THE CASAMANCE AS AN AREA of INTENSE LANGUAGE CONTACT: The CASE of BAÏNOUNK GUBAHER

Abstract

This paper investigates the very complex contact situation in the Casamance region of Senegal, focussing on contact of Baïnounk varieties with different languages of the Joola family This situation is shown to be relevant for the field of areal linguistics in several ways. For theory building, the highly fragmented linguistic landscape with all imaginable constellations of different languages, dialects and lingua francae, spoken in highly multilingual settings, is an ideal testing ground for models of linguistic change and influence. Using data from the minority language Baïnounk Gubaher, I will also show that a consideration of the contact languages is fundamental for a better understanding of structural features of the target language at syntactic, semantic and morphological levels, as opposed to its description in isolation. Data from various Casamance languages in contact with Baïnounk and an account of the noun class system of Gubaher will serve as examples.