Kogh Pascal SOMÉ, Du latin langue gallo-romane au français langue africaine

Abstract

From Latin as a Gallo-Roman language to French as an African language

What if the future of French was in Africa ? This hypothesis is far from absurd if we take into account the forecasts relating to demographic trends as formulated by the UN and a large number of demographic scientists : by 2050, more than 2/3 of French speakers are likely to be found on the African continent, and therefore mainly in the former French colonies in Africa. This is one of the reasons why we are interested in the evolution of the French language through a cross portrait of the evolution of Latin in Romania and that of French in the former French colonial empire of West and Central Africa. If, over the centuries, variation has led, for Latin, to the birth of Romance languages, including French, there is nothing to prevent us from thinking that, in the case of French, it could eventually lead to the birth of Francophone languages in Africa. For the time being, French is being dialectalised at a very high speed in African cities. This dialectalised French, French as an African language, deserves to be considered and taken into account by linguistic policies at the same time as languages of African origin for the harmonious socio-economic and political development of these young African states.

Per citare questo articolo:

Kogh Pascal SOMÉ, « Du latin langue gallo-romane au français langue africaine », Repères DoRiF, n. 21 – Langues, linguistique et développement en milieu francophone. Des terrains africains, DoRiF Università, Roma, settembre 2020, https://www.dorif.it/reperes/3727/

ISSN 2281-3020