Cover not available
Part of
Language Documentation and Endangerment in Africa
Edited by James Essegbey, Brent Henderson and Fiona Mc Laughlin
[Culture and Language Use 17] 2015
► pp. 131–152

Can a language endanger itself?

Reshaping repertoires in urban Senegal

This chapter presents a case study of how Wolof has cohabited the linguistic ecology of urban Senegal with a colonial language, French, over the past three hundred years. Specifically, it explores how this contact has reshaped the repertoire, giving rise to a way of speaking that scholars have dubbed ‘urban Wolof,’ and how urban Wolof has diverged from other dialects of the language. The fact that Wolof became an urban language has contributed to its expansion, but also to its hybridity, leading to a situation in which it has been perceived as both a threat to minority languages within Senegal, and as an endangered language, because of its increasingly mixed nature. This chapter presents a brief history of urban Wolof, as well as a means of reconceptualizing it as a practice rather than a language, followed by a discussion of how hybridity plays into questions of language ideology in the Senegalese context to answer the question of whether a language can endanger itself.
Published online: 22 October 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.17.05mcl
References (49)
References
Abdulaziz, Mohamed H. & Osinde, Ken. 1997. Sheng and Engsh: Development of mixed codes among the urban youth in Kenya. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 125(1): 43–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Auer, Peter. 2007. The monolingual bias in bilingualism research, or: Why bilingual talk is (still) a challenge for linguistics. In Bilingualism: A Social Approach, Monica Heller (ed.), 319–339. Houndsmills: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Beck, Rose Marie. 2010. Urban languages in Africa. Africa Spectrum 45(3): 11–41.Google Scholar
Belot, Laure & Morin, Hervé. 2005. En 2100, les Terriens parleront 3.000 langues de moins. Interview with Colette Grinevald. Le Monde . December 31.
Bokamba, Eyamba. 2009. The spread of Lingala as a lingua franca in the Congo Basin. In The Languages of Urban Africa, Fiona Mc Laughlin (ed.), 50–70. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Calvet, Louis-Jean. 1987. Du lakk-kat au gàlli: Introduction à l’analyse d’un champ sémantique métalinguistique. Réalités Africaines et Langue Française 21: 14–22.Google Scholar
Cissé, Mamadou. 2004. Dictionnaire français-wolof. Paris: Langues et Mondes/L’Asiathèque.Google Scholar
. 2005. Les politiques linguistiques au Sénégal: Entre attentisme et interventionisme. Kotoba to Shakai (Language and Society), special issue on post-empire and multilingual societies in Asia and Africa: 266–213.Google Scholar
Cruise O’Brien, Donal B. 1971. The Mourides of Senegal: The Political and Economic Organisation of an Islamic Brotherhood. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
. 2003. The shadow-politics of wolofisation: Shuffling along to nationhood? In his Symbolic Confrontations: Muslims Imagining the State in Africa. Houndmills: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Descemet, Louis. 1864. Recueil d’environ 1,200 phrases françaises usuelles avec leur traduction en regard en ouolof de Saint-Louis. Saint-Louis, Sénégal: Imprimerie Nationale.Google Scholar
Diouf, Jean-Léopold. 2003. Dictionnaire wolof-français et français-wolof. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Dreyfus, Martine & Juillard, Caroline. 2004. Le plurilinguisme au Sénégal: Langues et identités en devenir. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Durand, Jean-Baptiste Léonard. 1802. Voyage au Sénégal. Paris: Henri Agasse.Google Scholar
Eglash, Ron. 1999. African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Faidherbe, Louis. 1864. Vocabulaire d’environ 1.500 mots français avec leurs correspondants en Ouolof de Saint-Louis, en Poular (Toucouleur) du Fouta, en Soninke (Sarakhollé) de Bakel. Saint-Louis du Sénégal: Imprimerie du Gouvernement.Google Scholar
Fal, Arame, Santos, Rosine & Léonce Doneux, Lean. 1990. Dictionnaire wolof-français. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Guèye, Moumar. 2010. Le wolof est en péril! J’accuse la presse parlée. Le Soleil. February 26.Google Scholar
Irvine, Judith T. & Gal, Susan. 2000. Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Polities, and Identities, Paul V. Kroskrity (ed.). Santa Fe NM: School of American Research Press / Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Jones, Hilary. 2013. The Métis of Senegal: Urban Life and Politics in French West Africa. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Juillard, Caroline. 1995. Sociolinguistique urbaine: La vie des langues à Ziguinchor (Sénégal). Paris: Presses du CNRS.Google Scholar
Kossmann, Maarten. 2007. Islamic terminology and the reconstruction of early conversion to Islam. Paper presented at the workshop Atlantic: genetic or typological unity? University of Hamburg, 17–18 February.
Kropp Dakubu, Mary Esther. 1997. Korle Meets the Sea: A Sociolinguistic History of Accra. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Lüpke, Friederike & Storch, Anne. 2013. Repertoires and Choices in African Languages. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mandelbrot, Benoît B. 1977. Fractals: Form, Chance and Dimension. New York NY: W.H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Mbembe, Achille. 1997. The ‘thing’ and its doubles in Cameroonian cartoons. In Readings in African Popular Culture, Karin Barber (ed.), 151–163. Bloomington MI: Indiana University Press & Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Mbembe, Achille & Nuttall, Sarah. 2008. Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis. Durham NC: Duke University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McCormack, Kay. 2002. Language in Cape Town’s District Six. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Mc Laughlin, Fiona. 1995. Haalpulaar identity as a response to Wolofization. African Languages and Cultures 8(2): 153–168. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2001. Dakar Wolof and the configuration of an urban identity. Journal of African Cultural Studies 14(2): 153–172. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2008a. The ascent of Wolof as an urban vernacular and national lingua franca. In Globalization and Language Vitality: Perspectives from Africa, Cécile B. Vigouroux & Salikoko S. Mufwene (eds), 142–170. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
. 2008b. Senegal: The emergence of a national lingua franca. In Language and national identity in Africa, Andrew Simpson (ed.), 79–97. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
. 2008c. On the origins of urban Wolof: Evidence from Louis Descemet’s 1864 phrase book. Language in Society 37(5): 713–735. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2009. Senegal’s early cities and the making of an urban language. In The languages of urban Africa, Fiona Mc Laughlin (ed.), 71–85. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Mercier, Paul. 1954. Aspects de la société africaine dans l’agglomeration dakaroise: Groupes familieux et unités de voisinage. Dakar: Institut Français d’Afrique Noire.Google Scholar
Minvielle, Jean-Paul, Fatim Diop, Ahmadou & Niang, Aminata. 2005. La pauvreté au Sénégal: Des statistiques à la réalité. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko S. 2001. The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Munro, Pamela & Gaye, Dieynaba. 1991. Ay baati olof. UCLA Occasional Papers in Linguistics 9.Google Scholar
Myers, Garth. 2011. African Cities: Alternative Visions of Urban Theory and Practice. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Ngom, Fallou. 2002. Linguistic resistance in the Murid speech community in Senegal. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 23(3): 214–226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pieterse, Edgar & Simone, AbdouMaliq (eds). 2013. Rogue Urbanism: Emergent African Cities. Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacana Media & Cape Town: African Center for Cities, University of Cape Town.Google Scholar
Quayson, Ato. 2014. Oxford Street, Accra. Durham NC: Duke University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rotman, Brian. 2013. Techno-sublime: fractals. Review of Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist: Memoir of a Scientific Maverick . London Review of Books. November 7. 23–24.Google Scholar
Simone, AbdouMaliq. 2004. For the City yet to Come: Changing African Life in Four Cities. Durham NC: Dule University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sinou, Alain. 1993. Comptoirs et villes coloniales du Sénégal: Saint-Louis, Gorée, Dakar. Paris: Karthala-ORSTOM.Google Scholar
Swigart, Leigh. 1992. Two codes or one? The insiders’ view and the description of codeswitching in Dakar. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 13(1–2): 83–102. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1994. Cultural creolisation and language use in post-colonial Africa: The case of Senegal. Africa 64(2): 175–189. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wioland, François. 1965. Enquête sur les langues parlées au Sénégal. Dakar: Centre de Linguistique Appliquée de Dakar.Google Scholar
Wioland, François & Calvet, Maurice. 1967. L’expansion du Wolof au Sénégal. Bulletin de l’IFAN 29(3–4).Google Scholar
Cited by (7)

Cited by seven other publications

Dieng, Aziz
2024. Introduction and Conceptual Considerations. In Urban Wolof across Borders, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Dieng, Aziz
2024. Language Attitudes and Identity Construction. In Urban Wolof across Borders, ► pp. 193 ff. DOI logo
Dieng, Aziz
2024. Conclusions. In Urban Wolof across Borders, ► pp. 251 ff. DOI logo
Dieng, Aziz
2024. Language Practices in the Dahiras. In Urban Wolof across Borders, ► pp. 109 ff. DOI logo
Dieng, Aziz
2024. Identity and Roles of the Senegalese Transmigrant. In Urban Wolof across Borders, ► pp. 51 ff. DOI logo
Connell, Bruce, David Zeitlyn, Sascha Griffiths, Laura Hayward & Marieke Martin
2021. Language ecology, language endangerment, and relict languages: Case studies from Adamawa (Cameroon-Nigeria). Open Linguistics 7:1 ► pp. 244 ff. DOI logo
H. Ekkehard Wolff
2019. The Cambridge Handbook of African Linguistics, DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.