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- Title
From foreign to national: a review of the status of the French language in Gabon.
- Authors
Ndinga-Koumba-Binza, H. S.
- Abstract
This article provides a review of the various statuses of the French language in Gabon, a French-speaking countiy in Central Africa. It reveals a process in which different generations of Gabonese people are increasingly learning, and thus conceptualising, French as a second language rather than a foreign language. Furthermore, some are also learning and conceptualising French as a mother tongue or initial language, rather than a second language. This process of reconceptualisation has somehow been encouraged by the language policy of the colonial administration and the language policy since the attainment of independence, the latter being a continuation of the former. The final stage of this process is that the language has been adopted among the local languages within the Gabonese language landscape.
- Subjects
GABON; CENTRAL Africa; FRENCH language; GABONESE; LANGUAGE &; languages; NATIVE language; LANGUAGE policy; COLONIAL administration
- Publication
Literator, 2011, Vol 32, Issue 2, p135
- ISSN
0258-2279
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.4102/lit.v32i2.15