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10 Burkina Faso

  • Sabine Diao-Klaeger
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Manual of Romance Languages in Africa
This chapter is in the book Manual of Romance Languages in Africa

Abstract

The chapter starts with an overview of the sociolinguistic situation of Burkina Faso, that is the geographical and social distribution of languages in the country and the number of first, second, and third language speakers. It further outlines the linguistic history of the Land of Upright People, describing how French arrived in Burkina Faso and how it developed before and after independence. The section on external language history shows the most important laws with respect to the usage of French as well as the national languages and their presence in administration, politics, education, and the media. This is followed by a chapter on linguistic characteristics of Burkinabe French concerning pronunciation, morphosyntax, and the lexicon. The last part focuses on linguistic purism and describes the variety and the characteristics of French used in literature, by public authorities, at school, and in the media.

Abstract

The chapter starts with an overview of the sociolinguistic situation of Burkina Faso, that is the geographical and social distribution of languages in the country and the number of first, second, and third language speakers. It further outlines the linguistic history of the Land of Upright People, describing how French arrived in Burkina Faso and how it developed before and after independence. The section on external language history shows the most important laws with respect to the usage of French as well as the national languages and their presence in administration, politics, education, and the media. This is followed by a chapter on linguistic characteristics of Burkinabe French concerning pronunciation, morphosyntax, and the lexicon. The last part focuses on linguistic purism and describes the variety and the characteristics of French used in literature, by public authorities, at school, and in the media.

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