French in West Africa: a sociolinguistic perspective

• Autores: Beban Sammy Chumbow, A. Simo Bobda
• Localización: International journal of the sociology of language, ISSN 0165-2516, Nº. 141, 2000, págs. 39-60
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The French language policy of France in West Africa in the colonial period was that of assimilation, elitism, and repression of African languages. The postindependence local masters continued the same policy, and it took time and a lot of pressure for the callfor the promotion of these languages to be heeded. The use of French in West Africa today shows a lot ofvariability:

    afunction ofthe country considered, the locality, the dominant religion, the Professional profile, sex, the person one is speaking to, and the existence or nonexistence of an alternative lingua franca. Ivory Coast and Cameroon display the widest ränge of French-derived idioms, which include Frangais Populaire d'Abidjan and Nouchi Abidjanais in the former country, and Cameroon Pidgin, French, Franglais, Frenglish, Camfranglais, and Cameroon Pidgin English in the latter. The supremacy of French in West Africa is aided by the delay in promoting alternative local languages for officialfunctions and the consequent increasing rate ofliteracy in the French language. But the threat comes from a gradually more positive attitude toward local languages and also from the increasing presence of English in the subregion.