Cameroon’s language policy with regard to national languages is evolving. It can therefore be divided into four successive phases: respect for linguistic rights, contempt and banishment, non-interference, and then protection and promotion.

• Phase 1: Respect for linguistic rights. This policy was based on the free use of national languages in all communication situations be it private or public. It prevailed until the emergence of European languages, particularly German, French and English in favour of the different colonial conquests.
• Phase 2: Contempt and banishment of Cameroonian languages. Carried out by the various colonial administrations in Cameroon, this policy consecrated the crushing of national languages in favour of the domination and free expansion of two colonial languages; namely English and French which had been established as official languages. It is based on regulatory provisions and coercive and linguicidal practices, mainly in administration and Far from being eradicated, this policy of contempt and banishment has been disastrous for Cameroonian languages which are now threatened with extinction.
• Phase 3: Non-interference. The non-interference policy from extends from the beginning of the 1960s, with the country’s independence, until the end of1995, on the eve of the constitution revision of January 1996. Without the different colonial documents and practices that weighed on national languages being lifted, Cameroon tolerated multiple initiatives of linguists and catholic and protestant missionaries in favour of the study and teaching of these languages. This period would had been marked, among others, by the installation in Cameroon of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) in 1969, the deployment of the Projet/Programme de Recherche Opérationnelle pour l’Enseignement des Langues au Cameroun/Operational Research Project for the Teaching of Languages in Cameroon (PROPELCA) from 1978, and the publication of General Alphabet for Cameroonian Languages in 1979 which will constitutes, not only the foundation of the rebirth of national languages, but the reference for the development and implementation of these languages.
• Phase 4: Protection and promotion of national languages. This policy is based on the constitutional law n° 96/06 of 18 January 18, 1996 and many legislative and regulatory texts, including law n^o 98/004 of April 14, 1998 on Educational Orientation in Cameroon. In favour of this new linguistic legislation, considerable efforts are deployed at the level of the state, linguistic communities, organisations and individuals in order to revive the vitality of Cameroonian languages. The integration of these languages in the formal educational system is an illustration of this.

This language policy is based on two essential pillars, namely language legislation and language institutions.