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Paper short abstract:

Interpreters have always been employed by administrations in Africa. In French colonies as well as today at court they are indispensable because colonial administrators and judges could and cannot communicate in African languages. Nevertheless, the interpreter’s role is ambivalent and ill defined.

Paper long abstract:

In many African societies the head of state, the king only spoke through his translator, never addressing the population directly. French colonial administrators, the majority of whom could not speak African languages, were dependent on interpreters. In the courtroom in Burkina Faso today, judges may only use the official language French. Interpreters have thus always been a part of communication in Africa - as dalamina, as colonial clerks, and as employees working for the court today.

All major cities in Burkina Faso have an independently working criminal court. Interpreters are employed to translate between the French speaking court and the African-languages speaking defendants, witnesses, and public. But the (court) interpreter's role has never been as ill defined as it is today. During colonial times, African interpreters enjoyed immense prestige among the local population and they were indispensable to the French colonial officials. Nevertheless, interpreters were often treated with disdain by them, sometimes even publicly ridiculed (Mopoho 2001).

This top-down talk can be seen as typical for a highly hierarchized organization or society. The French justice system, which is largely in use in Burkina Faso, is managed in a strictly hierarchical way (Ginio 2006). Burkinabe social structure as well functions and is organized hierarchically, but not along the same lines as French jurisdiction. In the courtroom in Burkina Faso, these two hierarchical systems come into contact. Courtroom participants need to maneuver the dichotomies, continuities, and contradictions between the two systems, translating them into their own daily reality to create and make sense for themselves.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper develops the concept of 'language demotion' in opposition to 'language promotion' as contribution to linguistic ecology of urban Africa. The focus is the relationship between African lingua francas and minority languages.

Paper long abstract:

This paper suggests a usage-based approach to understanding the linguistic ecology of urban Africa under the lens of the relationship between African lingua francas and minority languages. The approach is based on the fact that natural languages are like social objects in motion, which can be formally or informally and/or socially subjected to promotion or demotion. The study is based on the situation in Maroua, a multilingual city in Northern Cameroon. There, the spread of Fula as lingua franca has caused linguistic demotion of minority languages which are pushed down to restricted social functions. On the basis of data collected via ethnographic observations and questionnaire, we demonstrate the linguistic promotion of Fula boosted by its function as medium of inter-ethnic communication in work place, reduces the linguistic domains of minority languages that are subjected to demotion due to language shift experienced by the younger generation. Thus, we argue that the pathetic ecolinguistic discourse on linguistic diversity and language endangerment is empirically nothing else than pure ideology. In place of the concept of 'endangered language', we suggest the terms 'language in demotion' or 'demoted language' borrowed from the economy of human resources to respectively describe the situation of languages which are losing or have partially or totally lost the main domains of usage (family, education, work place, religious, social network etc) to the advantage of socio-economically and/or institutionally promoted languages.

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Paper short abstract:

This article explores the notion functional equivalence in the translation of advertising statements from French into Wolof in Senegal. We intend to demonstrate, through translated advertising statements, the efficient use of functional equivalence, as developed by the skopos theories of translation.

Paper long abstract:

in modern times, the way we categorize and name all the elements that surround our daily environment somehow reflects to what extent the languages we use are dynamic and responsive to change. When it deals with languages for specific purposes, translation endeavours to abide by the specificity of the "textual material" aspects (Catford, 1965) of the source text. And yet, in many cases, extra-textual aspects tend to convey much better the actual meaning of statements. This seems to be usually the case with advertising statements, especially when they deal with the promotion of a product or service intended for local use. One of the major challenges translation faces with such statements lies in "the use of ambiguity and connotative meanings of words" (Dan, L. 2015) that require from the translator both creativity and a good grasp of the contextual elements.

This article explores the notion functional equivalence in the translation of advertising statements from French into Wolof in Senegal. Generally studied in terms of reception of the translated text, this concept may also involve other issues relating to the process of translation and help assess the quality and measure the effect of translated texts on the targeted receptor. In the context of this study, we intend to demonstrate, by analyzing a number of advertising statements and their respective translations in Wolof, the efficient use of functional equivalence, as developed by the skopos theories of translation.

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Paper short abstract:

In the diverse setting of the city, Nairobians operate through multilingual and dynamic practices on a daily base. Taking this as a starting point the paper will discuss fluid and unstable linguistic practices in opposition to recent trends of stabilising them.

Paper long abstract:

Daily language use in Nairobi*s diverse settings is characterized by highly dynamic linguistic practices. In their communication "Nairobians" use fluid forms to facilitate and allow their communication. They operate through multilingual practices on a daily base while at the same time articulating their belonging to an urban space. The varieties evolve as a symbol and medium of a distinctive Nairobian way of life. Competencies become a measurement of the urban belonging itself. Not to be exposed as a "mshamba" (villager) new residents are quickly adapting to the dynamic forms while their learning progress becomes a measurement of their integration into the urban life itself (Laughlin 2009, 3).

The Nairobi setting does not only display metrolingual practices in the verbal but as well in their written performances: on billboards, in political slogans and in the Social Media. The New Media, as Twitter and Facebook, display the creativity of language use and make them transparent or reproducible even after the "actual" speech event. Despite their non-standardized use, the written forms hint at a process of stabilizing the fluid practices. Taking this as a starting point, the paper will describe linguistic practices working in urban spaces. It will discuss recent trends of stabilising the dynamic forms: Does Vi-Swahili/Sheng evolve towards a proper language in the sense of having a written stbale form, authoritative speakers and a bounded community making it "their" property?

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Paper short abstract:

Against political stalemate cutting across urban-rural ethnic communities sharing a common geographic origin and language, the paper documents an anti-cyclic movement aiming at restoring cohesion and promoting social innovation, using local communicative resources.

Paper long abstract:

The Tura expression used for development by its (female) promoters is pɛ́ɛ dɔyè 'village building'. While the term pɛ́ɛ includes urban as well as rural habitats, reference of pɛ́ɛ dɔyè is not to the former but to the latter kind of context, namely to development activities targeting rural communities. While, as a result of the

population drain since the 70-ies, the economic and political weight had shifted to the then prosperous cities in the south, generating new needs, and also new resources for satisfying them, the inverse dependency never lost its importance. The salient expression lúbhà lɔ́

'to buy blessings', a synonym for urban-based rural development is emblematic of an encompassing symbiotic relation, which came under severe strain when, due to the partition of the country in a southern part under government and a northern half under rebel control, the

diaspora was cut from the home area, the circulation of goods and persons between the rural and the urban communities virtually interrupted for half a decade.

In this context of protracted crisis, pɛ́ɛ dɔyè paradoxically takes a new meaning. The paper purports to illustrate this process of reinterpretation by an active and representative segment of the female diaspora, its choice of language for efficient communication, and of its - ultimately successful - attempts at redefining a gender-inclusive social contract for development, while avoiding to pit urban citizenship

against village tradition. The paper draws on documentation from various settings covering the period from the outbreak of the war until the post-conflict phase.