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Sociolinguistic Spaces and Multilingualism: Practices And Sociolinguistic spaces and multilingualism: practices and perceptions in Essyl, Senegal SAMANTHA GOODCHILD Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD 2018 Department of Linguistics SOAS, University of London 1 Declaration for SOAS PhD thesis I have read and understood Regulation 21 of the General and Admissions Regulations for students of the SOAS, University of London concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ___ ___ Date:______07/10/2019___________ 2 Abstract This thesis explores the perceptions and practices of multilingualism in Essyl, Senegal, by considering how these are used and construed in sociolinguistic space. Based on fieldwork conducted in the village of Essyl, in the Casamance region of southern Senegal, this thesis explores how mobility and spatiality affect both the practices and discursive ideologies of multilingualism in a rural setting from an ethnographic perspective. In order to do this, the thesis addresses the following topics: participants’ life trajectories and the relationship with their linguistic repertoires; what patterns of language use are observed in natural discourse data; perceptions of space and multilingualism by considering approaches to language territorialisation and translanguaging. Firstly, in the three introductory chapters, I present the research area and overview of the wider sociolinguistic setting in Senegal, before moving on to a review of multilingualism and presenting relevant concepts and approaches. Subsequently, I discuss in detail the qualitative methodology behind the thesis focusing on ethnographic methods and triangulation of analyses. There follows three descriptive chapters: firstly, I present the linguistic repertoires of key participants, before describing various patterns of mobility in the following chapter and how those relate to both repertoire expansion and perceptions of multilingualism, while in the last descriptive chapter I focus on examining multilingual linguistic practices in Essyl from various viewpoints. In the final chapters of the thesis, I discuss how participants orient towards diverse, yet inclusive, linguistic practices, and how these are linked to perceived 3 monolingual and multilingual sociolinguistic spaces through processes of erasure and indexicality by way of language territorialisation. I further show how the validity of established concepts such as code are called into question, when taking into account different scales and perspectives of the practices and perceptions of multilingualism in Essyl, Senegal. 4 Acknowledgments Firstly, thanks to everyone in Essyl, who welcomed me into their homes and lives, for putting up with recordings, me taking endless notes and for helping me out with my attempts to learn Joola Eegimaa. In particular to Victor Bassène and Rosalie Manga who hosted me throughout my stays in Essyl, their family and Gendarme and Neige. I’m grateful to David Sagna for the best transcriptions, research assistance and insights into the data. Thanks to everyone in Brin and Djibonker and the rest of the team of transcribers at the Centre Linguistique Laurent Sagna de Brin: Jérémie Fahed Sagna, Lina Sagna, Laurent Manga and Aimé Césaire Biagui. And a special merci to culinary inspiration Josephine Sagna for amazing boulettes and mind- blowing kane. I would like to acknowledge the Leverhulme Trust and the funding received for the first three years of PhD study, funded through the SOAS hosted project: Crossroads – investigating the unexplored side of multilingualism. Thanks to all the Crossroads team: Friederike Lüpke, Rachel Watson, Chelsea Krajcik, Abbie Hantgan-Sonko, Alexander Cobbinah, Anne-Laure Vielle, Alain-Christian Bassène, Cheikh Sadibou Sambou, Tricia Manga. To Miriam Weidl – benn lañu – thanks for everything academic and everything else! Thanks to my supervisors Anne Pauwels and Friederike Lüpke for continual encouragement, constructive comments and answers to all of my never-ending questions. Thank you to Martin Orwin for positive comments on the draft after a last minute switch. I would like to extend my gratitude to Caroline Juillard, who was like another supervisor, for inspiration and for working together in the field. I would also 5 like to thank all of the participants and academic visitors in the numerous Crossroads workshops for the insights and comments. Thanks for the eternal support, chats, and proofreading from Karolina Grzech, Charlotte Hemmings, and Ebany Dohle, and all LL-ers past and present. Also to SOAS MA and PhD cohorts for all of the linguistic chats, in uni, pubs and elsewhere! Thanks to the rest of the proofreading team: Andrew Harvey, Eleanor Ridge and Hannah Ronksley. To Tom Ashton and Nigel, thanks for my London base, in-your-face alarm clock, din-dins and support during my submission and the viva. To Alison, Victoria and Trevor Goodchild and the family Fagan: thank you for all the support - emotional, financial and otherwise. Thanks to Peter Pan and Astle who were there from (nearly) the beginning and who have grown as the PhD grew - watching playtimes in the garden from the study made it too easy to procrastinate, but all the love and snuggles made it a lot easier overall. Last but not least to Calvin Fagan for the proofreading, continual support and belief in me. Thanks beyond infinity. 6 Table of contents Abbreviations ............................................................................................................. 15 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 16 1.1. Research focus ............................................................................................. 17 1.1.1. Multilingualism in rural Africa ............................................................ 17 1.1.2. Research questions ............................................................................... 18 1.1.3. Rationale .............................................................................................. 21 1.2. Background information on Essyl and the surrounding area ...................... 25 1.2.1. Research setting ................................................................................... 25 1.2.2. Historical background .......................................................................... 30 1.3. The languages and multilingualism of Senegal ........................................... 33 1.4. Languages and language naming practices in Essyl and surroundings ....... 37 2. Literature review ................................................................................................ 44 2.1. Review of multilingualism .......................................................................... 44 2.1.1. The field of multilingualism ................................................................ 44 2.1.2. Multilingualism in sub-Saharan Africa ................................................ 46 2.2. Multilingualism in Senegal and the Casamance ......................................... 53 2.2.1. Multilingualism in Senegal .................................................................. 54 2.2.2. Studies on the Casamance .................................................................... 58 2.2.3. Sociolinguistic studies in the Casamance ............................................ 62 2.3. Language and mobility ................................................................................ 72 7 2.4. Conceptions of place and space .................................................................. 79 2.4.1. Towards sociolinguistic space.............................................................. 79 2.4.2. Processes of indexicality ...................................................................... 90 2.5. Concepts and approaches ............................................................................ 96 2.5.1. Linguistic repertoire ............................................................................. 97 2.5.2. Linguistic biographies ........................................................................ 103 2.5.3. Linguistic practices: code-switching, multilingualism and translanguaging ................................................................................................ 104 3. Methodology .................................................................................................... 114 3.1. Qualitative methodology ........................................................................... 114 3.2. Methods. .................................................................................................... 114 3.2.1. Ethnographic field notes, observations and attested usage ................ 114 3.2.2. Audio and video recordings of observed naturalistic language data.. 118 3.2.3. (Semi-structured) Interviews .............................................................. 120 3.2.4. Life histories and linguistic biographies ............................................ 123 3.3. Data collection ........................................................................................... 124 3.3.1. Participant selection ........................................................................... 125 3.3.2. Corpora ..............................................................................................
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