Język. Komunikacja. Informacja, 2006, tom 1
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Item Loanwords in the Senegalese Speech Community: Their Linguistics Features and Sociolinguistic Significance(SORUS S.C. Wydawnictwo i Drukarnia Cyfrowa, 2006) Ngom, FallouSenegal is a West African French-speaking country. Officially, the country has 6 major national languages: Wolof, Pulaar, Mandinka, Joola, Seereer, and Soninke. Of these 6 languages, Wolof is the major lingua franca used by over 70% of the population. As a former French colony, French remains the official language of the country used in the administration and in the public education system. Because over 90% of the Senegalese people are Muslim, the Arabic influence in the country is considerable. Furthermore, the global impact of American youth culture, mass media, the Internet, and the significant number of Senegalese immigrants living in the United States have resulted in the growing influence of American English in the country. The study of loanwords in Senegal (where language contact phenomena between African and non-African languages is the norm) shows that loanwords do not occur arbitrarily. In such a multilingual speech community, loanwords are often triggered and constrained by various cultural, political, religious and social forces that operate or have once operated in the speech community. Consequently, the study of loanwords provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the past and current socio-cultural dynamics in the country. This paper provides an overview of French, Arabic and English loanwords in Wolof and examines their general linguistic traits and their sociolinguistic significance in the country