Home Language Policy and Identity in Multilingual Families in Ouagadougou

Abstract:

Language is both a social practice and an identity marker through whichcommunities express themselves through the arts and literature. Language isintrinsically linked to culture and, by extension, identity. Thus, "losing one'slanguage is equivalent to losing one's identity" (G. Kedrebégo, 1998, p. 181).At a time when English serves as a lingua franca and colonial legacy languagesare the official languages throughout sub-Saharan Africa, Indigenous Africanlanguages are in danger, and the present collective qualitative case study aimsto understand how parents navigate language choices as they strive to preservetheir identity while ensuring that their children are well-prepared for aglobalizing world. Data consisted of 30–50-minute open-ended interviewswith six multilingual parents in Ouagadougou. A thematic analysis producedthemes that emerged from the interviews, such as maintaining family ties,language use as tied to geographic spaces, and instrumental reasons to learnand speak languages. The findings indicate that multilingual parents' languagedecisions are influenced by social and economic considerations. The authorconcludes by highlighting cultural reasons for maintaining local languages inthe hope that Burkinabe will keep their local languages while also acquiringand using French and English.

 

Key words: Language loss, Identity, Indigenous language, Burkina Faso,Language hegemony