Code‐switching as indexical of native language lexical deficiency in Mauritania

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between French instruction and the phenomena of discontinued lexical development, lexical attrition, and lexical deficiency in the speech of Mauritanian speakers of Hassania, Pulaar, Soninké, and Wolof, who have been educated in French for at least twelve years, but who have received no formal instruction in their own native language. The population for the study included college and secondary school students, educators, school administrators, workers, civil‐servants and private business individuals. The research questions sought to find out whether Mauritanians code‐switch, what relationship exists between code‐switching and native language fluency, what factors influence code‐switching, and whether the diglossic situation between Hassania and Arabic influences the frequency of Hassania‐French mixing among Hassania speakers. The study also investigated the attitudes of Mauritanians towards bilingualism, and towards instruction in the native language relative to French and Arabic, and about their perception of their own speaking ability. The data were gathered using a questionnaire survey answered in French and Arabic (N = 306), a picture‐based oral task, and interviews conducted in the native languages (N = 80). The major findings of this study were: (1) native language lexical deficiency was reflected in the occurrence of code‐switching, (2) a main effect for fluency on code‐switching revealed that subjects with low native language fluency code‐switched more than subjects with high native language fluency, (3) younger subjects code‐switched more and had lower vocabulary and fluency ratings than older subjects, (4) predominant knowledge of French or Arabic, and/or the diglossic relationship between Hassania and Arabic affected the direction and amount of code‐switching, and (5) subjects were favourable towards bilingualism and considered formal instruction in the native language to be no less important than instruction in French and Arabic. Implications from this study are that awareness of code‐switching deriving from native language deficit, and instruction in the native language, are necessary to counteract the problems associated with discontinued exposure to the native language.

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