This paper examines how ethnic, regional, and religious identities are reflected in language use in Senegal (where Wolof is the major lingua franca).

West African manuscripts are numerous and varied in forms and contents. There are thousands of them across West Africa. A significant portion of them are documents written in Arabic and Ajami (African languages written in Arabic script). They deal with both religious and nonreligious subjects. The development of these manuscript traditions dates back to the early days of Islam in West Africa, in the 11th century. In addition to these Arabic and Ajami manuscripts, there have been others written in indigenous scripts. These include those in the Vai script invented in Liberia; Tifinagh, the traditional writing system of the Amazigh (Berber) people; and the N’KO script invented in Guinea for Mande languages. While the writings in indigenous scripts are rare less numerous and widespread, they nonetheless constitute an important component of West Africa’s written heritage. Though the efforts devoted to the preservation of West African manuscripts are limited compared to other world regions, interest in preserving them has increased. Some of the initial preservation efforts of West African manuscripts are the collections of colonial officers. Academics later supplemented these collections. These efforts resulted in important print and digital repositories of West African manuscripts in Africa, Europe, and America. Until recently, most of the cataloguing and digital preservation efforts of West African manuscripts have focused on those written in Arabic. However, there has been an increasing interest in West African manuscripts written in Ajami and indigenous scripts. Important West African manuscripts in Arabic, Ajami, and indigenous scripts have now been digitized and preserved, though the bulk remain uncatalogued and unknown beyond the communities of their owners.

Abstract:While African literature in European languages is well-studied, ʿajamī and its significance in the intellectual history of Africa remains one of the least investigated areas in African studies. Yet ʿajamī is one of the oldest and most widespread forms of literature in Africa. This article draws scholars' attention to this unmapped terrain of knowledge. First, it provides a survey of major West African ʿajamī literary traditions and examines the nexus between the pedagogy of Aḥmadu Bamba and the development of Wolofal (Wolof ʿajamī). Then, with reference to excerpts from Sëriñ Masoxna Ló's 1954 eulogy, it discusses the role of Wolofal in the diffusion of the Murīd ethos.

This study is part of a larger unpublished work. The data collection is based on the Labovian sociolinguistic interview: 200 randomly selected Wolof speakers were interviewed and recorded for 20 minutes in Senegal. They were divided into two groups: 100 subjects over 50 years old and 100 subjects between 20 and 30 years old. Each group comprised 50 males and 50 females. The number of loanwords from Arabic, French, and English in subjects' vernacular was statistically analyzed using the Wilcoxon (rank sums) test across three registers (cultural, political, and religious), age groups, and gender. The study argues that loanwords in Wolof reflect the social groups in Senegal and the prestige of lender-languages. First, the article discusses the influence of foreign languages in Senegal. Second, it examines the social status of loanwords from these languages. Third, it shows the relationships between loanwords, registers, age group, and gender in Senegal. Senegal is located in West Africa between the 11th and 17th parallels west and the 12th and 16th parallels north. The country spreads 400 kilometers from north to south, and 600 kilometers from east to west, covering a surface of about 200,000 square kilometers. It borders Mauritania in the north, Mali in the east, Guinea Conakry in the southeast, and Guinea-Bissau in the south. The republic of the Gambia is wedged into the south of Senegal, dividing the latter into two parts. In the west, Senegal borders the Atlantic Ocean with 500 kilometers of coastline (Diallo, 1983:4). The country is divided into 11 administrative regions: Rufisque, where Dakar (the national capital) is located,

Wolofal (from Wolof: Wolof language or ethnic group and ‘-al’: causative morpheme) is an Ajami writing (a generic term commonly used to refer to non-Arabic languages written with Arabic scripts) used to transliterate Wolof in Senegal. It results from the early Islamization of the major Muslim ethnic groups in the country, especially the Pulaar, the Wolof and the Mandinka. Although Senegal is considered to be a French-speaking country, ironically over 50% of the Senegalese people are thought to be illiterate in French. French literacy is restricted to the minority educated group mostly found in urban areas. Because the literacy rate in French is very small in the country, especially among older people, Wolofal remains a major means of written communication among people who are illiterate in French and who have attended Qurʾānic schools. It is used by these people to write letters, run their informal businesses and read religious poems and writings. This paper is based upon fieldwork conducted in Senegal in the summer of 2004. It discusses the orthographic system of Wolofal (compared to Arabic) and provides a sociolinguistic profile of communities in which it serves as major means of written communication.