Multilingualism By MOHAMED EREBIH*

Mauritania is multilingual country. Despite the fact that the numberof its people is small, Mauritania is rich with languages. There arefour native languages spoken by Mauritanians: Hassaniya (Arabicdialect), Pulaar, Soninke, and Wolof. Hassaniya is spoken byapproximately three quarters of the population. Pulaar is secondin number of its speakers and Soninke is third. In addition to these native languages, there are two foreign languagesspoken in Mauritania: French and English. The spread of English hasincreased recently with the coming of Anglophone companies whoare investing in Oil and Mines. French has a longer history inMauritania. Its presence in this country goes back to early in the20th century. French today is an integral part of the Mauritanianlinguistic spectrum.

It has gained a social dimension, since it hasbeen associated with non-Arabic speakers who see it as their ownlanguage. Faced with this linguistic situation, Mauritaniangovernments have successively failed to adopt a sustainable linguistic policy that guarantees both the identity and the unity of its people. This failureis due the fact that, like in any other multilingual country, thepolitical and social dimensions interact. Issues like nationalism andminority rights rise up each time a linguistic reform is made. Nationalist interests are represented by Arabic intellectuals, who reject what they call French cultural domination, have asked for complete Arabization. They argue that colonization will disappear only when the country breaks off from French cultural dominance. The black minority, onthe other hand, argues that French is the only language theyunderstand and are not ready give it up in favor of Arabic. Thisdivergence in opinion has hindered any governmental efforts to set apolicy that can last for a long time.

It has also created tensionsbetween the two communities. Although the different regimes who governed this country sought tomake a compromise between these two trends, many mistakes werecommitted. While the civic government of Party of the People (PP)sought carefully and systematically to change the linguistic situationinherited from the colonization (which exhibited French dominance), themilitary, after coup in 1978, took quicker and sometimes,uncalculated steps towards Arabization. In 1979 the military made the3rd linguistic reform in the history of the newly independent country.From 1980 on the majority of the classes were in Arabic. To preventthe anger of the black minority, the Military created a branch of theeducation in which French is the main language of instruction.Enrollment in this branch is restricted to non- Hassaniya speakers. The consequences of these policies were devastating.

On the sociallevel it distanced the black minority from the rest of thepeople. It also created a mismatch between the job-market and Arabicoriented students. The 1999 reform (which gave Arabic the dominance inliterary subjects, while in the scientific subjects French became thedominant language), was an attempt to heal the educational system,but this reform did not satisfy either the Arabic defenders, who see itas a return to the colonial policy nor the black minority who see itas unfair, since they will be obliged to study the literary subjectsin Arabic. Today, one must ask where the solution is. Is it in what somepolitical leaders called for: the promotion of Mauritania's national languages at the expense of French? One can argue that Mauritania is an under-developed state and can not afford to spend time on therehabilitation of its national languages? Studies have shown thatstates who adopt mono-lingual policies are more developed than those who arebilingual ones.

*NGP editor