Multilingual practices in the Casamance | SOAS University of London
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 2017-12-14

This seminar titled "Multilingual practices in the Casamance: From languages to translanguaging" was given by Samantha Goodchild (SOAS) at the Department of Linguistics at SOAS University of London on 12 December 2017
You can find out more about this event at https://goo.gl/1wd3gN

The Casamance is a region in southern Senegal well known for its linguistic and cultural diversity. The research presented in this talk took place in the village of Essyl, which has been described in previous literature as “monolingual” (Sagna 2016), where the Joola Eegimaa language is predominantly used. However, I found that people have extensive multilingual repertoires on an individual level, which broadly vary depending on where they have lived, and that they do engage in multilingual linguistic practices. The variety of languages spoken in the region, many from different language families, presents a challenge for sociolinguistic research, particularly when many of them are as yet undocumented.
In this talk I present my research methods and how I conduct analysis on complex multilingual data, using examples taken from my PhD research. I will demonstrate that this data can best be analysed by incorporating multiple points of view: from the speakers themselves to transcribers or local stakeholders, in addition to the researcher’s perspective. I will further discuss how the data and analyses challenge the notion of languages as discrete entities and move away from taking languages as a starting point for analysis. Rather than beginning with a priori defined codes, instead I look first at the interaction, the context and participants present, before examining which languages are purportedly used. I conclude that the translanguaging approach is useful for examining “monolingual” areas, such as Essyl in the Casamance, where all participants engage in diverse multilingual practices.
About the speaker
Samantha Goodchild is a PhD student at SOAS working on multilingualism in Essyl, Senegal and is part of the Leverhulme funded project Crossroads: Investigating the unexplored side of multilingualism in the Casamance.