Romance Languages in Africa

The project Romance Language in Africa (RoLA) is aimed at developing a comprehensive panorama of the Romance languages throughout the African continent. 38 African countries are characterized by a French, Belgian, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish past that is perceptible today in a sometimes more, sometimes less direct way. Each project partner analyses a specific African area according to a uniform set of criteria and a uniform structure. The scholars lay out the sociolinguistic situation in one or more countries, sketch the linguistic history of the Romance languages concerned, the linguistic characteristics of their local usage, as well as the internal and external language policies applied. The project thus results in the first comprehensive description of the Romance languages in Africa following a coherent and systematic approach, thus allowing to identify differences and similarities between the specific situations.

Research affiliates

The project analyses 38 countries: six in Northern Africa, eleven in Western Africa, nine in Central Africa and twelve in Eastern Africa.

Northern Africa

French

Algeria
Morocco
Tunisia

Italian

Libya

Portuguese

Portugal (Madeira)

Spanish

Spain (Canary Islands)
Spain (Ceuta and Melilla)

Western Africa

French

Benin
Burkina Faso
Côte d'Ivoire
Guinea
Mali
Mauritania
Niger
Senegal
Togo

Portuguese

Cape Verde
Guinea-Bissau

Central Africa

French

Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Gabon
Republic of the Congo

Portuguese

Angola
São Tomé and Príncipe

Spanish

Equatorial Guinea

Eastern Africa

French

Burundi
Comoros
Djibouti
France (La Réunion and Mayotte)
Madagascar
Mauritius
Rwanda
Seychelles

Italian

Ethiopia
Eritrea
Somalia

Portuguese

Mozambique

Each area is systematically examined with regard to the following aspects:

Sociolinguistic Situation

Geographical Distribution of Languages
Social Distribution of Languages

Linguistic History

Establishment of French/Italian/Portuguese/Spanish
Milestones of its Development

External Language Policy

Legislation
Languages used by Public Authorities
Languages used in Education
Languages used in the Media

Linguistic Characteristics

Pronunciation
Grammar
Vocabulary

Internal Language Policy

Linguistic Purism
Description of Linguistic Characteristics
Usage of Linguistic Characteristics

Three aspects set the project apart from earlier descriptions of the Romance languages in Africa:

Complete panorama of the Romance languages in Africa
Coherent perspective, achieved by focusing on multilingualism
Coherent structure thanks to uniform criteria of analysis

Three aspects distinguish the project Romance Languages in Africa (RoLA) from the project Typologies of Francophonies (ToF):

RoLA deals with all African countries with French history, whereas ToF only presents a small selection.
RoLA goes beyond the French-speaking world and also examines all African countries with Spanish, Portuguese and Italian history.
RoLA uses English as a lingua franca bridging the different Romance languages.

Working Language

English

Analysed Languages

French
Italian
Spanish
Portuguese

The project is coordinated by the Chair of Romance Languages and Cultures at the University of Passau and carried out in cooperation with 44 academics working in 22 different countries at the subsequent universities and research institutes.

Algeria

Université d'Alger 2 Abu el Kacem Saâdallah

Austria

Universität Wien

Belgium

Université catholique de Louvain

Benin

Université d'Abomey-Calavi

Burundi

Université du Burundi

Cabo Verde

Universidade de Cabo Verde

Canada

Cape Breton University
Université de Sherbrooke

Chad

Université de N'Djaména

France

Centre national de la recherche scientifique
Université d'Angers
Université Montpellier 3 –Paul Valéry
Université Rennes 2
Université de Rouen
Université Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle
Université Paris 4 – Sorbonne

Germany

Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
University of Applied Sciences Karlsruhe
Universität Leipzig
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Universität Passau (Project Coordination)

Ghana

University of Ghana

Italy

Università di Roma 1 – La Sapienza
Università di Torino

Mauritius

University of Mauritius

Mozambique

Universidade Eduardo Mondlane

Netherlands

Universiteit Utrecht

Norway

Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences
University of Oslo

Portugal

Universidade de Lisboa
Universidade da Madeira

Seychelles

University of Seychelles

Spain

Universidad de Cádiz
Universidad de La Laguna

Switzerland

Université de Lausanne

Togo

Université de Lomé

USA

Pennsylvania State University
University at Albany

Here you can find publications regarding our projects.

For questions about the project please contact project-rola@uni-passau.de.