Language use along the urban street in Senegal: perspectives from proprietors of commercial signs

Abstract

Senegal adopted French as the country's sole official language at the time of independence in 1960, since when the language has been used in administration and other formal domains. Similarly, French is employed throughout the formal education system as the language of instruction. Since the 1990s, however, government has mounted an ambitious adult literacy programme, in which Wolof, widely spoken as the lingua franca in multi-ethnic urban communities, together with other national languages are used as the media of instruction. Results from a study of language use in shop signs conducted in a suburban town near Dakar, the capital city, reflect these policies. Nearly half the shop proprietors had chosen to display signs entirely in French, some in the belief that the use of French was obligatory, others regarding French as the language the customers they wished to attract would best understand. Nevertheless it is evident that Wolof is also emerging as a written language. Nearly one-quarter of the proprietors employed Wolof in their signs, generally in combination with French. The results point to important issues which need to be addressed in the planning of language instruction both in the formal schools and in non-formal literacy programmes.

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