Attitudes toward speech communities in Senegal: a cross-sectional study

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Periodical article

Title:	Attitudes toward speech communities in Senegal: a cross-sectional study
Author:	Diallo, Ibrahima
Year:	2009
Periodical:	Nordic Journal of African Studies (ISSN 1459-9465)
Volume:	18
Issue:	3
Pages:	196-214
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Senegal
Subjects:	Wolof attitudes lingua francas language policy
External link:	https://njas.fi/njas/article/view/218/206
Abstract:	Senegal is a multiethnic country where there are around 20 communities speaking 25 languages. The Wolof community is the largest (42.7 percent) and its language is the lingua franca in the country. However, fieldwork carried out in Senegal in 2002 and 2007 found perceptible signs of the corrosion of the attitudes of Senegalese people toward the Wolof speech community. These attitudes are disturbingly less positive than one would expect. For instance, 27 percent of the respondents (N=404) rated the Wolof people as dishonest, 38 percent viewed them as insincere, 33 percent perceived them as lazy, and 43 percent rated them as unreliable. This paper examines attitudes toward speech communities in Senegal, namely Wolof, the mother tongues, French and English. It argues that language policy in Senegal should focus on fostering positive attitudes if the Wolof language is to be given the status and the roles to which it aspires. App., bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract]