摘要：Nutrition has proved to be a particularly favourable field of research as a source of
anthropological data and for appreciating the richness of ethnolinguistic diversity.
This article aims to present some of the linguistic phenomena observed during the
field research into street food in Bonanjo, an area in the center of Douala, the
economic capital of Cameroon. The Enthnolinguistic material regarding the culinary
aspects has been gathered in urban context where different languages and dialects are
used in the social communication. This refers primarily to Cameroonian-French,
Douala, Ewondo and Eton.
The first phenomenon observed is an extension of the synonymous range; in simple
terms, there is a great variety of synonyms used to describe the same type of food or
key ingredient. The second occurrence reported is an inclination towards the use of
synesthesia, for example expressions concerning trade and business commerce. The
third phenomenon is polysemy, illustrated by a small sample of linguistic expressions.
A number of proverbs and idiomatic expressions in Ewondo, the context used and
semantic field of reference were grammatically analyses. The final section of the
article illustrates Ewondo’s terminology used in the context of taste perception and the
synesthesiae which appeared in the linguistic images.
