West African French

Global French usage

410,807,000 L1 or L2 speakers of French (ODSEF)

5th most spoken language in the world (Ethnologue)

Substantial population in Africa

French usage by country

French usage by country

French usage by country

French usage by country

French usage by country

Francophone countries in Africa

French-speaking colonial powers

France

Belgium

French Colonialism

The predominant French speaking colonial power

Controlled almost all French-speaking colonies

West Africa

• Mali
• Senegal
• Burkina Faso
• Côte d'Ivoire

Central Africa

• Chad
• Republic of the Congo
• Central African Republic
• Gabon
• Cameroon

The Maghreb

• Algeria
• Tunisia
• Morocco

East Africa

• Djibouti

African island nations

• Madagascar
• Comoros
• Réunion
• Mauritius

Belgian colonialism

• Democratic Republic of the Congo

How did we get here?

A brief history of European imperialism

Early colonization

With some exceptions, European territorial control in Africa was limited to costal trade forts until the late 19th century

Early colonization

Exceptions:

• Dutch colonization of the cape in the late 17th century
• the French conquest of Algeria (1830)

In the span of just 20-30 years, the European powers conquer almost all of Africa

What caused this change?

Factors leading to European imperialism

• Desire for control over commodity markets
• International prestige
• "Philanthropic" goals

Commercial ventures

Many colonies originated from trade companies

• Dutch East India Company
• British East Africa Company
• British South Africa Company
• German East Africa Company

Commercial ventures

These companies would trade for goods, construct mines, build infrastructure, etc.

Commercial ventures

They were often granted rights to administer the territory and populace

When there were issues (bankruptcy, mismanagement) the countries took these colonies over

International prestige

Germany was founded in 1871, and wanted to establish colonies as a way to project power

Often encroached on places where other nations had colonial presence

Philanthropy

The nominal reason for certain colonial ventures was philanthropic

• Missionary work
• Exploration and scientific discoveries
• Elimination of the slave trade

Association International Africaine

Association Internationale pour l'Exploration et la Civilisation de l'Afrique Centrale

(International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of Central Africa)

Association Internationale Africaine

Backed by King Leopold II of Belgium

Association Internationale Africaine

Ostensibly, it aimed to bring modern commerce, industry, "civilization" to Africa

Congo Free State

Leopold II established L'Etat Indépendent du Congo

(The Congo Free State)

Congo Free State

The world's only individually owned colony

Congo Free State

The Congo Free State was also perhaps the most exploitative, inhumane colony in Africa

Congo Free State

Populace forced to work harvesting rubber, ivory

Congo Free State

Estimated 10 million dead, about half the population (Hochschild 1998)

• Harsh working conditions
• Malnutrition
• Disease
• Brutal punishments, e.g., amputation of hands or feet

The Scramble

As colonial presence expanded, European powers began encroaching on one another

The Scramble

To prevent this from developing into wider conflicts, they held the Berlin conference of 1884

The Berlin Conference

Established the Principle of Effective Occupation

A nation must have authority in an area to claim it (article XXXV), e.g., they must

• Sign treaties with local leaders
• Establish an administration
• Govern with a military/police force

The Berlin Conference

Established international standards by which nations could claim territory in Africa

This caused European powers to rush to conquer as yet unclaimed territory

The Berlin Conference

The nations played a more direct role in projecting their power

Independence

Most French colonies gained independence from 1956–1962

La Françafrique

A period of neocolonialism where France continued to exert its influence over the fledgling independent countries

• Institution of the Franc CFA
• Frequent military interventions
• Cultural imposition of French language in education system

African French

Varieties of African French

• West African French
• Maghreb French
• Malagasy and Comoros French
• Djibouti French

Emergence of dialects

The various dialects arose through contact-induced change

• Changes developed when properties of a speaker's first language (L1) influence the second language (L2)
• These changes become established in the speech community

Burkinabè French

A Case study

Burkinabè French

French was originally only spoken in major cities like Ouagadougou or Bobo-Dioulasso

Burkinabè French

Led to the development of a variety of French unique to the cities, spoken by working class people

"Ouaga French" or français populaire

Strongly influenced by indigenous languages like Moòré and Dioula

Burkinabè French

Formal western education only made available to villagers starting in the mid 1980s

French acquired late in life by many villagers

Burkinabè French

Heterogenous situation

• Educated people from the city
• Uneducated speakers of Ouaga French
• Older (~mid fifties and older) L2 speakers from the villages
• Younger speakers from the village

Phonology

Phonological differences from Parisian French

• Front rounded vowels unround
• ʁ → r
• word-final r deleted
• ɑ̃ ([ɔ̃]) → ã
• Free variation of ʒ~z and ʃ~s

Many of these changes are variable and unsystematic

Unrounding

• Standard French has front rounded vowels
• Uncommon in most African languages
• Become their unrounded counterparts in West African French

(Collins and Mees 2013)

Unrounding

Sometimes also pronounced as [u]

Unrounding

Unrounding

ʁ

/ʁ/ is pronounced as [r] by the vast majority of speakers

ʁ

ʁ

ʁ

This can lead to a contrast in mid vowel height in open syllables

Normally, only high mid vowels occur in open syllables in standard French

paix [pe] 'peace'

père [pɛ] 'father'

/ɑ̃/

In Parisian French, /ɑ̃/ is often pronounced as [ɔ̃]

/ɑ̃/

In African French, it is more typically pronounced as [ã]

/ɑ̃/

Free variation of (post-)alveolars

/s/ and /ʃ/, as well as /z/ and /ʒ/ are contrastive in Standard French

• seau /so/ 'bucket' ~ chaud /ʃo/ 'hot'

Free variation of (post-)alveolars

In Burkinabè French, [s]~[ʃ] and [z]~[ʒ] in free variation in some speakers' speech

Free variation of (post-)alveolars

Some examples I've heard

• sèche /sɛʃ/ 'dry' → [ʃɛʃ]
• étage /etaʒ/ 'floor; level' → [etaz]
• tasse/tas/ 'cup' → [taʃ]

Let's listen

Differences to listen for:

Differences to listen for:

Syntactic differences

• Questions
• Use of là 'there'

Questions

There are 3 main ways to form polar questions in French

• Intonation: rising pitch at the end of the phrase
• Inversion: verb fronted before the subject
• Question particle: est-ce que [ɛskə]

  Sometimes analyzed as a subtype of inversion

Intonation

Question marker

Inversion

Non-pronominal NPs

In standard French, when a non-pronominal NP is used as the subject, the subject pronoun must also be present in the intonation and inversion contexts

Inversion

Intonation

Questions

In African French

• Inversion is almost never employed
• Non-pronominal NP does not require the subject marker

Questions in African French

Grammatical in African French, not in standard French

Là

In standard French, the word là means 'there'

Là

It is also used in the distal deictic construction ce X-là, where it means 'that X'

• Distal: far away things
• Deictic: contextually relevant

Là

Ce chien-là [sə ʃjɛ̃ la] 'that dog'

cette fille-là [sɛt fij la] 'that girl'

Là

It has several novel uses in different varieties of African French

Là

In Ivoirian French, it is used as a determiner

The standard article le/la can be omitted

Là

Là

Là

Là used as an article in Burkina is rare

Instead, it is used as an anaphoric demonstrative 'that,' with ce omitted

Là

le chien là [lə ʃjɛ̃ la] 'that dog'

la fille là [la fij la] 'that girl'

le and la are definite articles which agree with the gender of the noun

Là

Can also follow larger constituents, where it has an emphatic meaning

Là

Là

Can also be used as a discourse marker

Its meaning can be hard to pin down

Là

Other morphosyntactic differences

Reduplication of numerals for distributive meaning

Other morphosyntactic differences

Standard French: use of chaqu'un [ʃakɛ̃] 'each one'

Other morphosyntactic differences

si 'if' used for 'when'

'if' for 'when'

Lexical differences

Lexical differences

Some words have different meanings from standard French

Lexical differences

There are also lexical items which are unique to African French

• un marigot [marigo] 'creek, stream'
• go [go] 'girlfriend; girl, chick'

Lexical differences

Likewise, there are many idioms unique to West Africa

Lexical differences

On dit quoi?

[ɔ̃ di kwa]

Lit. 'What are we saying?'

What's new?

Lexical differences

Ça fait deux jours

[sa fe dø ʒur]

Lit. 'It's been two days'

It's been a while

Lexical differences

C'est comment?

[se kɔmã]

Lit. 'How is it'

How's it going?

Lexical differences

Ça donne

[sa dɔn]

Lit. 'That gives'

That functions

Lexical differences

Jusqu'à fatigué

[ʒyska fatige]

Lit. 'Until tired'

Too much

Paralinguistic sounds and interjections

• ô: used when addressing someone or getting their attention
• dé: emphasis
• é: astonishment
• le tchip: disapprobation