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Provides a hands-on approach to materials production. Guides both the novice and the sophisticate on how to use QuickTime Pro to produce Multimedia. Highlights the new literacy requirements that are emerging that call for the teacher's ability to read instruction on software and be able to figure out how to use it. (Author/VWL)

In describing the different types of codeswitching used in Dakar, this paper questions the frequent assumption that the use of two languages within a single conversation violates a norm. In Dakar there is a fluid and unmarked switching between Wolof and French, "Urban Wolof," that has become the most common mode of speech among urban bilinguals. (37 references) (Author/LB)

This article advocates a multilingual approach to African philosophy, based on an understanding of philosophy as text. Both oral and written texts, fictional and non-fictional ones, public and private ones are considered. A rigorous study of texts, working across multiple genres and several languages, is the first step in the development of an African philosophy derived from local African cultures. In establishing a textual basis for African philosophy, such a bottom-up approach necessitates a reconsideration of the nature, methods, and themes of philosophy, but also of its textual strategies, its use of language, of the nature of representation, and of the relationship between imaginative literature and theoretical thought. Yet, this article does not understand »philosophy through language« but »philosophy through genre«, in other words, the article draws on traditions of literary theory and literary studies for its analytical concepts. The key premise of this approach is that to understand the philosophical meaning of texts, it is necessary to start with an analysis of textual genres. Genres anchor texts in context, in culture and language. Following a theoretical consideration of genre, this article outlines a comparative study of several genres of texts in selected African languages and their philosophical content. These include the essay in Ciluba, the novel in Swahili, Shona, Acoli, and Lingala, and Islamic Sufi poetry in Swahili and Wolof. The article challenges the conventional limits of both philosophy and literary studies and demonstrates how this approach allows for topical philosophical concerns to emerge from a textual basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a special section that features four Indigenous anthropologists from two different world regions—Africa and Latin America. This section is unique in that the contributions of these anthropologists are being published in the scholars' Native languages—IsiZulu, Kichwa, Nahua, and Wolof—and in English. There are a number of reasons we felt it important to bring together the work of these scholars in one journal. First, we felt that it was important to highlight the work that non‐Western scholars are contributing to a field that is overwhelmingly dominated by Euro‐American and European scholars. Second, as Indigenous scholars ourselves, we are committed to the project of decentering anthropology by facilitating direct conversations between Indigenous scholars in different parts of the world—in this case, Africa and Latin America—that are not mediated by non‐Indigenous voices. By doing this, we are hoping to promote the emergence of a truly Indigenous Anthropology. Our decision to foreground the authors' Native languages draws attention to the problem of linguistic imperialism within anthropology—a problem that has marginalized Indigenous languages. This special section is a modest step towards addressing this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates control constructions in the Niger-Congo language Wolof, which offers several insights into the phenomenon of control. First, I show that one and the same predicate can take infinitival complements of different sizes, giving additional suport to the claims in Wurmbrand (2014c, 2015), Wurmbrand and Lohninger (2023). Next, I present arguments in favor of Grano's (2012, 2015) claim that Exhaustive Control (EC) and Partial Control (PC) are derived via different strategies, specifically, that EC is the result of movement (Hornstein 1999 et seq.). Control in Wolof is only exhaustive, both with cross-linguistically typical EC predicates and with typical PC predicates, and, notably, all control constructions in Wolof restructure, and all control verbs are monotransitive, properties that usually characterize EC, but not PC predicates. This confirms a correlation between EC, restructuring, and monotransitivity argued for by Cinque (2004, 2006) and Grano (2012, 2015). While Cinque's and Grano's approaches treat EC predicates as functional verbs, I argue that this bundle of properties cannot be a simple consequence of monoclausal syntax and propose that movement of the subject from the infinitival into the matrix clause must be available in bi-clausal constructions as well, supporting the view that at least one type of control is derived via movement, and does not involve PRO. An additional argument for this claim comes from ditransitive verbs: I show that Wolof does not have object control, and attribute this property to the larger size of infinitival complements in ditransitive constructions, resulting in the subject movement into the higher clause being impeded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Throughout the nineteenth century, Senegal was the site of some of the most extensive French experiments with alphabetic print literacy in African languages, especially Wolof. Before the advent of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), authors such as Jean Dard, Jacques-François Roger, Aloïs Kobès, David Boilat, Louis Faidherbe, and Louis Descemet experimented with Latin-scripted orthographies for representing the sounds of Wolof. This article focuses on the contributions of Boilat and Descemet, both members of prominent multilingual métis families in Saint-Louis and native speakers of Wolof. Even as they expressed deference to their predecessors, Boilat and Decemet asserted their intuitions as native speakers, challenging dominant colonial "scripts" by authoring their own texts and proposing their own orthographies. I read their nineteenth-century analyses of Wolof as important, if understudied, contributions to the history of phonetics by situating their works within the politics of colonial alphabet schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Senegal, the introduction of national languages into education dates back to 1962. But it was with the Ten-Year Education and Training Program that they were integrated into elementary school, with a transition to French. This is how this study aims to analyze the use of the Wolof language as a means of learning to read French among pupils in the final primary school class, supervised by The Associates in Research & Education for Development of the Education and Training Inspectorate (IEF) of Grand-Dakar (Senegal). To achieve this objective, a theoretical framework based on Cardinal's (2008) model of the laws or “regularities” of bilingualism was used. Regarding the choice of subjects, quota sampling made it possible to submit the tests to 140 students including 70 bilinguals distributed in 06 schools of the IEF of Grand-Dakar. As for the test results, they show that the use of the Wolof language as a teaching medium facilitates mastery of reading in French in terms of fluency and comprehension.

How do ʿAjamī scholars translate Sufi spirituality and esoteric concepts into a language accessible to their audience? The body of Senegalese Wolof ʿAjamī poetry often seeks to translate divine concepts into a language that is local, both in time and place. This translation takes place within the local language in all of its literary dimensions. For the Wolof ʿAjamī poet, proverbs, parables, and metaphors are key literary devices that facilitate understanding among listeners. Studying ʿAjamī poems opens a window into a historic locality, teaching the contemporary reader-listener about both Sufi spirituality and the particular contexts in which the poems were produced. Through these metaphors, the poet ʿAjamizes, conferring sacred meaning onto practices and devices that otherwise might be outside the Sufi realm. In the process, metaphors become vessels of divine meaning. This article treats the metaphor as a key literary device whose understanding is paramount for grasping the meaning of the religious message. Treating the poems as social documents and works of literature also offers scholars new possibilities for understanding the everyday life of ordinary users in Senegambia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution aims at analyzing the communicative expression of emotions among Senegalese migrants settled in the city of Pescara, in Abruzzo, Southern Italy. These individuals find their own ‘selves’ at the junction of their subjective well-being and two cultures, creating a sort of intercultural and interlingual personal experience which shapes their relationships with their own community on the one hand and the host community on the other hand. Recent studies (Sevinç 2020) have argued that a better understanding of the concept of subjective ‘emotion’ (contra that of ‘attitude’) and its role in immigrant contexts is key to enlighten the connection between intercultural communication and possible outcomes of language contact settings. This qualitative study specifically considers the language of first-generation migrants that have been living in Pescara for a minimum of eight years, looking at their linguistic choices when it comes to expressing feelings of discontent (unhappiness, sadness, anger, disappointment) with respect to their role in the Italian social environment and their integration in the host community.

The paper presents an overview of Fula and Wolof numeral systems. Fula is represented by six major lects, for which cardinal, ordinal, distributive, fraction, and human forms of numerals are analyzed. Wolof is the closest relative of Fula, and for this language cardinal and ordinal numeral systems are also analyzed. Apart from the numerals themselves, the syntax of the noun phrase which contains a numeral is analyzed for each language. The language contacts and borrowings are also included in the analysis.

The aim of this article is to analyse Ken Bugul’s written language and its specificities. This Senegalese writer, like most French-speaking authors, has had to define her own written language, which becomes a mixture of French, the language of the coloniser, and Wolof, her mother tongue. The author of this article also draws attention to three experiences in Bugul’s personal life that have influenced her literary language, called by Christian Ahihou “la langue bugulienne”.

In Wolof (Niger-Congo), focus is expressed morphosyntactically via specific focus constructions. This article deals with two of them, namely the subject-focus and the complement-focus constructions. I propose to analyse them as copulaless cleft constructions of the form focus | topic, that is, constructions in which the focus and the topic are juxtaposed. In such clefts, the topic of the sentence is expressed by means of a noun phrase which is headed by the definite article la when the focus corresponds to the syntactic object, and by the morpheme a when the focus corresponds to the syntactic subject of the sentence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Literature / Literatura is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Crosslinguistically, bare nominals (BNs) are often number-neutral, i.e., their number interpretation does not imply any commitment to a singular or plural interpretation. I show that BNs in Wolof are singular, unless plural morphology is exponed within the nominal. I propose a version of Kalin’s (2017; 2018; 2019) framework of nominal licensing whereby certain interpretable features require licensing by the operation Agree, i.e. they are “derivational time bombs” that must be “defused” by this operation. Specifically, I argue that the feature [+Num : PL] in Wolof nominals fall under this category. I assume that all nominals in Wolof, bare and full, can in principle be singular or plural. In the derivation of a sentence containing a BN in the object position, if the BN is [+Num : SG], it converges because there is no derivational time bomb to be defused. Conversely, if the BN is [+Num : PL], no probe can Agree with this feature, causing the derivation to crash because a derivational time bomb was defused. The BN is obligatorily singular because this is the only possible convergent derivation. However, if the BN merges with nominal structure that contains a number probe, [+Num : PL] can be defused, so that the corresponding construal can arise. This probe surfaces as an agreeing relative complementizer or possessum agreement. The singular interpretation of BNs in Wolof thus arises as a conspiracy between the need to license [+Num : PL] and the restrictions and resources available within the nominal a BN is embedded into. This analysis offers an analysis as to why BNs in Wolof do not follow the number-neutrality tendency found in other BN languages and it also provides support for the view that the licensing of interpretable features may be a driving force in the syntactic derivation.

In this article, we focus on the origin of the Wolof subject-focus construction (SFC) from a dynamic perspective. In Wolof, argument focus is expressed morpho-syntactically by means of copulaless cleft constructions consisting of the juxtaposition of the focus and a free relative clause. The free relative clause is headed by a determiner, which takes the form a in the case of the SFC. The determiner a is not found anywhere else in the language outside of SFC. We hypothesise that Wolof borrowed its SFC from Berber languages. The sociohistorical scenario, based on oral tradition, could have been the emergence of Wolof, as a crucible of contact between peoples of diverse origin including Berber groups. This finding is strengthened by the occurrence of other elements common to Wolof and Berber languages, such as clitic attraction, negation, copula insertion, as well as a number of lexical parallelisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a study of the morphosyntax of the clausal periphery in Wolof, specifically the two layers commonly labeled CP and IP. It has long been noted that (a) C and I share a number of properties, and (b) languages differ in the amount of structure over which functional features are distributed. I propose a structure-building mechanism that can both explain the C-I relationship and derive the variation in the distribution of features over syntactic heads. I argue that features of C and I are bundled together and that this feature bundle can be divided into multiple heads via Head Splitting, which allows parts of feature bundles to reproject. The proposal is illustrated through a detailed exploration of the C-I domain in Wolof, which bundles C and I into one head in some structures and splits them in others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an overview of Fula and Wolof numeral systems. Fula is represented by six major lects, for which cardinal, ordinal, distributive, fraction, and human forms of numerals are analyzed. Wolof is the closest relative of Fula, and for this language cardinal and ordinal numeral systems are also analyzed. Apart from the numerals themselves, the syntax of the noun phrase which contains a numeral is analyzed for each language. The language contacts and borrowings are also included in the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops the concept of the labor of the living dead through readings of recent Senegalese films, novels, comics, and music videos in Wolof and French. The undead have been resurgent in cultural production for decades but these are not your average zombies: they do not inspire collective dread nor are they directed by opaque, outside forces. In Senegal, the focus has more often been on the work of the undead. This enigmatic concept speaks to the pervasive and potentially fatal mismatch between discourses of entrepreneurial self-realization and the crushing limitations and dangers imposed on many by their present circumstances. In representations of undead labor, projects of normative self-improvement devour and outlive the selves they are meant to improve, generating affects of shame and powerlessness and sparking violence toward more marginalized lives. Alongside these dynamics, though, the figure of undead work also seems to contain a grain of counter-hegemonic imagination, even affording visions of alternatives to existing configurations of labor and humanity. Central to this phenomenon is a tendency to exploit the polysemy of the Wolof term liggéey, which means work in a conventional sense but which also refers in certain contexts to witchcraft or gendered labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Este artículo ofrece un análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo de las representaciones sociolingüísticas del wolof y del pulaar entre estudiantes de lenguas en la Universidad Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis (UGB, en adelante). La situación y representaciones sociolingüísticas de las lenguas nacionales han ido evolucionando desde la independencia política del país. Las dinámicas sociolingüísticas actuales del wolof y del pulaar, que son las dos principales lenguas nacionales, demuestran un cambio progresivo de estatus y de función, gracias a su representación cada vez menos estigmatizada entre los senegaleses. Sin embargo, las políticas educativas postcoloniales emprendidas por los diferentes gobiernos constituyen un obstáculo para la consolidación de su integración en el sistema educativo. La estigmatización de las lenguas nacionales siempre ha sido el factor clave del fracaso de la mayoría de los intentos de planificación de una enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas que se adecuara a la realidad sociolingüística del país.

Le débat politique est un élément du discours politique. En s’appuyant sur un débat de deux personnalités politique dans une émission politique à la télévision, ce travail vise à mettre à jour les enjeux de cette lecture du débat politique. Pour une méthodologie fondée sur une approche pragmatique, il s’agit sans nier la dimension conflictuelle une perspective de construction du sens et de la réalité. Les débattants inter agissent l’un à l’autre pour affronter et faire exister la polémique synonyme d’une respiration démocratique. Dans cet article, on essaye de renforcer la linguistique structurale dans une linguistique du discours ainsi que le langage comme acte politique qui servira à transmettre de l’information et concrétiser un monde réel.

This contribution is a glottopolitical survey of Wolof. We analyzed there literary and linguistic practices for the “vitalization” of the main language of Senegal, which is weaken by the official linguistic policy. Macro-glottopolitics is the initiative of Non-Governmental Organizations, militant associations, linguists and writers through the creation of book publishing houses in local languages and the publication of texts written in Wolof and translations from French. Micro-glottopolitics is the initiative put forward by an individual writer who proposes a standardization of the language of Wolof. The text is, therefore, a tool for terminological reflection. Glottopolitical practices highlights a sociolinguistic dynamic. In other words, writing, translation and terminological standardization are devices that allow the language to sustain the battle of positioning in the linguistic field perceptible in the media and the administration.

Digital communication remains largely unexplored in sociolinguistic research on diaspora and language. In this paper, ethnographically collected data from Norway‐based families of Senegalese heritage are explored to identify how family members use digital media to engage with diaspora concerns and projects, and how this engagement shapes their multilingual practices online. We re‐contextualize the concept of polycentricity (Blommaert et al.) from the physical setting of a neighbourhood or region to complex ecologies of digital media, and identify four 'centres', that is, distinct orientations for participants' digital language and literacy practices, in which linguistic choices are associated with diaspora discourses, genres, and imagery. Each centre constrains the deployment of linguistic and semiotic resources in ways that are related both to historically rooted sociolinguistic hierarchies and affordances of digital media. The findings support a key claim in language and diaspora research, that is, the fine‐grained patterning of linguistic resources in diaspora communities. They also underscore the need to extend the empirical scope of a sociolinguistics of diaspora from co‐present to mediated interaction, and to explore the interplay between the two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates family multilingualism in a polymedia perspective, presenting results from a study of transnational communication among four families with Senegalese background, living in Norway. Ethnographic interview data collected in 2017 and 2018, including mediagrams, are analysed to get insight into the families' uses of media and language. Furthermore, the moment-by-moment language practices through which family relationships are managed and sustained are examined through fine-grained analysis of interpersonal interaction. The paper thus both draws on and goes beyond polymedia to investigate how linguistic repertoires are developed in digital communication. The aim is to explore ways in which this theory may help us rethink family multilingualism as digital language practices become increasingly significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]