Verbal gestures in Cameroon

This paper details the nature of a set of extra-grammatical units that we call ver-
bal gestures, found in several communities in the Central, Littoral, and Southern
regions of Cameroon. We lay out the verbal gestures found in these communities,
explain their usage and distribution within the context of the community and the
language of the user, and situate the system of verbal gestures found in Cameroon
in the larger linguistic context of Cameroonian multilingualism. Furthermore, we
make preliminary proposals for a system of sounds that exists outside of that of
the primary phonemic system, which interacts with the system of verbal gestures.