French lexical influence in Bamana
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Abstract
Bamana (also known as Bamanankan or Bambara) is a Mandé language of the Niger-Congo family whose long history of contact with French has led to substantial borrowing and codeswitching. Crofts evolutionary model, Thomason & Kaufmans borrowing scale, and the Swadesh 200-word list provide valuable theoretical devices which inform the present investigation into the borrowing and codeswitching attested in Bamana. Data is drawn from Bamana grammars, linguistic studies of Mali, Wikipedia entries in the Bamana language, and an online Bamana dictionary published by SIL. This study shows that although some Bamana words now have French variants, French vocabulary is limited to non-core lexical items that are outside the realm of traditional Bamana life. The key to this maintenance of Bamana core lexical items involves such diverse factors as low levels of widespread bilingualism in French, a strong cultural identity associated with the Bamana language, and Bamanas semi-prestige status as a lingua franca spoken in much of West Africa.
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