help give the language the status to ensure that, in this field too,
it will show its value and versatility. Cameroon Creole English has been
used for decades as a medium for religious instruction and as a vehicle for
a rich oral culture. It deserves a role in education and, with codification,
this role may well be guaranteed.

Loreto Todd
Professor of Linguistics
University of Ulster
 PREFACE

The underlying motivation behind the writing of this book is the subjective
way Cameroon Creole English has been treated by different stakeholders
(government authorities, researchers, and laypeople). Besides the fact that
it is generally perceived as ‘bush English’, the error system of English or a
language without any describable and systematic pattern, some people
consider it a pidgin, qua a contact outcome with a restricted structure and
function. In addition, some government authorities have even decreed the
banning of the language in certain official circles on grounds that it is an
impediment to the effective promotion of good English in Cameroon. As a
result of this type of impressionistic view, very few local scholars are
interested in carrying out research on this language and this is confirmed
by the fact that before 1990 there were less than five locally produced
research works on the language (see Ngefac 2011). This attitude of
rejection towards a language that significantly embodies the ecology of
Cameroon signals the inferiority complex that some people in this
postcolonial multilingual nation often associate with their local potentials.

The fact that most research works on this language have been written by
foreign-born scholars (see, for instance, Schneider 1960, 1966, 1967;
Dwyer 1966; Todd 1969, 1971, 1986, 1979, 1991; Féral 1978, 1980, 1989;
Bellama et al. 1983; and Schröder 2003a & b) implies that the voices of
local scholars are significantly lacking in the story of this language. Most
of the efforts of local researchers have only resulted in a few scientific
papers. Apart from Kouega (2008) and Nkengasong (2016), published
books on the language by local scholars do not exist. Kouega (2008) is a
dictionary attempt for the language and Nkengasong (2016) is the effort of
a literary critic in describing some grammatical features of the language
(e.g. word classes, sentence types, and sentence structure). But critical
research monographs, like the present book, that situate the description of
the language within current thinking in the field of creolistics are
significantly lacking. In fact, leading voices in the area of pidgins and
creoles (e.g. Gilbert Schneider 1960, 1966, 1967; Hall 1966; Dwyer 1966;
Todd 1969, 1971, 1986, 1979, 1990, 1991; Féral 1978, 1980, 1989;
Samarin 1971; Mühlhäusler 1980, 1986, 1997; Allegne 1980; Bickerton
1981, 1984; Holm 1988; Edgar Schneider 1990; Chaudenson 1992;
Muysken and Smith 1995; Bakker 1995, 2008; Baker 1997; Mufwene
 Sociolinguistic and Structural Aspects of Cameroon Creole English xv

1997, 2001; Faraclas 1996; Lefebvre 1998; McWhorter 1998, 2005; Huber
1999, Thomason 2001; Lefebvre 2004; Veenstra 2008; and Siegel 2008)
are seldom heard nor seen in some of these previous works. The scarcity
of critical research monographs on this language by Cameroonian scholars
has significantly delayed its codification process. This research
monograph is, therefore, the voice of a speaker and user of Cameroon
Creole English and goes a long way to bring to the limelight many salient
sociolinguistic, structural and creolistic aspects of the language, which
have either not been addressed at all in previous works or have not been
given adequate attention.

The concerns of this book are many. First, a critique of creolistic literature
is provided and it is argued that there is the need to redefine the notions of
pidgin and creole and recognize the different routes to creolization,
without which the controversy surrounding their defining characteristics is
likely to continue. Second, the evolutionary trajectory of the language is
traced and its current sociolinguistic situation is discussed. Third, the
developmental status of the language is assessed and it is established
whether it is just a mere error system of its main lexifier, a pidgin or a
creole. Fourth, an orthography that befits the linguistic realities of the
language is proposed. This orthography is based on the premise that
Cameroon Creole English is an independent language with language-
specific aspects that should necessarily be reflected in its writing system,
albeit its lexical relationship with the main lexifier. Fifth, the variation that
characterizes the language at different linguistic levels is described and the
impact of this variation on codification and standardization-related
decisions is discussed. Sixth, the phonological and syntactic aspects of the
language are described. Through the phonological description, the
structural distance between the language and its main lexifier is evaluated.
The syntactic analysis further emphasizes this structural distance between
the language and English, but also shows the extent to which the language
reflects the creole core prototype model put forward by Bickerton (1981)
and used by many creolists to evaluate the creole status of many contact
languages around the world. Pitting the typological aspects of this
language against those of a creole prototype reveals interesting facts about
its developmental status, in spite of the criticism against Bickerton (1981).

The writing of this book could not be successful without the financial
assistance provided by Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Foundation and
the support from many colleagues and family members. I am particularly
indebted to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for granting me a
fellowship and providing me a monthly stipend that enabled my family
xvi Preface

and I to reside in Germany for many months to carry out this book project.
Professor Edgar W. Schneider also deserves my heart-felt gratitude for his
consistent support before, during, and after my AvH stay at his
department. Because of his great head and great heart, he provided
solutions to all my social, academic and professional problems during my
entire stay at his department. I also owe a big debt of gratitude to Professor
Samson Abangma, Professor Paul Mbangwana, Professor Nicholas
Gabriel Andgiga, Professor Loreto Todd, Professor Magnus Huber,
Professor Roswitha Fischer, Professor Edmond Biloa, Dr Ayu’nwi Neba,
Mrs Sonja Schmidt-Zeidler, Professor Alexander Kautzsch, Mrs Patricia
Ngefac, Dr Florian Schleburg, Dr Lucia Siebers, Dr Sarah Buschfeld, Dr
Thomas Brunner, Dr Sylvia Reuters, Professor Bonaventure Sala,
Professor Hans-Georg Wolf, Dr Lothar Peter, Mrs Maimona Wolf,
Professor Christian Mair, Professor Thomas Hoffman, Professor Anne
Schröder, Professor George Echu, Professor Audrey Mbeje, Professor
Rachel Reynolds, and Professor Sarah Agbor for inspiring me in one way
or another. I am also indebted to Tanyi Ngemoh Etienne, Mrs Amomoh
Joan, Daniela Ajua Ngefac, Edgar Temate Ngefac, Jonathan-Irving
Amomoh Ngefac, Siphora Njuafac Tendongmoh, Dr. Eric Ekembe and
Professor John Nkemngong Nkengasong for their assistance. The above-
mentioned people share with me the responsibility for the strengths of this
book, but I alone shoulder the responsibility for its weaknesses.

Aloysius Ngefac
Yaounde, May 2016
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

Abbreviations
ABI Ability
ACC Adversative coordinating conjunction
AD Adverb
ADD Adverb of degree
ADF Adverb of frequency
ADJ Adjective
ADJV Adjectival verb
AJ Adjunct
ANT Anterior
AP Anaphoric pronoun
ART article
cASP Completive aspect
CC Coordinating conjunction
CN1 Singular common noun
CN2 Plural common noun
COP Copular verb
dART Definite article
DEM Demonstrative article
DEO Deontic modality
DET Determiner
DO Direct Object
EMP Emphatic marker
EQ Equative
HCE Hawaiian Creole English
HPE Hawaiian Pidgin English
I Focus introducer
INTJ Interjection
IO Indirect object
IP Interrogative pronoun
IRR Irrealis
LOC Locative
MOD Mood or modality
npASP Nonpunctual aspect
OBJ Object
xviii List of Abbreviations and Symbols

P Preposition
PCs Pidgins and creoles
PDET Pre-determiner capable of a pronominal function
PM Plural marker
PN1 Singular proper noun
PN2 Plural proper noun
PO Objective pronoun
POP Possessive pronoun
PS Subjective Pronoun
REL Relativizer
RP Relative Pronoun
SC Subordinating conjunction
SjM Subjunctive mood
TMA Tense, mood, and aspect
VIPs Very important personalities

Symbols
1 First Person singular Pronoun
2 Second person singular pronoun
3 Third person singular pronoun
4 First person plural pronoun
5 Second person plural pronoun
6 Third person plural pronoun
 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

So, if you want to really

hurt me, talk badly about
my language. Ethnic
identity is twin skin to
linguistic identity – I am my
language. Until I can take
pride in my language, I
cannot take pride in myself
[… ] I cannot accept the
legitimacy of myself. Until I
can accept as legitimate all
the other languages I speak,
I cannot accept the
legitimacy of myself […]
and as long as I have to
accommodate the English
speakers rather than having
them accommodate me, my
tongue will be illegitimate
(Anzaldua 1987: 59).

1. Background
It is hypothesized and claimed in this book that Cameroon Creole English
displays rich sociolinguistic and structural aspects, in spite of the fact that
it is often relegated to the background and, sometimes, treated with
subjectivity by different stakeholders (government authorities, scholars,
and laypeople). One of the hallmarks of relegating Cameroon Creole
English to the background and treating its sociolinguistic and structural
aspects with subjectivity includes the fact that some official authorities in
Cameroon have already decreed the banning of the language in certain
official circles (see, for instance, Alobwede 1998, Kouega 2001, and
Ngefac 2011), on grounds that it is an impediment to the effective
promotion of English in Cameroon. On the campus of the University of
Buea, for instance, signboards overtly banning the use of the language
2 Chapter One

abound, in spite of the fact that the United Nations considers linguistic
genocide a crime against humanity. The tendency to relegate Cameroon
Creole English to the background and treat it with subjectivity is not very
different from the fallacious, but already debunked, view of the older
generation that pidgins and creoles are ‘a mutilation without plan or rule’
(Oldendorp 1777, quoted in Holm 1988: 19) that cannot be studied using
normal linguistic theories.

This impressionistic view, in turn, is similar to the colonial mentality that

seems to be defining the dreams and identity of postcolonial
Cameroonians. In fact, the tendency to reject local potentials, because of
the fallacious belief that they are necessarily inferior, is actually what
Bokamba (2007) refers to as “ukolonia”, a tendency whereby the vision
and taste of postcolonial people are still shaped and conditioned by the
colonial indoctrination. It should be noted that one of the strategies the
colonizers used during the colonial administration was to convince the
colonial ‘subjects’ that their culture, languages, and local potentials were
necessarily inferior and barbaric and they had to give them up to embrace
the supposedly superior ‘ways’ of the colonial masters. Though
colonialism is now history, the colonial mentality and indoctrination
continue to shape the lifestyle and identity of postcolonial people. This
largely explains why in postcolonial multilingual Cameroon languages
such as Cameroon Creole English and the indigenous languages, which
conspicuously carry the supposedly ‘inferior’ local realities, are mostly
treated with contempt and indignation. What explains the fact that
Cameroon Creole English, an emblem of local identity, has witnessed very
little scholarly interest from local researchers? What explains the fact that
a language that significantly unifies the country, as it transcends most
social boundaries, is being banned by official authorities, in spite of the
fact that the United Nations strongly condemns all forms of genocide,
including linguistic genocide? What explains the fact that more than fifty
years after independence, neither Cameroon Creole English nor any of the
over 285 indigenous Cameroonian languages have been raised to the status
of official languages? What explains the fact that the passion in Cameroon
is rather for the promotion of English and French to the detriment of
languages that are rooted in local constructs? One can, therefore, maintain
that the decolonization of Cameroon will become a complete process only
when the Cameroonian mind is also decolonized, especially when
postcolonial Cameroonians will stop associating their local potentials with
an inferiority complex.
 Introduction 3

Given the subjective attitudinal tendencies Cameroon Creole English has

witnessed (see Chapter Three for official efforts to ban the language and
misleading nomenclatures given to it and Chapter Four for evidence on the
misrepresentation of its developmental status), a book of this nature, which
describes its sociolinguistic, creolistic and structural aspects, is not only
necessary, but indispensable and timely. These aspects significantly mirror
the ecological, sociolinguistic and sociocultural realities of its habitat and
reveal the real sociolinguistic and creolistic statuses of the language.

But the question that immediately begs an answer is whether there are
significant differences between this research monograph and previous
endeavours. It can, in fact, be asserted that the book is very different from
previous works in many ways. First, most previous attempts to describe
the language are didactic in nature and do not treat the sociolinguistic and
structural aspects of the language within the context of current thinking in
the field of creolistics or pidgins and creoles. For instance, Kouega (2008)
and Nkengasong (2016), the only published books on the language written
by Cameroonian scholars, do not situate the description of the language
within the context of what has been said in relation to pidgins and creoles
by leading voices in creolistics (e.g. Gilbert Schneider 1960, 1966; Hall
1966; Dwyer 1966; Todd 1969, 1971, 1986, 1979, 1990, 1991; Féral 1978,
1980, 1989; Samarin 1971; Mühlhäusler 1980, 1986, 1997; Allegne 1980;
Bickerton 1981, 1984; Holm 1988; Edgar Schneider 1990; Chaudenson
1992; Muysken and Smith 1995; Bakker 1995, 2008; Baker 1997;
Mufwene 1997, 2001; Faraclas 1996; Lefebvre 1998, 2004; McWhorter
1998, 2005; Huber 1999, Thomason 2001; Veenstra 2008; and Siegel
2008). Since the language does not exist in a vacuum, there is the need to
describe it with reference to the leading voices in the area of creolistics
and with reference to what obtains in the other West African sister
languages.

Second, the language has been described by both scholars and laypeople
with a lot of subjectivity. Besides the popular layman view that the
language is the bastardized non-standard variety of English (or bush
English as some people prefer), some scholarly statements ignore or
misrepresent the following facts about the language: (1) that it shoulders
the heaviest communicative load in the country; (2) that it is the only
language that transcends most social boundaries (ethnicity, level of
education, linguistic background, age, and region) ; (3) that it is a
significant source of national unity because of its neutral character; (4) that
it is emblematic of the historical, ecological, sociolinguistic and
sociocultural realities of Cameroon; (5) that it is neither “bush English”
4 Chapter One

nor the cause of poor standards in English Language; (6) that it is a full-
fledged creole, not just a pidgin or a jargon, in spite of the controversy
over the definition of a creole language (see, for instance, Mühlhäusler
1997; Bickerton 1981; Holm 1988, Todd 1990, Bakker 2008; Mufwene
1997, 2001; and Siegel 2008); and (7) that it displays systematic and
describable structural aspects at different linguistic levels that project it as
a language in its own rights, not just an error system or a mere basilectal
variety of English. For instance, Bobda and Wolf (2003) reduce the
geographical scope of the language to a few regions in the country and the
functional or communicative scope to only “humorous topics”, in spite of
the fact that many scientific works (e.g. Todd 1990 and Mbangwana 1983
& 1991) and other empirical evidence contradict such a view. In addition,
Kouega (2008) claims that lexical items in this language are marked by
stress, but it is rather tone that generally defines the suprasegmental
contour of the language, as in most Cameroonian indigenous languages.
Forcing stress into the language is a consequence of not considering the
typological or structural distance between the language and English.

Third, most descriptive works on the language are written by foreigners

and the voices of local scholars are significantly lacking. The fact that
most research works on this language have been written by foreign-born
scholars (see, for instance, Schneider 1960, 1966, 1967; Dwyer 1966;
Todd 1969, 1971, 1986, 1979, 1991; Féral 1978, 1980, 1989; Bellama et
al. 1983; and Schröder 2003a & b) implies that local voices are necessary
for a complete story of the language. Besides a few scientific articles
published by local scholars, there are only two published textbooks on the
language written by local scholars (Kouega 2008 and Nkengasong 2016).
Kouega (2008) is a dictionary attempt for the language and Nkengasong
(2016) is the effort of a literary critic in describing some grammatical
aspects of the language, but the two works remain didactic in nature and
do not treat the language within current creolistic thinking.

1.1 Objectives
Considering the above-mentioned reasons that motivated this research
endeavour, this book has been written to describe the sociolinguistic,
creolistic, and structural aspects of the language. Sociolinguistically, it
describes, after an in-depth research, the evolutionary trajectory of the
language, which has not been attempted in most previous studies on the
language. It also describes attitudinal tendencies towards the language,
besides its functional and geographical spreads. In addition, an
 Introduction 5

orthography for the language is proposed and this orthography integrates

the strengths of previous proposals and ignores their weaknesses.
Furthermore, the book investigates the linguistic and sociolinguistic
variations that characterize the language and examines the correlation
between the language and the other languages that co-exist with it.
Creolistically, the book assesses the developmental status of the language
within its West African perspective. It should be noted that the question of
whether West African contact languages are pidgins or creoles has been a
heated debate in creolistic literature, but no consensus has so far been
reached because of the controversy surrounding the definition of a creole
and how it actually differs from other contact outcomes (see, for instance,
Mühlhäusler 1980, 1986, 1997; Bickerton 1981, 1984; Holm 1988; Todd
1990; Schneider 1990; Bakker 1995, 2008; Mufwene 1997, 2001;
Lefebvre 1998; McWhorter 1998, 2005; and Siegel 2008). Structurally,
instead of simply identifying and describing some syntactic and
phonological aspects of the language as is the case in some of the few
previous studies that have attempted its description, this book describes
the structural aspects of the language from a comparative perspective, in
order to evaluate the typological distance between the language and its
main lexifier, which are considered by some scholars to be in a dialectal
continuum. The book, therefore, investigates the sociolinguistic, creolistic,
and structural aspects of a Cameroonian contact language that has been
significantly relegated to the background by different stakeholders.

1.2 Research questions

The research questions that guided the investigation are as follows:

x What is the evolutionary trajectory of the language?

x What are the different subjective and biased tendencies that have
significantly compromised the real aspects of the language?
x What is the functional and geographical scope of the language?
x How does the language correlate with other languages spoken in
Cameroon?
x What is the relationship between the language and its main lexifier?
x What is the developmental status of the language? In other words,
is Cameroon Creole English a pidgin, a creole or a mere error
system of English?
x Which name is most befitting for this language: “Kamtok”,
“Cameroon Pidgin English”, or “Cameroon Creole English”?
6 Chapter One

x Which orthography befits the structural and sociolinguistic aspects

of the language?
x Which sociolinguistic variables account for the linguistic variability
that characterizes the language at different linguistic levels? What
are the possible implications of this variation for codification and
standardization-related decisions?
x What are the structural aspects of the language? To what extent are
these linguistic aspects different from those of English and similar
to those of other creole languages?
x What are the sociolinguistic, pedagogic and political implications
of the real aspects of this language?

1.3 Scope
The sociolinguistic, creolistic and structural scopes of the book are worth
defining. The sociolinguistic scope includes the evolutionary trajectory of
the language, attitudinal tendencies towards it, its functional and
geographical spreads, the polemics involving its name, the relationship
between the language and the other languages spoken in postcolonial
multilingual Cameroon, and the variation that characterizes it at different
linguistic levels, including the implications of the variation for the
codification and standardization of the language. The creolistic scope
consists in determining the developmental status of the language, by
pitting the characteristics of the different categories of contact languages
against those of Cameroon Creole English and evaluating whether the
language is a creole, a pidgin or an error system of its main lexifier. The
structural scope is limited to the phonological and syntactic aspects of the
language, given that phonology and syntax constitute the linguistic levels
of the language that best x-ray its salient structural and creolistic aspects.
This explains why the seventh and the eighth chapters are dedicated
wholly to phonology and syntax and it is in the chapter on variation (see
Chapter Six) that such linguistic levels as morphology, lexis and semantics
receive some minimal attention, even though the focus is still largely on
variation and not on the linguistic levels per se. The scope of the work is,
therefore, limited to the sociolinguistic, creolistic, and structural
(phonological and syntactic) aspects of Cameroon Creole English.

1.4 Sociolinguistic, creolistic and structural significance

The book has a multi-dimensional significance. Sociolinguistically, it
describes the status of a contact language in a postcolonial multilingual
 Introduction 7

context vis-à-vis other languages. In addition, the functional, geographical

and temporal spreads of this contact language are discussed. Furthermore,
the book investigates the linguistic and sociolinguistic variations that
characterize the language and examines the correlation between the
language and the other languages that co-exist with it. Besides, the book
shows how decisions involving codification and standardization can be
influenced by the existence of many varieties of the language. Finally, the
orthography proposed in Chapter Five is instrumental in its codification
and standardization processes.

Creolistically, the book assesses the developmental status of a Cameroonian

contact language within its West African perspective. It should be noted
that the question of whether West African contact languages are pidgins or
creoles has been a heated debate in creolistic literature, but no consensus
has so far been reached because of the controversy surrounding the
definition of a creole and how it actually differs from other contact
outcomes (see, for instance, Mühlhäusler 1980, 1986, 1997; Bickerton
1981, 1984; Holm 1988; Todd 1990; Schneider 1990; Bakker 1995, 2008;
Mufwene 1997, 2001; Lefebvre 1998; McWhorter 1998, 2005; and Siegel
2008). This explains why this book argues that if the notions of pidgin and
creole are redefined and the different trajectories to creolization are
recognized, it will be possible to come up with putative sociolinguistic and
structural aspects that can define the developmental status of a contact
outcome such as Cameroon Creole English. The developmental status of
the language is, therefore, established in this book using different creolistic
yardsticks, including pitting the characteristics of the language against
those of a creole prototype model put forward by Bickerton (1981). The
book is also significant in that it traces the anachronistic trajectory of the
language and establishes that the genesis and development of the language
cannot be accounted for by relying only on the imperfect second language
learning theory widely acclaimed in the literature; the relexification theory
and the substratal essence also provide difficult-to-neglect clues.

Structurally, the book identifies and describes the phonological and

syntactic aspects of a language that is assumed by some people to be the
impoverished variety of its main lexifier. These phonological and syntactic
aspects of the language provide the yardsticks through which the structure
of the language can be contrasted with that of English.
8 Chapter One

1.5 Methodology: the informants, methods of data

collection and the analytical approach
This section is dedicated to the description of the informants, sources of
data, method of data collection, and a description of the analytical
approach for the data. As concerns the informants, they were made up of
Cameroon Creole English speakers from different social backgrounds
(‘educated’ and ‘uneducated’1 speakers, Anglophones and Francophones,
younger and older speakers, speakers from the different regions of the
country and speakers from different ethnic backgrounds). These
informants provided the raw data needed for the project through (1) their
participation in the administration of the questionnaires; (2) their
involvement in conversational exchanges with the investigator and his
field assistants; (3) their spontaneous speech initiated by the investigator
and his field assistant and (4) through their participation in radio
programmes.

The data for this book were collected through different strategies. First, a
questionnaire containing a series of sentences and lexical items in English
was presented to the informants who orally provided the Cameroon Creole
English equivalents, and a tape recorder was used to record their responses
(see Appendix 1 for the questionnaire and a randomly selected sample
translation). Second, questionnaires containing English Language
sentences and lexical items were presented to Cameroon Creole English
speakers from different social backgrounds to translate, through the
written medium, into Cameroon Creole English (see Appendix 2 for a
sample of the questionnaire). Third, free interviews were conducted in
which informants were asked to narrate their various life experiences in
the language and a tape recorder was used to record their speech (see
Appendix 3 for a sample of one of the informants’ free speech on different
topics). Fourth, some Cameroon Creole English radio programmes were
recorded (see Appendix 4 for a sample). Fifth, previous works on the
language provided significant data for the project. Sixth, many words and
expressions in the language, spontaneously used by speakers without any
formal education and exposure to the English language, were collected
during a period of over five years (see Appendix 5 for some of the words
and expressions).

1
The so-called ‘uneducated’ Kamtok speakers simply refer to those without formal
education and significant exposure to the English language.
 Introduction 9

As concerns the analysis of the data, a qualitative descriptive method was

generally used, but each of the dimensions of the study had a specific
analytical approach. The sociolinguistic dimension of the study consisted
in surveying, identifying, critiquing and describing the different
sociolinguistic aspects of the language (history, attitudes, spread, co-
existence with other languages, linguistic and sociolinguistic variability,
etc.), some of which are documented in different empirical studies on the
language. The creolistic dimension involved pitting the characteristics of
the different categories of contact languages against the structural and
sociolinguistic aspects of the language. In addition, the creole prototype
model proposed by Bickerton was further used to evaluate the creole status
of the language, in spite of the criticism levied against the Bickertonian
creole core prototype model. The structural dimension consisted of
phonology and syntax and each had a different analytical approach. The
phonological analysis of the data consisted in transcribing the data
collected from different sources, describing the different segmental and
suprasegmental aspects of the language, and highlighting, where
necessary, how such aspects contrast with those of its main lexifier (see
Chapter Seven). The syntactic analysis involved a qualitative description
of some structural aspects of the language (e.g. TMA (tense, mood, aspect)
system, use of adjectives as verbs, serialization, complementation,
clefting, and sentence structure) (see Chapter Eight).

1.6 Structure of the work and highlights

The book is made up of nine chapters. Chapter One is the general
introduction. In this chapter the underlying motivations that led to the
conception and conceptualization of the book are discussed. The
objectives of the book, research questions, scope, sociolinguistic and
creolistic significance, the methodology, and the structure of the book are
also the concerns of the chapter. Generally, the chapter introduces the
reader to the ‘problem’, the ‘manner’ of going about it and the ‘matter’ of
the whole endeavour.

Chapter Two focuses on earlier impressionistic views about pidgins and

creoles, the theories that attempt to account for their origin, and the
defining characteristics of the different contact outcomes (jargons, pidgins,
pidgincreoles and creoles). This chapter is actually a critique or an
appraisal of creolistic literature. A discussion of previous impressionistic
views about pidgins and creoles and their speakers paves the way for a
better understanding of attitudinal tendencies and biases Cameroon Creole
10 Chapter One

English is currently experiencing, as underscored in Chapter Three. The

different theories of pidgins and creoles genesis discussed in this chapter
do not only capture part of the polemics characterizing the field of
creolistics as regards the origin and nature of these contact outcomes, but
they provide yardsticks through which the origin of any contact language,
such as Cameroon Creole English, can be accounted for. In spite of the
disagreement among linguists and creolists over the definition and
characteristics of the different contact languages, the attempt in this
chapter to put together the characteristics of these contact languages does
not only expose the controversial nature of the field of creolistics, but also
provides a necessary critique of the different schools of thought and
proposes the conditions under which we can come up with putative
characteristics that can determine the developmental status of a contact
outcome such Cameroon Creole English and other pidgins and creoles. It
is therefore suggested in this chapter that if the notions of pidgin and
creole are redefined and the different trajectories to creolization are
recognized, it will be much easier to determine whether a contact outcome
is a jargon, a pidgin or a creole.

Chapter Three situates Cameroon Creole English within the historical and
sociolinguistic realities of Cameroon. Specifically, the evolutionary
itinerary of the language is traced; the polemics involving the name of the
language are critically examined; the spread and functions of the language
are discussed; the impressionistic views about the language and other
attitudinal tendencies are presented; and the correlation between the
language and the other languages spoken in Cameroon is underscored.

Chapter Four focuses on the developmental status of Cameroon Creole

English and establishes that the language is not a variety of its main
lexifier, but a full-fledged creole, by virtue of its different sociolinguistic
and structural aspects. First, the large-scale plantations set up by the
Germans during the German colonial administration (1884-1916),
predictably, bred a conducive atmosphere for a creole or a ‘complex’
language to develop, given that there was a certain degree of a sustained
contact similar to the one that characterized the settlement colonies where
most prototypical creoles were created, coupled with the fact that the
linguistic situation in these plantations and other areas of Cameroon was
‘complicated’ by the linguistic inputs of the numerous freed slaves who
migrated from Liberia and Sierra Leone to Cameroon for employment at
these plantations (see Mbangwana 1983). The linguistic impact of these
slaves and the sustained contact that may have prevailed in these
plantations cannot be overlooked. Second, the existence of many native
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The beast of
boredom
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: The beast of boredom

Author: Richard Rein Smith

Illustrator: Richard Kluga

Release date: October 12, 2023 [eBook #71857]

Language: English

Original publication: New York, NY: Royal Publications, Inc, 1958

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEAST

OF BOREDOM ***
THE BEAST of BOREDOM

wasn't a weapon or a bribe, as

he thought. But it was the
most ingenious trap of all time!

By RICHARD R. SMITH

Illustrated by RICHARD KLUGA

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Infinity April 1958.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The shack at the edge of the dead canal was so carefully
camouflaged, he almost passed by it. Hoping he hadn't been seen,
he dropped to his stomach and crawled through the mud toward the
door.
It wasn't a long distance, but inching his way on his elbows and
knees, and with his face close to the evil-smelling mud, it seemed
like a mile. As he crawled, he reflected bitterly that most of
mankind's really great achievements always ended in war. Columbus
had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and it had ended in war with the
Indians. Mankind had invented atomic energy and then used it to kill
millions. Their latest achievement was the marvel of spaceflight and
where had that ended? It had also ended in war....
Personally, he didn't believe they were justified in fighting the
Martians. If they didn't want anyone intruding on their planet, what
right did Earthmen have to force their way? The popular theory that
they could help rebuild the dying Martian civilization didn't seem very
logical when millions had to be killed in the process. And if Martians
were an independent race and wanted to sit around and watch their
civilization crumble, why shouldn't they have that privilege?
When he was within a few yards of the door, he set aside his
philosophical thoughts. Leaping to his feet, he ran into the small
shack and screamed shrilly in the manner designed to momentarily
paralyze an enemy with fear.
He raised the rifle instinctively when something moved in the
shadows, and as his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he felt a
queasiness in his stomach. The emaciated alien who cowered in the
shadows resembled a pitiful bundle of rags more than an enemy!
Trembling hands lifted an object and three things happened so
rapidly that they seemed to happen simultaneously: the Martian's
bony fingers moved over the object; a burning sensation ripped
through his brain; he realized it must be a weapon and squeezed the
trigger of his rifle.

When the sharp crack stopped echoing in his ears, he examined the
still form and discovered he'd been mistaken. The object wasn't a
weapon. It was a metal globe six inches in diameter and studded
with precious jewels. The Martian had offered it in exchange for his
life.
The windows of his apartment on the fourteenth floor were open and
a gentle breeze chilled the sweat on his face as he worked with the
knife. He had previously removed four jewels from the metal globe,
but the large ruby he'd selected this time seemed to be embedded
deeper.
The blade slipped and slashed the palm of his left hand. Cursing the
artifact and all Martians in general, he attacked the ruby furiously
and grunted with satisfaction when he dislodged it.
The red jewel rolled across the table and fell to the floor. Picking it up
gingerly as if it were a fragile thing of glass, he held it in the sunlight
and watched the myriad facets sparkle like a one-color kaleidoscope.
It was the largest jewel of all and worth a small fortune....
A sharp pain in his hand reminded him of his wound and he went to
the bathroom. After carefully washing the cut, he applied iodine and
was trying to find a bandage when....

The ruby rolled across the table and fell to the floor.
Startled, he leaped back and upset the chair. A second before, he'd
been in the bathroom and now he was at the table! Amnesia? He
couldn't remember walking back to the living room and although he
thought he'd put iodine on the cut, there was none on it that he could
see.
He went to the bathroom....

The ruby rolled across the table and fell to the floor.
He was sitting before the table again without any memory of having
left the bathroom! It had happened twice.
Taking the globe to the window, he examined it carefully and saw
that where the ruby had been lodged, there was now an opening
through the metal. When he held it at a certain angle, he saw a maze
of wiring and tiny mechanisms inside.
He had fought the Martians for two years. He had traveled across
their red deserts, crawled on the muddy bottoms of their gigantic
dead canals, walked through the remains of their ancient cities and
heard legends about the great Martian empire that had slowly
crumbled during the centuries.
He remembered the legends about Martian time machines and he
accepted the fact readily: the object in his hand was a time trap. An
ancient, intricate, scientific booby-trap!
The Martian had known he would die and had deliberately planned
his revenge. Perhaps the machine wasn't strong enough to take
anyone far into the past or future; that would explain why he hadn't
used it to escape. But it was evidently strong enough to be used as a
trap, and perhaps it had even been designed for that purpose
centuries ago. Removing the ruby had triggered it....
Ironic, he reflected, that he'd gone to so much trouble and expense
to smuggle the thing from Mars to Earth. The jewels were worth a
fortune and it had never occurred to him that the metal globe might
have some function. Actually, he had smuggled an ingenious death-
trap back to Earth with him.
He shuddered at the thought.

The ruby rolled across the table and....

He was once again sitting before the Martian artifact, his eyes once
again focussed on the ruby as it rolled across the table. Like
something in a magician's act, he had disappeared from his position
near the window and reappeared in the chair. As before, the cut on
his hand stung painfully, but this time he ignored it and kept his eyes
focussed on his wrist watch.
It was eleven forty-five eastern standard time.

The ruby rolled across the table....

His eyes were no longer focussed on the watch, but he remembered
that the hands had last indicated eleven fifty-five. And now they were
back at eleven forty-five. He was trapped in a period of time only ten
minutes long!
He lit a cigarette with trembling fingers and tried to think calmly.
What danger was there in a time trap? He felt no physical pain and
so far the trap had only caused him small inconveniences. Anything
he did during the ten-minute period was magically undone when he
was thrown backward in time. He had put iodine on the cut on his
hand and it had disappeared. He had walked to the window, but at
the beginning of the next cycle, without any conscious sensation, he
found himself sitting in the chair once more. But how could
movement through time harm him?
And was he the only one aware of the trap?
He turned the television set on and watched a news announcer
during several following cycles. Before long, he was convinced that
he was the only one who was aware of the repeated time interval.
The news announcer represented everyone in the world, and if he
were conscious of the fact that he'd read the same news more than
a dozen times, there would have been some change in his
expression!
He recalled how the Martian had moved his fingers over the globe
and how he'd felt a burning sensation inside his skull. The device
had evidently been adjusted to his neural pattern so that only he was
conscious of the trap. Or else only someone within a certain effective
radius—fifty feet, for instance—was conscious of the repeated time
intervals.
Although he'd always believed the stories about the time machines
and he now had proof of their existence, he still found it difficult to
comprehend their operation. He had heard that such a machine
concentrated on only a few atoms of a radioactive substance. By
drawing energy from the space-time continuum itself, the machine
succeeded in thrusting those atoms backward or forward in time, and
since that affected the entire probability stream, all physical matter
was forced to follow them through the time stream.
He couldn't totally comprehend the concept, but he realized he had
to do something nevertheless, and during following cycles that
totaled hours, he tried to decide on a course of action. He recalled
the Martian legend about how a particularly vicious criminal had
been punished with a similar machine. The unfortunate had been
tossed into a pit filled with lionlike animals and then, by repeating the
time interval, he had been made to suffer the same death a
thousand times. In his own case, he was in no physical danger, but
he knew that an enemy was creeping toward him ... an enemy that
could kill him as surely as any lion ... boredom.
If he submitted to boredom and just sat through the endless time
cycles, it would be the same as sitting in a room for weeks, months,
or years. That would be the same as solitary confinement and would
eventually drive him insane.
So, there were two possibilities: he could attempt to wreck the
machine or wait for it to wear itself out and fight boredom while
waiting.
It didn't take him long to decide that he should wait for the machine
to run down. If the alien devices really drew energy from the space-
time continuum, it would be dangerous to tamper with one. A wrong
move when fooling with such a tremendous amount of energy might
be disastrous, and perhaps that was exactly what the old Martian
had planned for him to do! On the other hand, it didn't seem possible
that a machine could run forever.
There should be plenty of ways to keep himself occupied and his
mind busy while he waited....
He began reading the magazines scattered about the apartment.
There was only time to read a few pages, but he mentally noted the
page number during each cycle and when the succeeding interval
began, he opened the magazine to that exact page and continued....

The ruby rolled across the table and....

The preceding cycles seemed like an eternity when he looked back
upon them. He had read every magazine from cover to cover,
watched every television program and listened to every radio
program countless times until he had them memorized word for
word. He had worked the crossword puzzles in the newspaper
several times and explored every square inch of the apartment.
He had no more ideas so he tried to sleep....

He knew it was useless: during each ten-minute interval, he had time

to walk from the chair to the davenport, close his eyes and relax his
body. But then, at the moment when he was about to fall asleep, he
would always find himself in the tediously familiar chair.
He hoped he would grow tired and be able to fall asleep, but finally
realized it was impossible. Since the machine influenced the space-
time continuum and the same ten-minute interval in time was always
repeated, all physical things in space were exactly as they had been
at the beginning of the cycle. His body had been refreshed at the
beginning of the original cycle and it would always be in the same
condition. He would never grow older, he would never become
hungry and he would never become tired physically.

Desperate for a way to overcome boredom, he used the bottle of

whiskey in the kitchen. After several attempts, he discovered to his
dismay that there were ways to get violently sick from gulping liquor
but no possible way to get drunk in ten minutes!
He sat through endless cycles staring at the empty air; began to
have wild thoughts and knew he was on the verge of insanity. And if
he were losing the fight with boredom, he might as well try the other
alternative: break the machine and hope it wouldn't blow up in his
face.
Taking a long-bladed knife, he attacked the small mechanisms inside
the globe. He probed, twisted and jabbed but they seemed
indestructible.
Furious, he held it underwater with the hope that water would short-
circuit "electrical contacts" if there were any.
When that didn't work, he beat it with a hammer, kicked it, threw it
about the room and as a last result, dropped it from the window.
It bounced off the sidewalk fourteen floors below and attracted
attention, but a few minutes later he was once more sitting in the
chair and watching the sickeningly familiar ruby as it rolled across
the sickeningly familiar table.
He stared at the telephone. If only it would ring; if only someone
would call him and break the monotony! But that was impossible. At
the beginning of each cycle, all physical things and events were
exactly as they had been....
Telephone!
He could use it to break the monotony—he could phone all his
friends!
He telephoned all his friends and talked with them for numerous ten-
minute intervals that totaled days. Because they were always
unaware of the previous cycles, his repeated phone calls never
annoyed them. Sometimes he told them about the time trap but it
was beyond their comprehension and they always thought he was
drunk, so he learned not to mention it.
When he tired of talking to his friends, he started at the front of the
telephone directory and began calling every name. He made dates
with girls he'd never seen, memorized marvelous sales talks and
sold non-existent vacuum cleaners and cars. Sometimes he
pretended to be the master of ceremonies on a quiz program and
when someone answered a difficult question, he told them they had
just won a dollar. The various reactions he received were amusing
and broke the monotony, but after a few days, even that became
boring.
He tried to leave the hotel's fourteenth floor, but discovered that the
elevator boy was not on the job at that particular time. Although he
ran to the elevator at the beginning of numerous cycles and pushed
the down button, the indicator needle never moved during the ten
minutes.
He used the stairs at the end of the corridor with the hope of
reaching another floor and meeting someone. To see someone or
speak to someone in person would have done a lot to break the
monotony, but he found that the thirteenth and fifteenth floors were
inaccessible. The doors that led to them from the stairway wouldn't
push in and there was no hand-grip to pull them outward. Evidently
the hotel management used the method to prevent burglars from
having an absurdly easy and unseen access to the apartments.
Anyone could leave a floor and use the stairs to reach the hotel
lobby, but anyone wishing to go from the lobby to a certain floor or
from one floor to another was forced to use the elevator.
Cursing the bad luck, he sat for hours and wondered what he could
do. He was restricted to succeeding but separate and identical time
intervals, and that was also a physical restriction in effect: ten
minutes wasn't long enough to leave that floor of the hotel.

He now thought of boredom as an ugly monster that lurked

everywhere about him and waited ... waited to seize him with sharp
teeth of inactivity....
Desperate for the sight of another person, he tried to enter the other
apartments. There were five on that floor, but of them, only the one
next to his own seemed to be occupied. When he knocked, there
was no answer, but he pressed an ear against the door and heard
the faint sound of running water. Whoever the occupant was, he or
she was taking a shower and couldn't hear him no matter how hard
he knocked.
It irritated him because the apartment was so close. If he could
contact the person somehow, he or she could be reached at the
beginning of each cycle and would be a tangible individual to help
him fight boredom—not a voice on the telephone, an image on the
TV screen or a tiny dot of a person fourteen floors below his window.
By phoning the hotel desk, he learned that a woman named Mary
Jeffers rented apartment 1403, and he found her telephone number
in the directory.
Dialing the number, he was relieved when she answered within a few
minutes. The ringing of the phone was evidently loud enough to
penetrate the noise of the shower while his knocking on the door
hadn't been.
"Mary Jeffers?" he asked.
"Yes?"
"Mary, are you a college graduate?"
"Yes. Who is this? Why do you want to know?"
"This is the police. It's very important. Which college did you attend?"
He knew it was a flimsy trick to get information, but he caught her off
guard and she answered, "The University of Delaware."
He hung up the phone and waited until the next cycle. Dialing the
number again, he said, "Mary? This is Harry Ogden."
Because of the nature of the time trap, she was unaware of the
previous conversation, and her automatic reply to the unfamiliar
voice was, "Ogden? You must have the wrong number. I don't know
anyone by that name."
"Don't you remember? I went to the University of Delaware with you.
I remember you. You have blonde hair and—"
"No. It's brunette."
Hanging up the phone, he waited until the next cycle, dialed the
number again and said, "Mary? This is Harry Ogden."
"Ogden? You must have the wrong number. I don't know anyone by
that name."
"Don't you remember? I went to the University of Delaware with you.
I remember you. You're a brunette about a hundred and thirty
pounds and—"
"Well, not quite that much."
By calling dozens of times, he used the system to learn more and
more about Mary Jeffers, until at last he knew enough to convince
her within a few minutes that he was a friend from her college days
whom she'd forgotten.
As he talked with her during various cycles that totaled weeks, he
began to feel as if she were a friend, and the desire to see her in
person increased. The sight of anyone would have done wonders to
break the monotony, and she was the only possibility since all the
other apartments were empty.
"I have the apartment next to yours," he said during one time cycle.
"Can I come over?"
"I'm not dressed," she replied. "I was taking a shower. Give me time
to get dressed."
He glanced at his watch and saw that only four minutes remained in
that cycle. He realized despairingly that there wasn't time for her to
get dressed. All his efforts had been in vain: ten minutes wasn't long
enough to phone her, go through the carefully memorized routine
convincing her he was an old friend, wait for her to dress and open
the door of her apartment.
It couldn't be done in ten minutes!
Boredom was like a hungry beast that breathed in his ears with a
roar of silence while he sat through several succeeding cycles.
Silence. It seemed to echo in his ears as he looked about the
apartment. It seemed to whisper that he was losing the duel. The
Martian's trap was working: he would sit and wait, and think, and
think endlessly until they were wild thoughts and he was insane. And
then, the Martian would have his revenge, for insanity was a form of
walking death....
He made a decision. He had fought boredom legally and exhausted
every method he could think of. If there were no more legal ways,
then he would fight boredom illegally. The police couldn't reach him
in ten minutes no matter what he did.
Dialing Mary Jeffers' phone number at the beginning of the next
cycle, he laid the receiver on the desk, ran across the room and
climbed through the window.
The stone ledge just beneath his window wasn't very wide, but by
inching his way along it, he reached the open window of apartment
1403.
Climbing through the window, he saw that Mary Jeffers had picked
up the telephone receiver with one hand and was trying to dry
herself with a towel in the other.
"Hello," she said.
Her back was to him, but he noticed that she wasn't very efficient
with the towel. Water dripped from her body and collected in a small
pool around her feet.
He grinned and said, "Hello."
She whirled to face him and dropped the telephone receiver, her
dark brown eyes widening.
"Harry Ogden," he said. "Remember?"
As soon as he asked the question, he knew it was a foolish one. The
time trap was his trap alone and only he was conscious of all the
repeated cycles. She was unaware of all their previous
conversations and he was now a stranger to her.
She backed away and let out a scream.
It didn't bother him. It was music to his ears—a sound that broke the
silence of his peculiar world—a weapon to combat boredom with,
and he reflected that he would make many trips to apartment 1403....

The ruby rolled across the table and fell to the floor.
He smiled as he picked the ruby up from the floor. He estimated that
he'd lived more than twenty years in ten-minute intervals, and
therefore the trap was not a death-trap. He'd discovered countless
ways of fighting boredom and knew he would never succumb to it
and resultant insanity. He had entered the other apartments by using
the stone ledge and breaking through the windows. In them he had
found a total of hundreds of books ... a pair of binoculars that he
used to study a multitude of new things from his window ... a
typewriter that he used to write books although there was never a
completed manuscript ... a chess set ... decks of cards ... hobbies....
There were many more possibilities that he hadn't explored yet and
he realized that the Martian had given him a valuable gift: extra
years of life.
It seemed incredible that a machine could operate continuously for
twenty years, but the ancient Martians had been expert in
constructing devices without moving parts. He knew little science,
but he could vaguely imagine a sort of "gateway" to the space-time
continuum that the removal of the ruby had opened. Perhaps during
a ten-minute period a predetermined amount of energy passed
through the "gateway" and flowed against a radioactive substance in
a way and with a force that thrust a few atoms backward in time to
the point when the energy didn't exist and that established the cycle.
With moving parts, the machine wouldn't have run continuously for
twenty years. Something would have broken down. Even without
moving parts, the machine wouldn't run forever; the materials
themselves would deteriorate sooner or later, or the energy passing
through them from the space-time continuum would gradually
disintegrate them no matter how strong they were. But for as long as
the device operated, he would live without growing old. If it ran a
hundred years, he would live a hundred years....

The ruby rolled across the table and fell to the floor.
He rubbed his aching head. He had lived approximately thirty years
at ten-minute intervals, but the headache had started and grown in
intensity during the last year and it was difficult to recall and
appreciate all the things he had done.

The ruby rolled....

How many years had he lived? Fifty? A hundred? He was unable to
calculate it any more, and it was even difficult to think about much
simpler things. His mind was filled with memories ... millions ...
billions ... trillions of endless, countless memories without any sleep
to relax his mind ... with no rest at all....

The ruby....
He no longer moved about the apartment, but sat in the chair during
every cycle and watched the ruby as it rolled endlessly. Memories
were like a crushing, paralyzing weight in his mind ... a weight that
grew and grew and....
The old Martian he had killed would have his revenge. He realized
the ingenious machine was much more than a gift or a death-trap. It
was a torture machine. A torture machine that would operate for
centuries; a machine that would gradually crush his mind and kill him
with the sheer weight of memories....
He screamed.