Political and Linguistic Borders in the Wolof of Senegal and the Gambia
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Bordering on National Language Varieties: Political and linguistic borders in the Wolof of Senegal and The Gambia Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jane F. Mitsch Graduate Program in Linguistics The Ohio State University 2016 Dissertation Committee: Professor Brian Joseph, Advisor Professor Cynthia Clopper Professor Fiona McLaughlin Professor Mark Moritz Professor Don Winford Copyright by Jane F. Mitsch 2016 ABSTRACT Political borders can act as powerful instruments of inclusion and exclusion, and language can often be used to reinforce the social reality of borders (Boberg 2000, Auer 2005, Llamas 2007, Watt & Llamas 2014). This dissertation explores the way Wolof speakers’ ideologies, practices, and sociolinguistic variation help shape a political border. Sociolinguistic studies have shown the potency of political borders (and national identities) in shaping the linguistic landscape in the English-speaking world (Boberg 2000, Llamas 2007, Watt & Llamas 2014) as well as in the Germanic-speaking world (Auer 2005, de Vriend 2008). These studies illustrate how political borders can be reinforced by linguistic borders and how they can play a role in language change. But these studies have focused on predominantly monolingual areas in Europe and North America. In this dissertation I use ethnographic and sociolinguistic methods to examine the way border interaction, national orientation, and Wolof language use interact in four communities immediately adjacent to the political border. Following sociolinguists like Britain (2013) and Johnstone (2004), I adopt a framework in which places and spaces are socially constructed through the practices and routines (linguistic and otherwise) of local inhabitants. The political border that separates ii Senegal and The Gambia is a relic of colonial history, formerly separating a French colony from a British colony, but the same borders continue to separate two independent nations, Senegal and The Gambia. Along with the colonial boundaries, these two independent nation-states have maintained as official languages French and English, respectively. Prior to becoming a borderland, this area was part of an indigenous kingdom known as Saloum. Saloum is (unofficially) recognized today as a Wolof- speaking territory and a Wolof variety. Exploring the linguistic and social practices of the borderland inhabitants allows a localized perspective of how language, place, and borders are constructed from the periphery. By studying the routines, ideologies and linguistic patterns of speakers in this area, I examine how the border influences social and linguistic practices of Wolof speakers in this borderland where historically unified local identity (Saloum) is shared, but nationality (Senegalese and Gambian) is divided. Living in this border area and engaging in participant observation for nine months in 2013, I collected 64 sociolinguistic interviews in four different communities on both sides of the border, including both urban and rural sites on both sides. Using linguistic variables associated with different levels of grammar, I assess to what degree the political border also constitutes a linguistic border. Through the lens of the local social and linguistic practices, I focus on how the border is constructed and/or subverted. The results show a complex relationship between linguistic variables, cognitive space, and local versus national orientations. In order to better understand how a border may become a source for linguistic divergence between borderland communities, I examined variables from three levels of Wolof grammar: phonetic, morphosyntactic, and lexical. While each variable had a iii slightly different pattern in the way borderland speakers use its variants, it became clear that none of the features categorically contribute to a linguistic border. For each feature, there are varying degrees of overlap for different segments of the population. The phonetic features and the lexical features are part of a gendered construction of nationality (and modernity) versus traditional locality while the morphosyntactic variable is linked to mobility and contact with the Gambian capital. This study reveals that ideologically, the borderland (and the boundary) can represent different things to different borderland inhabitants. It also shows, more importantly, that a linguistic border is not an automatic reflex of a political border, but that speakers’ linguistic practices can reflect a range of local identities. iv To my parents and sisters for all of their love and support. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My research would not have been possible without the help of many. First I would like to thank the National Security Education Program for the Boren Fellowship and the National Science Foundation (BCS-1251817) for the Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant for the opportunity to do fieldwork. To The Ohio State University Graduate School for the Presidential Fellowship, which allowed me time to analyze so much data. Thank you to my host families in Sokone, Dakar, Karang. So many thanks to my research assistants Omar Diatta and Ebrima Bah for all the hours of patience you had with me and the transportation and equipment mishaps. Ebrima and Mansour Drame, jërëjef for helping transcribe some of the interviews in this study and for your patience. Emily Lane, Frank Janossy, and Kate Schudel were invaluable research assistants. And thank you too all of the people who agreed to participate in the interviews for this study and share their lives and experiences with me. My committee has been behind this dissertation the whole way. My advisor Brian Joseph has shown interest in my questions and ideas and also provided me with support in the form of research advising and letters of reference that has helped me accomplish my research goals. Thank you so much for believing in this project from the very beginning and taking a chance on me as an advisee. My entire advisory committee including Cynthia Clopper, Don Winford, Mark Moritz, and Fiona McLaughlin has provided feedback and advice since the early stages of planning this dissertation and they vi have taught me how to be a rigorous researcher. Other staff and faculty including Kathryn Campbell-Kibler and Hope Dawson have also helped me formulate my research interests. Thank you to Jim Harmon for helping me select durable equipment for the field and saving my data more than once. To my fellow researchers and grad students, past and current, for all the times they listened to me talk about my research. To all the OSU grad student linguists, especially Abby Walker, Marivic Lesho, Katie Carmichael, Bridget Smith, Cindy Johnson, Carrie Ann Morgan, Rachel Burdin, Zack De, Rory Turnbull for your helpful feedback and support throughout the years. I am especially grateful to Mike Furman and Murat Yasavul for reminding me to go on walks and look at funny videos of cats on the internet. I thank Christopher Hemming and Clayton Howard for good writing sessions and cross-disciplinary perspectives. Thanks to my roommate Donyelle Littles for caring for my cats while I went to countless conferences and for making me late-night quesadillas when I needed them. Thanks to my friends Tina Nguyen, Silvia Santiago and Rachel Lustig for making life during dissertation writing infinitely more enjoyable with volleyball, hikes, and good conversation. Finally I’d like to acknowledge my family for supporting me the whole way. My mother Ruthmarie inspired a love of African history and foreign languages in me. My father William groomed me to be an empiricist and world traveler. My sister Mary Cecilia sent me art books and Chanel lipstick and reminded me to have fun. My sister Becca and her husband Marc lent their ears and gave good advice even as they worked on their own little project (Calvin!). I am eternally grateful to my first-round draft pick MVP all-star Ahmed Olayanju for your patience and love through all of this. vii VITA 2005……………………..………B.A. in Program of Liberal Studies, University of Notre Dame 2013……………………………. M.A. in Linguistics, The Ohio State University Publications Mitsch, Jane (to appear 2015). The use of discourse particles among Wolof-speaking youth in the Senegambia borderlands. Sociolinguistics Studies 9(3). Mitsch, Jane (2015). Linguistic Bridges and Borders: Wolof repertoires in the Senegambian borderlands. In Minding the Gap: On Bridges, Breaches, and Borders (SUNY Buffalo Graduate Romance Studies Journal). Mitsch, Jane (2014). Geminate production in two varieties of Wolof. In Chiara Celata & Lidia Costamagna (Eds.), Consonant Gemination in First and Second Language Acquisition. Pisa: Pacini Editore, pp. 105-22 Fields of Study: Major Field: Linguistics viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….….. ii Acknowledgements …………..…………………………………………………………..vi Vita ………..……………………………………………...…………………………… viii Table of Contents ……………………………………………………………………….. ix List of Tables ………………………………………………………………………….. xiv List of Figures ………………………………………………………………….…..…... xv Chapter 1: Introduction ……………………………………………………………….…. 1 1.1 Motivation for research……………………………………………………… 2 1.2 Identity, nations, and border theory ………………………….……………… 4 1.3 African border studies …………………………………………………….…. 8 1.3.1 The Senegalese and Gambian border ……………..……………….12 1.3.2 History of Saloum ………..……………………………………… 14 1.4 (Socio)linguistic studies of borders ………………………………….…….. 18 1.5 Summary