Esther Phubon Chie


Esther Phubon Chie is Associate Professor of African Linguistics and Chair of the Department of Linguistics and African Languages in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Bamenda, Cameroon. She holds a PhD in Theoretical Linguistics, with specialisation in Phonetics and Phonology from the University of Yaounde 1 and also earned a Master and Bachelor degrees from the University of Buea. Her research areas of interest include phonological analyses of Cameroonian languages, discourse analyses, multilingualism and multiculturalism, cross- cultural Communication, language attitude, language teaching, and language use. She has over 25 publications in international and national peered review journals, over 10 book chapters and a co-edited book to her credit. Besides lecturing at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in some Cameroon state universities, she has supervised over 50 Long Essays (Research Projects), 35 Master dissertations and 7 PhD theses and currently supervising more than10 PhD theses.

Professor Esther Chie has also travelled extensively, mostly in Africa and a few times beyond and has presented several academic and research papers at national and international conferences on diverse themes in the field of Linguistics. Some of these conferences include: The 30th and 33rd West African Linguistics Congress (WALC); 1st International Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Gender Networking Conference (AvHFGNC); 7th and 9th World Congress of African Linguistics (WOCAL7-9); 47th Annual Congress of African Linguistics (ACAL-47). She is a member of the research/academic associations, some of which include Frontiers Research Group (FRG); Vespers Humanities Circles (VHC); West African Linguistics Society (WALS); Cameroon Professional Research Oriented Women Network (CaPROWN); Sociolinguistics Profile for Development (SPDC). She is Editor to journals amongst which: Journal of Asian and African Studies (JAS); Journal of Asian and African Studies (JAAS), Journal of African and Humanities (JAH); and African Journal of Language and Media Studies (IJALMS).

Professor Chie has benefitted from full sponsorship to attend conferences and attend summer schools some of which include: The Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA); National Science Fund, United States of America, University of Amsterdam and GLOW; National Science Foundation Conference Grant BNC-1546957; and Charity 1070616 for Endangered Language Documentation Programme (ELDP).

Important Publications

Chie E. (2023). Promotion of National Languages in Official Sectors in Cameroon: Myth or Reality? The International Journal of African Language and Media Studies (IJALMS). 3 (1): 5-17.
Chuo L., Chiatoh B. and Chie E. (2023). Challenges of Integrating Anglophone Internally Displaced Persons into their Host Communities: The Case of Douala and Yaoundé. International Journal of Language Education (IJLE). 1 (1 & 2): 130-140.
Cheo V. Chie E. Ngong J-M. (2022). Language Use and the Marketing Communication Strategies of Ambulant Bus Vendors: The Case of the Northwest Region of Cameroon. Journal of Arts and Humanities. 6(1): 293-321.
Menguie Y., Seino E., and Chie E. (2022). Migration and Multilingualism: The Case of Lower Fungom (LF) Migrants in Souza. African Journal of Social Sciences. 13(2): 41-54.
Chie E. (2021). Phonological adaptation of loanwords in Babanki: An Optimality Theory Approach. International Journal of Humanitatis Theoreticus. 5(1): 73-88.
Chie E. (2021). A phonological Analysis of Cameroonian Pronunciation: An Investigation of Diphthongs and Triphthongs. Journal of Arts and Humanities. 3(1): 183-198.
Chie E. (2021) Linguistics, religious and philosophical basis of naming in Babanki. Journal of Arts and Humanities. 3(1): 183-198.
Njoh A.J., Chie E., and Soh-Agwetang F. C. (2021). Evolution of Colonial Towns and Factors Influencing Toponymic Practices in Germano-Anglo Cameroon. Journal of Asian and African Studies. Online DOI: 10.1177/00219096211014243.
Chie E. (2020). Prosodic domain rules in Babanki. In Yuka C., Ahoua F. & Rialland A. (eds.), The role of West African Languages: Development and Integration. Publications of the West African Linguistics Congress. 74-88. L’Harmattan.
Njoh A.J. and Chie E. Bigon L. (2020). CDC Company Towns in Cameroon: A Case of Shaping Built Space to Articulate Power and Social Control in Colonial and Postcolonial Perspectives. Journal of West African History. 6(1): 91-112.
Akumbu, P. W. and E. P. Chie. (2020). Multilingualism among the Mbororo of the North-West Region of Cameroon: An overview. In Pierpaolo Di Carlo & Jeff Good (eds.), African MultilingualismS: Rural linguistic and cultural diversity. 3-14. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Njoh A.J. and Chie E. (2019). Vocabularies of Spatiality in French Colonial Urbanism: Some Covert Rationales of Street Names in Colonial Dakar, West Africa and Saigon, Indochina. Journal of Asian and African Studies. 54(8): 1109-1127.
Akumbu P. W. and E. P. Chie. (eds). (2019). Engagement with Africa. Linguistics essays in honor of Professor Ngessimo M. Mutaka. Rüdiger köppe Verlag: Köln.
Chie E. (2019). Evidence for the phonological and intonational domains in Babanki. In P. Akumbu and E. Chie (eds.), Engagement with Africa. Linguistics essays in honor of Professor Ngessimo M. Mutaka. 31-46. Rüdiger köppe Verlag: Köln.
Chie E. (2016). An optimality theory analysis of Nŋwé syllable structure. In Linda Chinelo Nkamigbo and Felicia Oluchukwu Asadu (eds.), Current issues in linguistics, language and gender studies. A festschrift in honour of Professor Cecilia Amaoge Eme. Nkpor: Brystevand
Chie E. (2014) Kejom (Babanki) syllable structure. Epasa Moto: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Arts, Letters and the Humanities. 1(2): 38-66.
Akumbu P. W. and E. Chie. (2010). Language in contact: The case of the Fulbe dialect of Kejom. African Studies Monographs. 31(4): 173-187.
Mutaka, N. and E. Chie. (2006). Vowel raising in Babanki. Journal of West African Languages. Vol. 33, No. 1:71-88.

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