Editing Sahel (section)

=== French ===
French is spoken widely in the [[Sahel]], as many of its nations are former French colonies, with two adopting French as an official language and many more using it colloquially.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brock-Utne |first=Birgit |title=Language and Power: The Implications of Language for Peace and Development |date=2009 |publisher=Mkuki na Nyota Publishers |year=2009 |isbn=9789987081462 |location=Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania}}</ref> The Sahel includes parts of [[Senegal]], [[Mauritania]], [[Burkina Faso]], [[Mali]], [[Niger]], [[Nigeria]], [[Chad]], [[Sudan]] and [[Eritrea]], where French is employed to varying degrees.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Grove |first=A. T. |date=November 1978 |title=Geographical Introduction to the Sahel |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/634817 |journal=The Geographical Journal |volume=144 |issue=3 |pages=407 |doi=10.2307/634817 |issn=0016-7398}}</ref>

==== Colonial History ====
The French language in the Sahel, as in much of Africa, is a remnant of colonial history and a foreign import to a region characterized by linguistic diversity.<ref>{{Citation |last=Mann |first=Gregory |title=French Colonialism and The Making of the Modern Sahel |date=2021-12-08 |work=The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel |pages=35–50 |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.9 |access-date=2025-05-06 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-881695-9}}</ref> After establishing French culture in northern Senegal in the mid-19th century, colonial governors like General [[Louis Faidherbe]] pushed deeper into the Sahel's interior, facing opposition from regional leaders. Despite resistance, territory was accrued and placed under the control of lieutenant governors who extracted resources and labor from local populations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=French in West Africa |url=https://www.africa.upenn.edu/K-12/French_16178.html |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=www.africa.upenn.edu}}</ref> The greater Sahel was subsequently organized into the massive territory of [[French West Africa]] in 1895, noted for its linguistic diversity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Leonard V. |date=2023-07-31 |title=French Colonialism: From the Ancien Régime to the Present |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108874489.002 |journal=French Colonialism |pages=78-82 |doi=10.1017/9781108874489.002}}</ref>

==== Status of the French Language ====
French has been the official language of most Sahel countries at various points in their history, but the trend of removing its official status has gained momentum since the end of [[Operation Barkhane|French military intervention]] in the region in 2022. Since then, the governments of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have stripped French from being an official language, punctuating a broader theme of the Sahel's self-isolation from Paris.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-05-23 |title=The end of an era for the French language? {{!}} The Independent |url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240523085648/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/french-language-colonial-africa-b2486607.html |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=web.archive.org}}</ref>

Although there is evidence of its use in nearly every Sahel country, research suggests that French is more often a [[Lingua franca|''Lingua franca'']] of business among the elite and educated classes than a conduit of practical everyday dialogue.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2019-04-07 |title=Why the future of French is African |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47790128 |access-date=2025-05-06 |language=en-GB}}</ref>

West African and Sahel loanwords have entered the lexicon of modern standard French, usually in the context of vernacular or slang elocution. This trend is mostly understood by the wave of African migrants to France since the end of the colonial era, but has intensified since the explosion of the youth population of Africa. Sahel loanwords are challenging the historic rigidity of the French language and its corresponding cultural norms.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Peltier |first=Elian |last2=Bashizi |first2=Arlette |last3=Morales |first3=Hannah Reyes |date=2023-12-12 |title=How Africans Are Changing French — One Joke, Rap and Book at a Time |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/12/world/africa/africa-french-language.html |access-date=2025-05-06 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==== Linguistic Specificities ====
[[Code-switching]] and linguistic blending is extremely common among French speakers in the Sahel, like other regions known for their linguistic diversity. Loanwords and phonetic irregularities derived from local languages have permeated Sahel French:

* Overt influence of English and even Chinese words in Burkinabè French, such as ''enjoy'' "take pleasure/enjoy" and ''chao''/''mao'' "old."
* ''Ligidi'' is a [[Mooré]] loanword meaning "money."<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |url=https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110348217 |title=Manuel des francophonies |date=2017-09-21 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-034821-7 |editor-last=Reutner |editor-first=Ursula}}</ref>
* ''C' nekh'' comes from the French expression ''c'est bon'' but replaces ''bon'' with the [[Wolof language|Wolof]] word ''nekh'', meaning "good" or "pleasant."
* The phoneme /y/ is pronounced more closely to /i/ by most French locutors in the Western Sahel.
* The apical trill pronunciation of /r/, once common in metropolitan France, continues in West Africa despite the more common use of the uvular trill pronunciation by standard French speakers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boula de Mareüil |first=Philippe |last2=Rouas |first2=Jean-Luc |last3=Yapomo |first3=Manuela |date=2011-08-27 |title=In search of cues discriminating West-african accents in French |url=https://doi.org/10.21437/interspeech.2011-280 |journal=Interspeech 2011 |location=ISCA |publisher=ISCA |pages=725–728 |doi=10.21437/interspeech.2011-280}}</ref>
* Less phonetic variation exists between the vowels /ø/, /ə/, and /e/ among French speakers in Burkina Faso and Niger; /e/ characterizes the majority of these pronunciations.<ref name=":2" />