The French Use in Senegal by Sébastien TENDENG

UNIVERSITE GASTON BERGER DE SAINT-LOUIS UFR LETTRES ET SCIENCES HUMAINES SECTION D’ANGLAIS

Academic year 2006/2007

The use of the French language in Senegal

Presented by: Sébastien TENDENG Under the direction of: Pr Mawéja MBAYA

U n i v e r s i t é G a s t o n B e r g e r d e S a i n t - L o u i s R o u t e d e N g a l l è l e B P 2 3 4 T E L : 3 3 9 6 1 1 7 6 8 / 3 3 9 6 1 1 9 0 6 F A X : 3 3 9 6 1 1 8 8 4 w w w . u g b . s n

Sébastien TENDENG The Use of the French Language in Senegal

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION…………………………………...…………………………… page 3

I- STATUS: Official, Foreign or Vehicular language?........................................page 5

II-LANGUAGE POLICY IN SENEGAL………………………....…………...page 8 A- POLITICAL ASPECT………………………………………….....…………page 10

B- LINGUISTIC ASPECT……………………………………………..……...…page 12

III-THE USE OF FRENCH IN SENEGAL: Sociolinguistic features…..page 14

A-POLITICAL FIELD………………………………………………………........page 15 1-Official texts..............................................................................................................page 15 2- Courts………......………………………………………………...……………… . .page 15 3- Political parties…………………………………………………………..…… …page 15

B-SOCIO-CULTURAL FIELD...…………………………………………...….page 16 1- Education…….…………………………………………………………………….page 16 2- Religion……….……………………………………………………………………page 17 3- Mass media………….………………………………………………………….….page 18

IV-SENEGALESE FRENCH: Some linguistic features………….……...page 20

A- PHONOLOGY……………………………………………………………..……page 22 B- MORPHOLOGY………………………………………...…………………..…page 23C- SEMANTICS…………………………………....……………………………….page 25D- BORROWINGS AND NEOLOGISMS……………….…………………..page 26

V-LANGUAGE CONTACT: Sociolinguistic features..…….………………page 28

A- COMPETITION / CONFLICT…………...…………………………….…..page 29 B- CONVIVIALITY / COMPLEMETARITY...………………………..…..page 31 C- DIGLOSSIA…………………………………………………………………...…page 35

CONCLUSION…...…………………………………………………………...……page 38

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………...…………………………………………..…page 40

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INTRODUCTION In the classification made on the languages’ situations in Black

Africa, Senegal, with some other countries like Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mali,

and Congo etc., is classified as being a linguistically heterogeneous state. This

heterogeneity, corollary of the contact of the languages (official as well as

national), presents Senegal as a linguistic battle field on which partners, who

have no other solution but the recourse to a linguistic deus ex machina1: the

French language, cohabit or compete. Inherited from the colonizers, the French

language, or at least its use in French-speaking Black Africa in general and in

Senegal in particular, is problematic especially concerning its status.

Thus, in the development of our work which relates to the use

of the French language in Senegal, we aim first at studying or delimiting the

status of this language inherited from colonization, then at approaching the

linguistic policy of Senegal through its two most determining facets namely the

political and the linguistic ones. Just after that, we will get to the heart of the

matter by making a thorough study of the use of the language of Moliere in

Senegal. We will see in this part of the work how French is used in the various

spheres of the Senegalese socio political and cultural daily life (official texts,

political parties, education, religion...). We will also be interested, during this

same work, with the analysis of some grammatical aspects of Senegalese French

which, far from being a pale copy of standard French, is a pure Senegalese

linguistic reality which does not simply limit to copy but to create its own

terminology inspired from French French. At last, we will study that language

contact to which we were referring in the first lines of this introduction.

1 Palliative

3


This work is the fruit of a hard-work bibliographical research

that had led us to visit the main library, the resource centre and even the

C.L.A.D's2 library where a great deal of the articles cited here are from. This

bibliographical research was especially difficult because of the problems we

have encountered in finding some books that were available in the main library

but which we could not find because they were hidden by the students. Another

difficulty is that quite all our documentation is in French and we were obliged to

do the synthesis and when needed to translate. To these problems of

documentation, we can add that of the oldness of the data. The working-out of

this dossier was not only composed of difficulties, let us mention it by the way,

because once in the C.L.A.D we were warmly welcomed and assisted in our

research and here is the place to thanks the archivists of this structure for want

of citing them by name.

2 Dakar Centre of Applied Linguistics

4


I- STATUS: Official, Foreign and/or Vehicular language?

If we refer to the definition provided by R. CHAUDENSON, we

can say that the "status" is nothing other but the institutional adjustment of a

multilingual situation. And the Microsoft Encarta 2006 dictionary defines it as

being, in the field of Administrative Law, a set of texts regulating the situation

or the position of a community or concerning our work of a given language.

The presence of several languages brings to pose the distinction

between the vehicular languages i.e. those used for the communication between

the members of the other speech communities, and the official language the one

used in the official matters of the state. This vehicular can be a language which

have succeeded or a foreign language equipped with a privileged status, as it is

the case of French in Senegal where it occupies the status somehow ambiguous.

French is a Senegalese national and linguistic reality but its

status even well defined in the article first of the Senegalese constitution poses a

real problem: that to know if it is not at the same time an official, foreign

language and vehicular language.

An official language is one that is so designated in some

institutional setting (such as the World Court or the United Nations) or some

political jurisdiction (a nation, state or province). Official languages are

established by laws for use in certain activities such as voting, legislation, record

keeping, transportation and education etc. And that is the role played by French

in Senegal. But another question is then to be asked: doesn’t French play the

role of a foreign language?

5


The Senegalese Official Instructions specify that French must

be taught like a second language as it was the case between 1965 and 1981

when the method Pour parler français3 was in use.

French is a foreign language used for inter African and

international communication. And as a foreign language, it is incorporated in the

school curriculum only at the twelfth year of the learner as a school subject until

the end of the secondary cycle and even of the university.

At the level o the school, it is necessary to give to French its

real place: that of a foreign language. The teaching of the French language must

get rid of its umbilical paradox, i.e. to cease using the principles and the

methods of the modern pedagogy of the foreign languages, applied to an indeed

foreign language which still profits from the schedules, but also from the

prospects of a mother tongue. It is in this sense that Moussa DAFF, a linguist of

the CLAD, asserts:

« Nous enseignons en français au Sénégal du primaire au supérieur en croyant enseigner le français. »

[We teach in French in Senegal from the primary to the higher education believing to teach the French language].

It becomes then necessary, in Senegal, to give back to French its

place in the education by really regarding it as a foreign language, vehicle of a

foreign culture and civilisation.

3 Method elaborated by the C.L.A.D, Paris, EDICEF, 1967-1977.

6


French in Senegal acquired, indeed, a true social status thanks to

its stability and its long sojourn of several decades in this country. It is the

vehicle of a valuable written literature that anybody would venture to call into

question today. Moreover, the French language has a history in Senegal since it

was born from a colonial practice and that some of its characteristics are found

in this country where, French developed at the sides of the local languages and

that’s the reason why Pierre Dumont4 labelled it “French as an African

Language” simply because it conveys cultural and local realities.

4 Refer to the introduction of Le Français Langue Africaine. Paris : l’Harmattan. 1990.

7


II- LANGUAGE POLICY Nations, most often and historically have used language policies

to promote one official language at the expense of others, many countries now

have policies designed to protect and promote regional and ethnic languages

whose viability is threatened.

Senegalese jurisdiction is a non-intervention one. A policy of

non-intervention consists in choosing to allow the normal rapport between the

main linguistic groups and the minorities evolve on its own. This almost

invariably favours the dominant group. Sometimes, such policies are

accompanied by administrative measures protecting certain minorities.

The representation of the linguistic map of Senegal

corresponds to a complex situation of multilingualism which can be described as

well in the point of view of its evolutionary dynamics, meaning languages' life,

as to that of the official action by which it is managed commonly called

language planning.

The linguistic policy or commonly called language planning

is the search and the systematic organization for the solution to be brought to

any linguistic problem which arises in a given community, generally

multilingual. One can distinguish at least two distinct aspects in any linguistic

policy: a political aspect and a linguistic aspect. In Senegal, as regards linguistic

policy, it is not rare to make the distinction between status and corpus.

8


Before going into the details of the study of this part of our work,

we will quite simply retain that the status is in the competence of the political

decision makers and concerns, for example, the choice of the official language

and that of the education system. As to the corpus, it is concerned with the use

and is thus in the competence of the technicians (linguists)…

9


A- POLITICAL ASPECT

Any project of linguistic planning comprises necessarily a

political point. But it is important to give to this adjective a very broad direction.

The first task consists in laying down a true linguistic policy concerning the

languages on the spot. Two paradoxical attitudes are possible; one can, first of

all, impose a political choice, that of the dominating group (politically,

economically, militarily…). The success of this type of policy depends largely

on the means of coercion available to the decision makers. The second attitude,

more democratic, consists in defining objectives to be reached, concerned with a

true popular consensus and to propose a distribution of the fields of application

among the languages in place. This policy having been defined, its application

must result in the development of a precise legislation.

Seen from these angles, Senegal seems to have chosen the

second alternative. The only legislative text which exists, is the article first of

the constitution which is concerned with the official language and the national

languages. As regards the popular consensus, it does not seem, there either, that

the situations are always very clear. No article in the Senegalese constitution

governs the division of the fields of application among the languages in

presence. Only the educational policy of the country can provide indications

concerning what language to study and on which level.

10


From the years immediately following the independence of

the country and even now the State seems to grope concerning the introduction

of the national languages in the higher education. The Senegalese linguistic

policy is not almost clarified in the official legislative texts; it is generally

defined in a pragmatic way, through the practice of the governments which

followed one another since the accession to the independence: from Senghor the

academician, while passing by Diouf the strategist to arrive at Wade the

humanist. In front of this situation of inexplicitness of the official texts, one

should not blame the government which seems prisoner of a vicious circle.

We can thus conclude, temporarily, in the absence of an

explicit linguistic policy in Senegal and in Black Africa in general, not without

mentioning the existence of a political good-will which we know sometimes

what it wants but which we ignore the ins and outs. The policy of non

intervention is undoubtedly the most commonly widespread.

11


B- LINGUISTIC ASPECT It is undoubtedly, and by far, the most advanced aspect of a

linguistic planning and is thus upstream from political and legislative points. It

often happened to hear L. S. Senghor declare, whereas he was still the President

of the Republic of Senegal, that before introducing the African languages into

the school syllabus it was necessary that around twenty or so theses is devoted to

them.

If we refer to the Senegalese example, it is in 1968 that the

first decree relating to the transcription of the national languages was published.

This transcription is in conformity with the proposals of the conference of

Bamako, themselves inspired from the principles adopted by the International

African Institute, which face at the same time theoretical needs (a sign for a

phenomenon) and practical (unifications of the systems of transcription of

Western Africa, use of the letters of the Latin alphabet, removal of the diacritic

signs). The project of President Senghor was to adapt to linguistic, social, even

political realities of his country:

« Quand nous disons politique […] c’est, naturellement, dans le sens de la gestion du bien commun pour rendre les citoyens plus prospères et meilleurs ».

[When we say political – he declared in the exposition of motives of the official decree - it is, naturally, in the direction of the management of the common good to make the citizens more prosperous and better].

12


But it is necessary for us, before approaching the decrees, to

recall the problem and state how it is posed. The problem, once again, is to teach

to each Senegalese how to read and write in his/her mother tongue. It is on the

basis of this concrete experiment that the President of the Republic pointed out

to the Prime Minister spelling mistakes and words separation. These last being,

finally, only spelling mistakes, it is with a problem of grammar that the State,

whose eminent responsibility is to teach, was confronted. However, there are

still neither printed grammar books, nor modern dictionaries of national

languages. It was thus necessary, while waiting, to work out rules of words

separation, as much simple and clear as possible, i.e. practical, while resting on

scientific bases. It was also necessary, at the same time, to help to avoid certain

spelling mistakes among the most frequent.

Senegal reached a new stage in its linguistic policy thanks

to the researchers of the CL.A.D and the I.F.A.N5 who published a Wolof-

French Dictionary. Indeed, this initiative is not due to an unspecified planning

since it is about a private work in which collaborated a certain number of

international academics and Africanists (a Belgian, a French and several

Senegalese). The fact that this publication is private or public does not matter at

all, the most important is that the research continues to progress and that it

makes it possible to lead to a situation of no return, imposing to the State to take

its responsibilities in the field of linguistic planning. There is no choice but to

accept that, still now the absence of essential instruments of reference to the

installation of such a policy, concerning the national languages: teaching

grammars, textbooks, instruments for the use of the languages on the radio and

television, specialized lexicons…

5 Black Africa Fundamental Institute

13


III- THE USE OF FRENCH IN SENEGAL:

Sociolinguistic features

The use of French as an official language in Senegal has a

constitutional basis. Indeed, the Senegalese legislator stipulates in the article

first of the 2001 Senegalese Constitution that:

«La langue officielle de la République du Sénégal est le français. Les langues nationales sont le Diola, le Malinké, le Poular, le Sérère, le Soninké, le Wolof et toute autre langue nationale qui sera codifiée. »

[The official language of the Republic of Senegal is French. The national languages are Diola, Mandingo, Pular, Serer, Soninke, Wolof and any other national language which will be codified].

Spoken and written French were the object of few systematic

studies. Senegal is one of the French speaking Black African countries where

the situation and the use of French are among the most privileged. It is a French-

speaking country by education. In Senegal, French is the only official language;

6 other languages out of the thirty listed in Senegal are granted the status of

national: Wolof, Pular, Serer, Mandingo, Diola and Soninke. Thus, in our

analysis of this part of our work, we will try to study the use of the French

language basing on two main axes which will be successively the political and

the sociocultural one.

14


A- POLITICAL FIELD

1- Official texts All the official texts (decree, laws, orders...) are written in a

French which takes as implicit reference, the editorial model into force in France

where the majority of the Senegalese lawyers studied. The administrative texts

are also written in French whatever their level of origin. French is the language

of the Senegalese administration.

2- Courts French is the only language used in front of the various Courts

although on the level of the districts and villages the resolving of certain minor

conflicts, are ensured by the Chief of district or village and /or the religious

authority of the locality, in national language according to rules of the Common

Law6. In the linguistically heterogeneous communities, it is the most popular

vehicular language which is used.

3- Political parties The documents of the political parties are generally written in

French in a stereotyped language revealing easily the ideological nature of the

party. The information inside the parties and of the trade-union organizations is

almost always conceived in French and when it is communicated to the

population, it is always in a mixed language, the concepts learned in French

being not easily translatable in national languages.

6 In the village or the traditional society someone who commits a fault is to be judged by his/her peers.

15


B- SOCIO-CULTURAL FIELD

1- Education French is as well vehicle as means of teaching in the primary

school, the secondary and the higher education. Within the boundaries of the

schools and colleges as in the corridors of the university, the pupils, students and

teachers do not hesitate any more, contrarily to what occurred a few years ago

(in particular concerning the university7), to use vehicular language also present

in the courses to contribute to comprehension. Four of the six national languages

are taught at the university as optional languages (Wolof, Pular, Serer, and

Diola).

The functional elimination of illiteracy taken into the

responsibility of the D.A.F.B8 as of NGO9 and many cultural organizations (like

the A.R.P10) is led in national language.

7 Cheikh Anta Diop: these languages are used in the framework of an experimental policy8 Direction de l’Alphabétisation et de la Formation de Base: «Elimination of illiteracy and Basic Training Management»9 Non Governmental Organisations 10 Association pour la Renaissance du Poular: “Association for the Rebirth of Pular”

16


2- Religion It is in the field of the worship that the use of the national

languages is the most developed but French is used as second language in

churches and Arabic in the mosques. Religious teaching is dispensed in Arabic

for the Moslems and French for the Christians (but sometimes in national

languages). The Islamic law is taught in Arabic and national language. The

teacher or the Koran master organizes collective meetings of translation and

reading of the Koran. In the radio, religious programmes are initially

broadcasted in Arabic then translated into national languages for the Moslems

and French then in national languages for the Christians.

17


3- Mass media

The radio stations and the newspapers industries broadcast almost

exclusively in French even if some of them like “Téranga”, “Manoré”, “Ndéf

Leng”, and “Kabissa”… have names in national languages (Wolof, Serer, and

Diola).

The radio privileges French, whether it is the national11 or the

international station12. Within the small time section reserved for the national

languages, it is Wolof which occupies the 2/3.

The broadcasting by the radio of administrative

information, in the form of official communiqués (practice very current in

Senegal) is done initially in French then in national languages. Information in

national languages is generally an approximate translation of the French text.

Rare are, in fact, the journalists who write their texts directly in national

language.

Television and the cinema also grant a very important place

to French. Only the folk emissions are transmitted in national languages. The

theatrical production was exclusively in French with the national troupe of

Daniel Sorano but with the privatization and the liberalization of certain TV

channels like the R.T.S 2S13 and very recently the birth of the R.D.V14 this

production is in very great part in Wolof with troupes like “Jiankén”, “Daraay

Kooc”, “Guney tééy”, “Libidor” and even “Soleil Levant” which name is

French but the production is exclusively in national language mainly in Wolof.

11 Senegalese Radio Television: « Radio Télévision Sénégalaise »12 Senegalese International Radio: « Radio Sénégal Internationale» 13 Second Senegalese TV channel and first private one, it is exclusively cultural. 14 Third Senegalese TV channel second private one, it is also exclusively cultural. “Radio Dunya Vision”

18


Publishing is almost entirely in French if some works of

elimination of illiteracy are excluded but we should not neglect an important

literary production in national language written in Arab characters.

To sum up we can say that in all the above sectors,

French is used along with the national languages and Arabic.

19


IV- SENEGALESE FRENCH: Some linguistic features

Born from the contact of the French language with the

Senegalese languages and realities, Senegalese French is a linguistic and social

reality that nobody today would venture to deny, but its existence was officially

recognized by Léopold Sédar Senghor, then President of the Republic of

Senegal, during the Eighth Biennial of the French language which was held in

Jersey in January, 1980.

There is a Senegalese French and we can note that the French

language, such as it is practised everyday in Senegal (and this applies to all the

African countries but to differing degree), is not completely that which is

practised daily in France; but it is always the French language as tried to show

the authors of the Lexique du Français du Sénégal15:

« De même qu’il existe un français du Canada ou un français de Belgique qui possèdent leurs originalités parce qu’ils reflètent les réalités de leur pays, de même il existe un français du Sénégal qui, s’il n’est pas né dans les mêmes circonstances que le français canadien et belge, a, lui aussi, son originalité. »

15 Refer to the Introduction of the Lexique du français du Sénégal par J. BLONDE, P. DUMONT, D. GONTIER ; EDICEF, NEA, Paris, Dakar, 1979, 155 pages

20


[In the same way there is Canadian French or Belgian French which has their originalities because they reflect realities of their country, in the same way there is Senegalese French which, if it was not born in the same circumstances as Canadian and Belgian French, has, also, its originality].

French as spoken in Senegal is a variety with the grammatical

structures different from that of French of France in spite of some apparent

analogies. So, after this brief advocacy of the existence of Senegalese French,

we’ll be devoted to study some grammatical features of this variety of French

starting by the phonology, then the morphology, the semantic and at last the

borrowings and neologisms.

Senegalese French is different from French just like Canadian or

Belgian French is different from French.

21


A- PHONOLOGY

The major differences existing between the African languages

and French make phonological integration be one of the important criteria of the

selection of the Africanisms. In many cases, the borrowing preserves two

pronunciations, one Wolof (or African) and the other one French.

The coexistence of the two pronunciations is a proof of the

difficulty encountered by the phonological loans which are to be integrated into

the French system. Each word is treated like a separated unit according to

phonological characteristics and not according to the system of the receiving

language.

There exists, an important phenomenon characterizing the

phonology of Senegalese French: it is phonological Frenchization. A concrete

example is that of the prenasalized /mb /, /nd/ and /ng/ reduced to simple

occlusive: /b /, /d/ and /g/.

"mbantamaré16" becomes "bantamaré" /mb/ → /b/

"ndiouli17" becomes "diouli" /nd/ → /d/

"ngir18" becomes "gir" /ng/ → /g/

Other relevant features in the African languages disappear while

passing to French. It is the case, for example, of the vocalic length which

disappears in a word like "khessal19" resulting from the Wolof "xeesal".

16A plant which leafs smell good17A circumcised boy18 Wolof word for « for ». « Ngir Yalla » meaning: « For God's sake »19 A cosmetic product used by Senegalese dark skinned women to enlight

22


The Senegalese French phonology is generally correct. It attests

an effort of the speaker to produce a speech "in the French way".

B- MORPHOLOGY

The current processes of the morphological neology are found in

the study of the Senegalese French. They are numerous but we have chosen to

raise some of them which appear to be more frequently used. It is the case of the

derivation and the composition.

Concerning derivation, in all the encountered cases, this

process fits in the overall organization of the French system in accordance with

the rules of this language. The principle of derivation is as follows: Senegalese

radical + French suffix. The most frequently used suffixes are “- erie”, “- isier”

and “- iste” as shown in the following examples:

"dibi" gives "dibiterie""toubab" gives "toubabisier" "cora" gives "coraïste" or "coriste"

23


As for composition, the processes are also numerous

but we chose to illustrate the case of the composed words linked by a dash.

These words are sometimes made up either of a Senegalese word and a French

word, or of two French words separated by a dash. The following examples

illustrate in a good way this phenomenon:

"basin-riche": damasked dimity used for the clothes of formal occasions.

"borom-cantine": means a shopkeeper. “Borom” being in Wolof the “owner”

and “cantine” is the French word for a shop.

"car-rapide": van arranged for public transport and stopping either at fixed

places, or on demand.

24


C- SEMANTICS

Any shift in meaning or connotation justifies the existence of an

Africanism20. In Senegal, if someone "bouffe"21, it is not that he/she “mange

gloutonnement”22, it is not, either, that he/she tends to “parler gras”23..., it is

quite simply that he/she eats, another example is that of " bouloter24", meaning,

of course, to work. Next to these words, we have others like "pisser"25,

"fumiste"26 and so many others which were integrated into the Lexique du

Français du Sénégal.

The semantic transfers, the shifts in meaning due to the

linguistic contacts, to the Gallicisms and the mixing of registers, or their

absence, are as many grammatical phenomena which characterize Senegalese

French.

20 Word, expression or syntactic turn of phrase characteristic of the French spoken in Black Africa. 21 To grab22 To guzzle23 To speak coarsely or gutturally.24 To eat a lot and no matter what.25 To piss or to have a pee.26 Shirker (pejorative)

25


D- BORROWINGS AND NEOLOGISMS Senegalese French is not only confined to borrow; it also

generates new words, in accordance with the practices and the rules of the

French language. The word “essencerie”27 (from now on accommodated by the

French Academy28) formed on the model “épicerie”29 , sounds more French than

“station service”30. Also appear creations like “enceinter”31, “primature”32,

“droiter”33, etc. Witnesses of the profitable contacts between French and the

African languages, neologisms like “dibiterie”34, “coraïste”35 or “balafoniste”36

are not more exotic than words like “interviewing”, “speakerine” "and

“dribbler”.

Due to a real social use different from the hexagonal use, the

Senegalisation37 thus noticed of the French language is not limited to simple

usances. At the same time as the creation of new semantic fields or the

restriction of those which exist, there is no choice but to recognize that there

exist other types of deviations and composition in connection with the social and

cultural Senegalese realities and giving place to a particular linguistic treatment.

The Senegalese appropriated the French language and Senegalese French is not

an invention of linguists in lack of imagination, it’s a reality with which one

must count on from now onwards.

The speech of the Senegalese French is characterized by short

statements, organized according to a limited number of syntactic diagrams 27 Gas station28 French Academy was founded in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu for the principal purpose of standardizing the French language.29 Grocery shop 30 Real word, in French for gas station31 To make pregnant32 The post of Prime Minister33 To park a car on the right side of the road.34 A place where is sold grill meat called in Wolof « dibi ».35 A musician who plays an instrument called Cora or also written Kora.36 An artist who plays an instrument called balafon or balafong in this case the word is balafongiste. 37 Process by which the Senegalese appropriate the French language making if be the Senegalese appartenance.

26


articulated mainly by parataxis, methods and other functional words used by the

speakers being generally foreign to French. The vocabulary used hybrid and is

very limited, possibly enriched by a very frequent recourse to the periphrasis or

the copy, rather than by the processes of derivation and compositions suitable to

the French language.

27


V- LANGUAGE CONTACT:Sociolinguistic features

When several human communities are in contact, it is seldom on a

foot of strict equality. In the majority of the cases, their individuals do not have

the same access to the wealth, to the power (political, economic, cultural...), to

the material or symbolic capital. The objective situations see themselves

moreover regularly coupled to subjective representations: often, the

communities do not give each other the same consideration, each one

experiencing for the other or for itself feelings which derive from disdain,

attraction or esteem, in complex ratios, where, in backdrop, figure generally the

more or less clear perception of a domination exercised on the other or by the

other.

The description of the situation of language contact in Senegal

will be managed under both the interior and the exterior angles meaning we aim

at studying the ratios maintained by the national languages between themselves

on the one hand and on the other one see their individual or collective relations

with French, official language of the country through some of the different

phenomena characterizing language contact namely conflict or competition,

complementarity or cohabitation and diglossia.

28


A-COMPETITION / CONFLICT

We know exactly the first official measurement for the defence

of the French language, the first great linguistic law: it is the well-known

Villers-Cotterêts ordinance taken by François I in 1539:

« Nous voulons dorénavant que tous les arrêts […] soit de nos cours souveraines ou d’autres subalternes ou inférieurs, soit de registres, enquêtes, contrats, commissions, sentences, testament, et autres quelconque acte et exploit de justice […] soient prononcés et délivrés aux parties en langue maternelle français et non autrement ».

[We want henceforth that all judgements [...] either of our sovereign courts or other subordinates or inferiors, or of records, investigations, contracts, commissions, sentences, testaments, and other unspecified act and exploit of justice [... ] are pronounced and delivered to the parts in French mother tongue and not differently ].

The adversary at that time was Latin but here in Senegal, French is

confronted with the local languages, especially Wolof and the Anglo-Saxon

language. The conflict between French and the local languages in Senegal is

illustrated by the contradiction that exists in the official functions granted to

French and Wolof on the one hand and the real use done by the society on each

of these languages on the other hand.

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Language of the capital, Dakar, and of the large cities, Wolof is

spoken today by more than 80% of the Senegalese population. It is also spoken

in the close countries: the Gambia and Mauritania. Wolof becomes thus in

Senegal more than a national language is a super vehicular language38. Only

between 1039 and 12%40 of the Senegalese population is able to write and read

French but even so it is the language of all the official matters of the country.

The conflict between French and the local languages is also noticeable in the

level of the Parliament where all of them are used.

French, the official language of Senegal, in fact faces on the

level of the daily use, a great competition on behalf of the national languages. It

also faces, in the cultural and informal sector, with the competition of the

Anglo-Saxon language.

Recent studies41 showed indeed that the large majority of the

Senegalese resort to the local languages in the informal situations, and even in

certain formal contexts such as the parliamentary debates or some times in

education and the administration.

As for the English language, it becomes firmly in the private

sector and in the cultural activities in this country (music and art). English is

taught officially starting from secondary school to university. It is also taught in

several private centres42 which are born each day in Dakar and in the large cities.

As to conflict between local languages themselves, the case of

Wolof and Pular is a good example because these languages compete mainly in

the field of broadcasting concerning the internal communication.

38 Mbaya 2005 page 12339 Ndiaye 2000 page 1040 Dumont 1983 page 2341 Diagne 1998; Sow 2001 Nakoulima 2000 and Mbaya 200542 British Council, British Senegalese Institute…

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B- CONVIVIALITY / COMPLEMENTARITY

The time of the conflicts is over, at least in the sense that one

could hear the term "conflict" at the following day of the independences: French

versus national languages. Senegal is a multilingual country like many other

African countries. The foreign languages mix with the local languages in the

ethnic, inter ethnic and official communication. It is an environment where

vernacular, vehicular and official languages live together. The languages in this

country live certain in situation of conflict as we have seen in the preceding

chapter but other live in situation of complementarity.

Talking about the French-speaking countries and considering it

as a cultural doctrine and a principle of action, Léopold Sédar SENGHOR never

presents it in terms of opposition, neither inside, nor outside Senegal. The

president and poet does not detect in this total adhesion to the language of the

former colonizer any risk of alienation. Wanting to avoid to Senegal, as a

realistic and wise political leader, the fearing ordeal of linguistic tearings, he

preaches the virtues of symbiosis and complementarity:

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« En réalité, comme souvent au Sénégal, nous avons refusé de nous enfermer dans un dilemme désuet, nous l’avons reposé en des termes nouveaux et nous avons choisi, en même temps, les deux termes de l’alternative. C’est ainsi que nous avons décidé de choisir le français comme « langue officielle » de travail et de communication internationale, tandis que nos six langues principales – wolof, sérère, peul, diola, malinké et soninké – seraient promues au rang de langues nationales parce que d’expression de nos valeurs nationales : négro-africaines43.

[Actually, as often in Senegal, we refused to lock up ourselves in an obsolete dilemma, we laid it in new terms and we have chosen, at the same time, the two terms of the alternative. Thus we decided to choose French as "official language" of work and international communication, while our six principal languages - Wolof, Serer, Pula, Diola, Malinke and Soninke - would be promoted to the rank of national languages because expressing our national values: Negro-African ones].

43 Extracted from the opening speech of the C.I.L.F colloquium pronounced by L. S. SENGHOR on May, 23rd, 1976.

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In Senegal, French and Wolof which seem to be adversaries in the

official field are in fact very good neighbours who cohabit mainly in discourse of

the youth44. This cohabitation results in a speech qualified by sociolinguists as

hybrid or corrupted simply because it seems to be neither Wolof nor French. An

example from NDIAYE M. L. 2000 is a good illustration of this French-Wolof

cohabitation:

“Daño jel l’Arique comme un échantillon, comme une souris bo xamné ñom dañuy préparé sen ay politique ñeuw bëg ko imposer les Africains alors que réalités yi bokuñu. Surtout diamano dji ñu nek ni, on ne peut pas vivre dans un univers clos. War neñu accepter ouverture bi mais avant ñu koy accepter tamit war neñu kotek ci ay règles yo xamné dafa leer non. Tant que politique bi réglè wunu ko économie du muna taxaw, stabilité politique su amul ci rew, économie bi du muna dox. 45”

The language used in this discussion is Wolof46.But only the words

written in bold caracteres are Wolof ones.

44 NDIAYE 200045In this speech the Wolof words are in bold characters the rest being French ones.46 MBAYA 2005 page 20

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Another case of cohabitation is that of Wolof and English

always found in the youth language. These words are sometimes borrowings

this is the case of bujuman47, siruman48 and taximan49 to mention only these.

This mixture of languages is the result of multilingualism status of the

Senegalese youth because once at the secondary school, the Senegalese student

is at least a trilingual speaker.

In this 3rd millennium, French and national languages are

mutually implied in all the current processes of development. From this new

cohabitation were born new ratios of coexistence which were established

between these languages.

47 A scavenger48 A cab driver who works during the night49 A cab driver

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C- DIGLOSSIA

As one can notice, macro-sociolinguistic studies, very often, raise

the question of language domination in a given multilingual country. It is to

express this domination of one language A upon another one B that was created

the concept of diglossia.

The principal ingredients of a typically diglossic situation which

hides its name, or which is unaware of it are thus gathered in the Seventies,

namely the intellectual, social, economic and politic devaluing of the African

languages and the over valuation of a "high" variety of French, that of the

Parisian high society which they continue to impose at that time on the whole of

the school population, to the contempt of regionalisms and other Africanisms

lowered to the simple state of faults or deviances in a more or less folk nature. It

is in this context that we can understand the declaration made by the Senegalese

representative at the 8th general assembly of the A.I.P.L.F50:

« La politique d’assimilation fut pendant plus de cent ans au Sénégal et ailleurs le but ultime de la France, et la langue française, un instrument efficace qui se voulait au service de cet objectif »51.

50 French-speaking International Parliamentarian Association51 Extract from the speech made by C. VALENTIN, deputy of Senegal, at the time of the 8th general assembly of AIPLF held in Dakar from July, 07th to July, 14th, 1977.

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[The assimilation policy was during more than one hundred years in Senegal and elsewhere the ultimate goal of France, and the French language, an effective instrument at the disposal of this objective].

In the present days, many languages are in a situation of diglossia

in Senegal. The most important cases are those between French and English and

that of French and Arabic and at last that of Wolof and Arabic to mention only

these.

French and English are in situation of diglossia even if

English is only a foreign language in this country. French continues to be used

in the official sector whereas English takes root in the informal sector (music

and arts) and is becoming more the language of the youth.

French and Arabic are also in diglossic situation; the first

being used in the Christian religion and the second being the language of Islam.

Wolof is in the same diglossic situation with Arabic; the first language is

considered as being the language of Mouridism the confraternity founded by

Serigne Touba Khadim Rassoul and the second one being considered as the

language of Islam.

36


The point on which everybody seem to agree with, is that this

French-speaking countries is one of contact (French / African languages)

characterized in all the fields by a considerable imbalance between, on the one

hand, the political importance and the material means granted to the

development of French and, on the other hand, the weakness of the means put at

the disposal of the African languages. It is clear that a diglossic situation as that

found in Senegal is full of social, political, psychological implications which

must be located in order to give account of the complexity of the situation. To

give account of a French-speaking situation or more generally of a multilingual

situation, it is to be able to account for the way in which French or another

language is recipient of these confrontations, which role it plays in these

contacts of languages.

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CONCLUSION How to conclude differently than by the repetition and the brief

summary of what we took care to work out in a moderate way? Official

language of Senegal, language of many political speeches, the administration,

and the press..., French is also the language of teaching. In Senegal, the use of

French seems to be a more and more complex and plural reality. Alongside the

official uses of this language, remained since the independences the language of

the international relations in Senegal, tend to appear more popular practices,

which acquire sometimes the status of true varieties.

Indeed, except for contexts that we have just enumerated and

some particular circumstances, French is not the language used by the

Senegalese to communicate between them52. The communication is made by

means of the African languages: Wolof, Diola, Serer, Pular... but this does not

obviously prevent, in the representations of the Senegalese, as in the reality,

French to be in the side of the power, the prestige and the education. If the fact

of understanding French does not ensure the social success, it is rare that the

Senegalese who succeed ignore French.

52 DUMONT 1983

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The appropriation of the French language by speakers of

another culture has succeeded to preserve its originality, its specificity and even

its integrity vis-à-vis the attacks of a company, the French colonization, which

had made of linguistic and cultural assimilation, its more powerful war-horse.

But we should not remain there and realize that today the French language, such

as it is practised in Senegal, carries the indelible traces of the fight, powerful and

deaf at the same time, carried out without respite by those who were obliged to

practise it and who, in a certain manner are still, against the yoke of an imposed

social model. The borrowings and the neologisms are the expression of a

militant culture which did not cease to claim its legitimacy where, apparently, it

did not have any chance to be taken into account i.e. in the very centre of the

privileged instrument of alienation which is the French language in Senegal.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Main books and Encyclopaedias

BLONDE, J; DUMONT, P; GONTIER, D. 1979. Lexique du Français du Sénégal. EDICEF, NEA, Paris, Dakar.

BLOOMFIELD, L. 1973. Language. Twelfth Edition. London: Unwin University Books.

BUSSMAN, H. 1996. Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. Routledge.

CRYSTAL, D. 1977. The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press.

CRYSTAL, D. 1992. An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Language and Languages. Penguin Books.

DUMONT, P. 1983. Le Français et les Langues Africaines au Sénégal. Karthala

DUMONT, P. 1990. Le Français Langue Africaine. Paris : L’Harmattan

DUMONT, P et Maurer, B. 1995. Sociolinguistique du Français en Afrique Francophone : Gestion d’un Héritage, Devenir d’une science . Vanves : EDICEF/AUPELF.

Encyclopaedia Encarta . 2004 Edition. English Version.

Encyclopédie Encarta . Edition 2006. Version Française.

Encyclopédie Universalis . Edition1995. Version Française

FINEGAN, E. and BESNIER, N. 1989. Language: Its Structure and Use. Florida: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.

GUILLOU, M. et LITTARDI, A.1988. La Francophonie s’éveille. Berger-Levrault

LABOV, W. 1972. Sociolinguistic Patterns. Blackwell.

Larousse Bilingual Dictionary . Computer software copyright © 1996 INSO Corporation. All rights reserved.

MBAYA, M. 2005. Pratiques et Attitudes Linguistiques dans l’Afrique d’Aujoud’hui :

Le Cas du Sénégal. Lincom Europea.

TRUDGILL, P. 1996. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society. Penguin Books.

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Master theses

DIAGNE, A. 1998. « Usage du Français à l’Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis ». Saint-Louis : Mémoire de Maîtrise, Section de Français, U.FR L.S.H / U.G.B.

NAKOULIMA, Nd. F. 2000. « Enseignement et Apprentissage du Français au Sénégal : Enquête Sociolinguistique sur le Phénomène de Motivation ». Saint-Louis : Mémoire de Maîtrise, Section de Français, U.FR L.S.H / U.G.B.

NDIAYE, M. L. 2000. « The Youth’s Language in Dakar: A Sociolinguistic Study ». Saint-Louis : Mémoire de Maîtrise, Section d’Anglais, U.FR L.S.H / U.G.B.

SOW, Nd. 2001. « Le Conflit Linguistique dans l’Enseignement : Cas du Wolof et du Français à Saint-Louis. » Saint-Louis : Mémoire de Maîtrise, Section de Français, U.FR L.S.H / U.G.B.

Articles

CALVET, J. « Politique Linguistique et Planification » dans Réalités Africaines et Langue Française numéro spécial, Janvier 1987. Dakar : CLAD.

DAFF, M. « Interférences, régionalismes et description du français d’Afrique », in Réalités Africaines et Langue Française numéro 22. Décembre 1988. Dakar : C.L.A.D

DESCHAMPS-HOCQUET, M et NDIAYE, M. « Les Emprunts du Peul en Casamance » dans Réalités Africaines et Langue Française numéro 22, Décembre 1988. Dakar : CLAD.

DUMONT, P. « Les Nouveaux Rapports entre le Français et les Langues Nationales au Sénégal » dans Réalités Africaines et Langue Française numéro 8, Octobre 1978. Dakar : CLAD.

FAYE, S. « Le Français dans l’Administration au Sénégal » dans Réalités Africaines et Langue Française numéro 22, Décembre 1988. Dakar : CLAD.

KAZADI, N. « L’Afro-francophonie d’Hier et d’Aujourd’hui » dans Réalités Africaines et Langue Française numéro 22, Décembre 1988. Dakar : CLAD.

LECLERC, J. « Index par politiques linguistiques » in L'aménagement linguistique dans le monde de Décembre 2003, Québec, TLFQ, Université Laval,

NDIAYE, M. « Quel système éducatif pour le gouvernement de l’alternance ? » in Walfadjiri du 21 novembre 2000 page 10.

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Documents

The French Use in Senegal by Sébastien TENDENG