African French
Template:Short description Template:About Template:More citations needed Template:Expand French {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check |unknown=Template:Main other |preview=Page using Template:Infobox language with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| acceptance | agency | aiatsis | aiatsis2 | aiatsis3 | aiatsis4 | aiatsis5 | aiatsis6 | aiatsisname | aiatsisname2 | aiatsisname3 | aiatsisname4 | aiatsisname5 | aiatsisname6 | altname | ancestor | ancestor2 | ancestor3 | ancestor4 | ancestor5 | ancestor6 | ancestor7 | ancestor8 | ancestor9 | ancestor10 | ancestor11 | ancestor12 | ancestor13 | ancestor14 | ancestor15 | boxsize | coordinates | coords | created | creator | date | dateprefix | development_body | dia1 | dia2 | dia3 | dia4 | dia5 | dia6 | dia7 | dia8 | dia9 | dia10 | dia11 | dia12 | dia13 | dia14 | dia15 | dia16 | dia17 | dia18 | dia19 | dia20 | dia21 | dia22 | dia23 | dia24 | dia25 | dia26 | dia27 | dia28 | dia29 | dia30 | dia31 | dia32 | dia33 | dia34 | dia35 | dia36 | dia37 | dia38 | dia39 | dia40 | dialect_label | dialects | ELP | ELP2 | ELP3 | ELP4 | ELP5 | ELP6 | ELPname | ELPname2 | ELPname3 | ELPname4 | ELPname5 | ELPname6 | era | ethnicity | extinct | fam1 | fam2 | fam3 | fam4 | fam5 | fam6 | fam7 | fam8 | fam9 | fam10 | fam11 | fam12 | fam13 | fam14 | fam15 | family | familycolor | fontcolor | glotto | glotto2 | glotto3 | glotto4 | glotto5 | glottoname | glottoname2 | glottoname3 | glottoname4 | glottoname5 | glottopedia | glottorefname | glottorefname2 | glottorefname3 | glottorefname4 | glottorefname5 | guthrie | ietf | image | imagealt | imagecaption | imagescale | iso1 | iso1comment | iso2 | iso2b | iso2comment | iso2t | iso3 | iso3comment | iso6 | isoexception | lc1 | lc2 | lc3 | lc4 | lc5 | lc6 | lc7 | lc8 | lc9 | lc10 | lc11 | lc12 | lc13 | lc14 | lc15 | lc16 | lc17 | lc18 | lc19 | lc20 | lc21 | lc22 | lc23 | lc24 | lc25 | lc26 | lc27 | lc28 | lc29 | lc30 | lc31 | lc32 | lc33 | lc34 | lc35 | lc36 | lc37 | lc38 | lc39 | lc40 | ld1 | ld2 | ld3 | ld4 | ld5 | ld6 | ld7 | ld8 | ld9 | ld10 | ld11 | ld12 | ld13 | ld14 | ld15 | ld16 | ld17 | ld18 | ld19 | ld20 | ld21 | ld22 | ld23 | ld24 | ld25 | ld26 | ld27 | ld28 | ld29 | ld30 | ld31 | ld32 | ld33 | ld34 | ld35 | ld36 | ld37 | ld38 | ld39 | ld40 | linglist | linglist2 | linglist3 | linglist4 | linglist5 | linglist6 | lingname | lingname2 | lingname3 | lingname4 | lingname5 | lingname6 | lingua | lingua2 | lingua3 | lingua4 | lingua5 | lingua6 | lingua7 | lingua8 | lingua9 | lingua10 | linguaname | linguaname2 | linguaname3 | linguaname4 | linguaname5 | linguaname6 | linguaname7 | linguaname8 | linguaname9 | linguaname10 | listclass | liststyle | map | map2 | mapalt | mapalt2 | mapcaption | mapcaption2 | mapscale | minority | module | name | nation | nativename | notice | notice2 | official | posteriori | pronunciation | protoname | pushpin_image | pushpin_label | pushpin_label_position | pushpin_map | pushpin_map_alt | pushpin_map_caption | pushpin_mapsize | qid | ref | refname | region | revived | revived-cat | revived-category | script | setting | sign | signers | speakers | speakers_label | speakers2 | stand1 | stand2 | stand3 | stand4 | stand5 | stand6 | standards | state | states }}<templatestyles src="Template:Infobox/styles-images.css" />
African French (Template:Langx) is the umbrella grouping of varieties of the French language spoken throughout Francophone Africa. Used mainly as a secondary language or lingua franca, it is spoken by an estimated 167 million people across 34 countries and territories,<ref group="Note">29 full members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF): Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, DR Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Togo, and Tunisia.
One associate member of the OIF: Ghana.
One observer of the OIF: Mozambique.
One country not member or observer of the OIF: Algeria.
Two French territories in Africa: Réunion and Mayotte.</ref> some of which are not Francophone, but merely members or observers of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Of these, 19 sovereign states recognize it as an official de jure language, though it is not the native tongue of the majority.<ref name="auto1"/> According to Ethnologue, only 1,2 million people spoke it as a first language.<ref name=Ethnologue/>Template:Better source African French speakers represent 67% of the Francophonie,<ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto2"/> making Africa the continent with the most French speakers in the world.
In Africa, French is often spoken as a second language alongside the Indigenous ones, but in a small number of urban areas (in particular in Central Africa and in the ports located on the Gulf of Guinea) it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire,<ref>Template:In lang Le français à Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard Template:Webarchive by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002</ref> the Democratic Republic of Congo,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in the urban areas of Douala, Yaoundé in Cameroon, in Libreville, Gabon, and Antananarivo<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>.
In some countries, though not having official de jure status, it is a first language among a small social classes of the population, such as in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania, where French is a first language among the upper classes along with Arabic (many people in the upper classes are simultaneous bilinguals in Arabic/French), but only a second language among the general population.
In each of the Francophone African countries, French is spoken with local variations in pronunciation and vocabulary.
List of countries in Africa by French proficiency
French proficiency in African countries according to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).<ref>[1]</ref><ref>[2]</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Efn
| Countries | Total population | French speaking population | Percentage of the population that speaks French | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Flaglist | 47,435,000 | 15,589,000 | 32.86% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 14,814,000 | 4,992,000 | 33.7% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 24,075,000 | 5,499,000 | 22.84% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 14,390,000 | 1,250,000 | 8.68% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 527,000 | 52,000 | 10.83% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 29,879,000 | 12,267,000 | 41.06% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 5,513,000 | 1,345,000 | 24.39% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 21,004,000 | 2,693,000 | 12.82% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 883,000 | 333,000 | 37.73% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 6,484,000 | 3,981,000 | 61.4% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 32,712,000 | 11,913,000 | 36.42% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 1,184,000 | 592,000 | 50% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 112,832,000 | 57,196,000 | 50.69% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 118,366,000 | 3,573,000 | 3.02% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 1,938,000 | 560,000 | 28.91% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 2,593,000 | 1,719,000 | 66.3% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 2,822,000 | 564,000 | 20.00% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 35,064,000 | 645,000 | 1.84% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 15,100,000 | 4,202,000 | 27.83% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | ||||
| Template:Flaglist | 32,741,000 | 8,705,000 | 26.59% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 25,199,000 | 5,028,000 | 19.95% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 5,315,000 | 689,000 | 12.96% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 1,268,000 | 921,000 | 72.65% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 38,431,000 | 13,912,000 | 36.2% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 27,918,000 | 3,754,000 | 13.45% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 14,569,000 | 748,000 | 5.14% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | ||||
| Template:Flaglist | 18,932,000 | 5,250,000 | 27.73% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 133,000 | 70,000 | 53.00% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 9,722,000 | 3,998,000 | 41.12% | 2025 |
| Template:Flaglist | 12,349,000 | 6,558,000 | 53.11% | 2025 |
Varieties
There are many different varieties of African French, but they can be broadly grouped into five categories:<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- The French variety spoken in Central Africa and West Africa including Angola with French ancestry or French residents who speak French especially in Cabinda – spoken altogether by about 97 million people in 2018, as either a first or second language.<ref name="2018_speakers" />
- The French variety spoken by Berbers and Maghrebis in North-west Africa (see Maghreb French), which has about 33 million first and second language speakers in 2018.<ref name="2018_speakers" />
- The French variety spoken in the Comoro Islands (the Comoros and Mayotte) and Madagascar, which have 5.6 million first and second language speakers in 2018.<ref name="2018_speakers" />
- The French variety spoken by Creoles in the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius and Réunion) and Seychelles, which has around 1.75 million first and second language speakers in 2018.<ref name="2018_speakers" /> The French spoken in this region is not to be confused with the French-based creole languages, which are also spoken in the area.
- The French variety spoken in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, which has about 0.5 million first and second language speakers in 2018.<ref name="2018_speakers" />
All the African French varieties differ from Standard French, both in terms of pronunciation and vocabulary, but the formal African French used in education, media and legal documents is based on standard French vocabulary.
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In the colonial period, a vernacular form of creole French known as Petit nègre ("little negro") was also present in West Africa. The term has since, however, become a pejorative term for "poorly spoken" African French.
In Angola, French is spoken in Angola especially Cabinda, particularly in the northern regions. While Portuguese is the official language, French is understood and spoken, especially among the Kongo people in the north and by Angolans with French ancestry. It's also one of the foreign languages taught in schools with 90% speak French from neighboring DR Congo as a legacy of Belgian colonial rule which established as Belgium's private colony of Francophone Africa until its independence on 30 June 1960.
Code-switching, or the alternation of languages within a single conversation, takes place in both DR Congo and Senegal, the former having four "national" languages – Ciluba, Kikongo, Lingala, and Swahili – which are in a permanent opposition to French. Code-switching has been studied since colonial times by different institutions of linguistics. One of these, located in Dakar, Senegal, already spoke of the creolizationTemplate:Inconsistent of French in 1968, naming the result "franlof": a mix of French and Wolof (the language most spoken in Senegal) which spreads by its use in urban areas and through schools, where teachers often speak Wolof in the classroom despite official instructions.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The omnipresence of local languages in Francophone African countries – along with insufficiencies in education – has given birth to a new linguistic concept: le petit français.<ref name="manessy">Template:Cite journal</ref> Le petit français is the result of a superposition of the structure of a local language with a narrowed lexical knowledge of French. The specific structures, though very different, are juxtaposed, marking the beginning of the creolization process.
Some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to remove the use of French; it was removed as an official language in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger in 2023, 2024, and 2025 respectively.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Français populaire africain
In the urban areas of Francophone Africa, another type of French has emerged: Français populaire africain ("Popular African French") or FPA. It is used in the entirety of Sub-Saharan Africa, but especially in cities such as Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; Cotonou, Benin; Dakar, Senegal; Lomé, Togo; and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. At its emergence, it was marginalized and associated with the ghetto; Angèle Bassolé-Ouedraogo describes the reaction of the scholars:
However, FPA has begun to emerge as a second language among the upper class. It has also become a symbol of social acceptance.Template:Citation needed
FPA can be seen as a progressive evolution of Ivorian French. After diffusing out of Côte d'Ivoire, it became Africanized under the influence of young Africans (often students) and cinema, drama, and dance.Template:Citation needed
FPA has its own grammatical rules and lexicon. For example, "Template:Lang" or "Template:Lang" can either mean "This person annoys me very much (literally he or she is annoying me to death)" or "I'm dying (out of love) for him/her" depending on the circumstances. "Template:Lang" signifies a feeling of exasperation (whereupon it actually means "he or she starts to appeal to me"), and friendship can be expressed with "Template:Lang" or "Template:Lang"<ref name=bassole>Template:Cite web</ref>
FPA is mainly composed of metaphors and images taken from African languages. For example, the upper social class is called "Template:Lang" (the above from above) or "Template:Lang" (the powerful môgôs).
Pronunciation
Pronunciation in the many varieties of African French can be quite varied. There are nonetheless some trends among African French speakers; for instance, [[r|Template:Vr]] tends to be pronounced as the historic alveolar trill of pre-20th Century French instead of the now standard uvular trill or 'guttural R.' The voiced velar fricative, the sound represented by Template:Lang in the Arabic word Template:Lang Template:Lang, is another common alternative. Pronunciation of the letters Template:Vr, Template:Vr, Template:Vr and Template:Vr may also vary, and intonation may differ from standard French.Template:Citation needed
Abidjan French
Template:Expand French According to some estimates, French is spoken by 75 to 99 percent of Abidjan's population,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> either alone or alongside indigenous African languages. There are three sorts of French spoken in Abidjan. A formal French is spoken by the educated classes. Most of the population, however, speaks a colloquial form of French known as français de Treichville (after a working-class district of Abidjan) or français de Moussa (after a character in chronicles published by the magazine Ivoire Dimanche which are written in this colloquial Abidjan French). Finally, an Abidjan French slang called Nouchi has evolved from an ethnically neutral lingua franca among uneducated youth into a creole language with a distinct grammar.<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref> New words often appear in Nouchi and then make their way into colloquial Abidjan French after some time.<ref name="Abidjan_varieties">Template:Cite web</ref> As of 2012, a crowdsourced dictionary of Nouchi was being written using mobile phones.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Here are some examples of words used in the African French variety spoken in Abidjan (the spelling used here conforms to French orthography, except ô which is pronounced Template:IPA):<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Template:Lang is a slang word meaning a girl or a girlfriend. It is a loanword either from the Mandinka language or from English ("girl"). It is also French hip-hop slang for a girl.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Template:Lang is a colloquial word meaning a street-side eatery, a working-class restaurant serving African food (likely from French “Template:Lang”).
- Template:Lang is a slang word equivalent to "bloke" or "dude" in English. It is a loanword from the Mandinka language.
- Template:Lang is a word meaning to whip, to beat, or to chastise (children). It is a loanword from Portuguese where it meant "to whip". It has now entered the formal language of the educated classes.
- Template:Lang is a slang word meaning money. It comes perhaps from the standard French word Template:Lang ("coin") or Template:Lang ("stone"), or perhaps Template:Lang (dollar, buck).
When speaking in a formal context, or when meeting French speakers from outside Côte d'Ivoire, Abidjan speakers would replace these local words with the French standard words Template:Lang, Template:Lang or Template:Lang, Template:Lang, battre and l'argent respectively. Note that some local words are used across several African countries. For example, Template:Lang is attested not only in Côte d'Ivoire but also in Senegal, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Central African Republic, Benin, Togo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<ref name=Abidjan_varieties />
As already mentioned, these local words range from slang to formal usage, and their use therefore varies depending on the context. In Abidjan, this is how the sentence "The girl stole my money." is constructed depending on the register:<ref name=Abidjan_varieties />
- formal Abidjan French of the educated people: Template:Lang
- colloquial Abidjan French (Template:Lang): Template:Lang (in standard French, the grammatically correct sentence should be Template:Lang)
- Abidjan French slang (Nouchi): Template:Lang (Template:Lang is an Abidjan slang word meaning "to steal")
Another unique, identifiable feature of Ivorian French is the use of the phrase n'avoir qu'à + infinitif which, translated into English, roughly means, to have only to + infinitive.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> The phrase is often used in linguistic contexts of expressing a wish or creating hypotheticals. This original Ivorian phrase is generally used across the Côte d'Ivoire's population; children, uneducated adults, and educated adults all using the phrase relatively equally. Often in written speech, the phrase is written as Ils non cas essayer de voir rather than Ils n'ont qu'à essayer de voir.<ref name=":1" />
Characteristics
Many characteristics of Ivorian/Abidjan French differ from "standard" French found in France. Many of the linguistic evolutions are from the influences of native African languages spoken within the Côte d'Ivoire and make Abidjan French a distinct dialect of French.
Some of the major phonetic and phonological variations of Abidjan French, as compared to a more "typical" French, include substituting the nasal low vowel [ɑ̃] for a non-nasal [a], especially when the sound occurs at the beginning of a word, and some difficulty with the full production of the phonemes /ʒ/ and /ʃ/.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> There are also, to a certain degree, rhythmic speaking patterns in Ivorian French that are influenced by native languages.<ref name=":0" />
Ivorian French is also unique in its grammatical differences present in spoken speech such as these:<ref name=":0" />
- omission of articles in some contexts (tu veux poisson instead of the French tu veux du poisson)
- omission of prepositions in some contexts (Il parti Yamoussoukro rather than Il est parti à Yamoussoukro)
- interchangeable usage of indirect and direct objects (using lui instead of le and vice versa)
- more flexible grammatical formation
Angolan French
French is used as a language of communication, especially among the literate population in Cabinda, and it's also a language spoken in Angola as a significant French Angolan population, which includes Angolans with French ancestry and French people who live or have lived in Angola, many people, including a large percentage of the literate population, speak French fluently from the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo as a legacy of Belgian colonial rule from Brussels that declared its independence from Belgium on 30 June 1960. Angola has had a historical and cultural connection with France, particularly through its colonial past and subsequent economic and political relationships with other countries including Francophone Africa which had been colonized as former French colonies from Paris.
Algerian French
Without being an official language, French is frequently used in government, workplaces, and education. French is the default language for work in several sectors. In a 2007 study set in the city of Mostaganem, it was shown that French and Arabic were the two functional languages of banking. Technical work (accounting, financial analysis, management) is also frequently done in French. Documents, forms, and posters are often in both French and Arabic.
The usage of French among the Algerian population is different depending on social situations. One can find:
- direct borrowings, where the lexical unit is unchanged: surtout (particularly), voiture (car)
- integrated borrowings, where the lexical unit experiences phonetic transformation: gendarme (police force), cinéma (cinema)
- code switching, where another language is spoken in addition to French in a single oration (ex: Berber/French, Arabic/French)
Beninese French
French is the sole official language in Benin. In 2014, over 4 million Beninese citizens spoke French (around 40% of the population). Fongbe is the other widely spoken language of Benin. It is natural to hear both languages blending, either through loan words or code-switching.
Few academic sources exist surrounding the particularisms of Beninese French. Nevertheless, it is evident that Beninese French has adapted the meanings of several French terms over time, such as: seconder (to have relations with a second woman, from the French second - second), doigter (to show the way, from the French doigt - finger).
Burkinabe French
French is the language of administration, education, and business in Burkina Faso and was the de jure official language until a constitutional change in 2024. While spoken fluently only by about a quarter of the population, French has progressively become a native language among urban populations since the late 20th century, notably in the cities of Ouagadougou, Bobo-Dioulasso, and Banfora. By 2010, about 10% of Ouagadougou residents spoke French as their first language.<ref>La langue française dans le monde 2010 Template:Webarchive, Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, 2010, p. 51 (in French)</ref>
Linguists have observed the development of a local vernacular of French in the country called français populaire burkinabè which is influenced by local languages such as Mooré and is used as a lingua franca in commerce.<ref>Coulibaly, Bakary. Interférences et français populaire du Burkina Template:Webarchive, University of Ouagadougou, 1994. (in French)</ref> It is largely used as a spoken language whereas speakers continue to use standard French as the written language.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Cameroonian French
Kinshasa French
With more than 11 million inhabitants, Kinshasa is the largest Francophone city in the world, surpassing Paris in population. It is the capital of the most populous francophone country in the world, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where an estimated 43 million people (51% of the total population) can speak French (essentially as a second language).<ref name="2018_speakers">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="2018_methodology">Template:Cite web</ref> Contrary to Abidjan where French is the first language of a large part of the population, in Kinshasa French is only a second language, and its status of lingua franca is shared with Lingala. Kinshasa French also differs from other African French variants, for it has some Belgian French influences, due to colonization. People of different African mother tongues living in Kinshasa usually speak Lingala to communicate with each other in the street, but French is the language of businesses, administrations, schools, newspapers and televisions. French is also the predominant written language.
Due to its widespread presence in Kinshasa, French has become a local language with its own pronunciation and some local words borrowed for the most part from Lingala. Depending on their social status, some people may mix French and Lingala, or code switch between the two depending on the context. Here are examples of words particular to Kinshasa French. As in Abidjan, there exist various registers and the most educated people may frown upon the use of slangish/Lingala terms.
- Template:Lang means broken, worn out, exhausted, or dead. It is a neologism on the standard French word Template:Lang whose meaning in standard French is "corpse". The word Template:Lang has now spread to other African countries due to the popularity of Congolese music in Africa.
- Template:Lang means strong, resistant. It is a loanword from Lingala.
- Template:Lang are sunglasses worn by partiers at night. It is a word coined locally and whose literal meaning in standard French is "anti-night". It is one of the many Kinshasa slang words related to nightlife and partying. A reveler is known locally as Template:Lang, from standard French Template:Lang which means atmosphere.
- Template:Lang, literally "to break the Bic", means to stop going to school. Template:Lang is colloquially used to refer to a ballpoint pen in Belgian French and Kinshasa French, but not in standard French.
- Template:Lang means "thank you very much". It comes from standard French Template:Lang ("thank you") and Lingala Template:Lang ("a lot").
- Template:Lang is a bottle opener. It comes from the Lingala verb Template:Lang which means "to open something that is blocked up or bottled", to which was added the standard French suffix Template:Lang.
- Template:Lang is a rickety old taxi. In standard French Template:Lang means "tetanus".
- Template:Lang means "absolutely impossible". It comes from Template:Lang ("there's no way"), itself made up of standard French Template:Lang ("way") and Lingala Template:Lang ("not", "no"), to which was added standard French Template:Lang ("really").
- Template:Lang means to have a mistress. Template:Lang doesn't mean "He has two offices", but "He has two mistresses".
- Template:Lang means "fend for yourself" or "find what you need by yourself".
- Template:Lang means "thank you" or "you are welcome". When it means "thank you", it can offend some French speakers who are not aware of its special meaning in Kinshasa. For example, if one offers a present to a person, they will often reply Template:Lang. In standard French, it means "I don't mind".
- Template:Lang is the way Kinois say 81, Template:Lang in Europe.
- Template:Lang, literally to make things "complicated" or difficult for someone. It can be anyone: Template:Lang, "She is giving me a tough time".
- Template:Lang is something someone does to make another person's life harder, and often refers to policemen or soldiers. A fine is often called a Template:Lang, especially because the policemen in Kinshasa usually ask for an unpayable sum of money that requires extensive bargaining.
Characteristics
There are many linguistic differences that occur in Kinshasa French that make it a distinct dialect of French. Similarly to many other African dialects of French, many of the linguistic aspects are influenced, either directly or indirectly, by the linguistics of the local African languages. It is also essential to note that grammatical differences between local Congolese languages and the French language, such as the lack of gendered nouns in the former, result in linguistic changes when speakers of the former speak French.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Here are some of the phonetic characteristics of Kinshasa French:<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- the posteriorization of anterior labial vowels in French, more specifically, the posteriorization of the common French phoneme [ɥ] for [u] (ex: pronunciation of the French word cuisine [kɥizin] as couwisine [kuwizin])
- the delabialization of the phoneme [y] for the phoneme [i] (ex: pronunciation of the French term bureau [byʁo] as biro [biʁo])
- the vocalic opening of the French phoneme [œ] creating, instead, the phoneme [ɛ] (ex: pronunciation of the French word acteur [aktœʁ] as actère [aktɛʁ])
- in some cases, the denasalization of French vowels (ex: pronunciation of the French term bande [bɑ̃d] as ba-nde [band])
- the mid-nasalization of occlusive consonants that follow the nasals [n] and [m] (ex: in relationship to the example above, the French word bande [bɑ̃d] could be pronounced both as ba-nde [band] or as ban-nde with a slightly nasalized [d])
- the palatalization of French apico-dental consonants that are followed by [i] and/or [ɥ] (ex: pronunciation of the French word dix [dis] is pronounced as dzix [dzis] and, similarly, the term parti may be pronounced as partsi)
As briefly mentioned above, many Congolese languages are ungendered languages and so there is often some mixing of the French masculine and feminine articles in speakers of Kinshasa French, such as the phrase Je veux du banane rather than the "correct" French Je veux de la banane.<ref name=":2" />
See also
- Francophone Africa
- French colonial empire
- Belgian colonial empire
- Geographical distribution of French speakers
- Camfranglais
- List of colonies and possessions of France
- Belgian Congo
- Maghreb French
- Françafrique
- Francophonie
- French-based creole languages
- French language in Minnesota
- French language in Vietnam
- French language in Cambodia
- French language in Laos
- French Polynesia
- Languages of Africa
Notes
Template:Reflist Template:Notelist
References
External links
- LE FRANÇAIS EN AFRIQUE - Revue du Réseau des Observatoires du Français Contemporain en AfriqueTemplate:In lang
- Links for Afrique francophone
- Dictionaries of various French-speaking countries
- Le Français et le Français populaire Africain: partenariat, cohabitation ou défiance? FPA, appartenance sociale, diversité linguistique Template:In lang
- La mondialisation, une chance pour la francophonie Template:In lang
- RFI - L’avenir du français passe par l’Afrique Template:In lang
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