This is the introductory lecture of the first Yaounde Summer School on African Multilingualism (YSSAM) that was held at the University of Yaounde 1, August 5 - 11, 2017. Terms frequently used in the study of multilingualism are reviewed and some clarifications offered. These include: multilingualism vs. plurilingualism, linguistic diversity, language ideologies. YSSAM is part of the project entitled "Language documentation, fieldwork training models, and computational tools for understanding linguistic stability and change", funded by the U.S. NSF (Award No. BCS-1360763).

1. P I E R P A O L O D I C A R L O - Y S S A M - L E C T U R E 1 - I N T R O
A N D T E R M I N O L O G Y
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2. AIMS OF YSSAM
• This school aims at preparing you to do cutting-edge research focused
on multilingualism.
• In order to do so, we will guide you to develop a critical appraisal of the
different ways in which one can do this kind of research.
• What are the steps of a research in this domain?
• Research design > creativity, we hope this school will inspire you…
• Data collection > many methods
• Data organization > we’ll present one standard procedure
• Data interpretation > tightly connected with the method adopted
• Delivery > creativity, we hope this school will give you some useful
suggestions.
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• This school aims at preparing you to do cutting-edge research focused
on multilingualism.
• In order to do so, we will guide you to develop a critical appraisal of the
different ways in which one can do this kind of research.
• What are the steps of a research in this domain?
• Research design > creativity, we hope this school will inspire you…
• DATA collection > many methods
• DATA organization > we’ll present one standard procedure
• DATA interpretation > tightly connected with the method adopted
• Delivery > creativity, we hope this school will give you some useful
suggestions.

3. SCHEDULE OF YSSAM
DAY MORNING (9.00 – 12.45) AFTERNOON (14.15 –
17.30)
Saturday Intro Intro & Software
Sunday NO ACTIVITIES Software (at SIL, not
compulsory)
Monday Ceremony + methodology Methodology
Tuesday Fieldwork (groups) Fieldwork (groups)
Wednesda
y
Data analysis (groups) Write reports (groups)
Thursday Presentation of work In-depth discussions &
stimuli
Friday In-depth discussions &
stimuli
Certificates & closing
ceremony
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4. RULES OF YSSAM
• There will be a final certificate of training
• No more than 1 day of absence (notified in advance) if
you want the final certificate
• Absence for few hours in a day will count as 1 day of
absence
• In the certificate each one of you will be graded according
to a number of parameters, one of which is TEAM WORK
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6. WOULDN’T “MULTILINGUALISM” BE ENOUGH?
QUESTIONS
1. Why did we decide to entitle our summer school explicitly
referring to African multilingualism?
2. Is there anything we can call “African multilingualism” as a
whole which is unique with respect to other forms of
multilingualism?
3. If so, what makes it unique?
ANSWERS
1. African multilingualism = phenomena of multilingualism on the
African continent (especially South of the Sahara).
2. There are some factors that may be unique to Africa, but this is
not to say that there is an “African type” of multilingualism.
3. Individual multilingualism is widespread in societies that are
historically and culturally very different from Europe’s. This
makes it more likely that some Euro-centric (Euro-American-
centric) models will not work.
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7. SO WHAT IS AFRICAN MULTILINGUALISM?
1. Multilingualism in sub-Saharan Africa
2. Forms of multilingualism (in Africa) that cannot
be accounted for using existing sociolinguistic
models.
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8. EXISTING SOCIOLINGUISTIC MODELS
• Strong Western bias in research on multilingualism
worldwide.
• Research tools rely on a state-of-things that might not be
universal
• E.g. written questionnaires imply people can not only
read, but have a uniform way to perceive and relate to an
object such as a questionnaire
• Research targets reflect Western realities:
• E.g. mostly limited to urban areas and to recent histories
of multilingualism.
• Societal models used to interpret data have been shaped
around 1950’s American sociology:
• E.g. centrality of social classes.
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9. P I E R P A O L O D I C A R L O - Y S S A M - L E C T U R E 1 - I N T R O
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10. TERMS WE WILL DEAL WITH
• Multilingualism vs. Plurilingualism in Anglo-Saxon
tradition
• Multilingualism vs. Plurilingualism in French tradition
• Language Ideologies
• Diglossia / Polyglossia
• Multilingualism vs. Codeswitching
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11. RULE ALPHA-OMEGA
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12. P I E R P A O L O D I C A R L O - Y S S A M - L E C T U R E 1 - I N T R O
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13. Multilingualism
Multilinguisme
Plurilingualism
Plurilinguisme
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DICHOTOMIES
5 minutes to write down the differences according to what you
know

14. Multilingualism
Multilinguisme
INDIVIDUAL ability to
use more than
language
AND
Presence of multiple
languages in an AREA
Plurilingualism
Plurilinguisme
INDIVIDUAL ability to
use more than
language
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DICHOTOMIES

15. Multilingualism
Multilinguisme
INDIVIDUAL ability to
use more than
language
AND
Presence of multiple
languages in an AREA
Plurilingualism
Plurilinguisme
INDIVIDUAL ability to
use more than
language
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DICHOTOMIES
From a quick search on google.com (21 July, 2017).

16. Multilingualism
Multilinguisme
INDIVIDUAL ability to use
more than one
language
AND
Presence of multiple
languages in an AREA
Plurilingualism
Plurilinguisme
INDIVIDUAL ability to use
more than one
language
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DICHOTOMIES

17. • Multilinguisme: une situation dans laquelle une société fait
usage de plusieurs langues.
• multilinguisme et plurilinguisme : bien qu’étant
morphologiquement et sémantiquement proches, présentent
des nuances. Le multilinguisme est un fait sociétal alors que le
plurilinguisme un fait individuel.
• Le multilinguisme est une réalité omniprésente : il est difficile
de voir une communauté linguistique si bien cachée qu’elle ait
pu s’en préserver : « les situations de multilinguisme sont la
généralité et le monolinguisme, un cas particulier » (WURM,
Stephen A. 1996, Atlas des langues en péril dans le monde,
Paris, UNESCO.
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DÉFINITIONS
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18. Multilinguisme/plurilinguisme
• Multilinguisme === référence à la multiplicité
des langues en usage dans la société
• Plurilinguisme === référence aux répertoires
linguistiques individuels dans diverses
situations communicationnelles
• Multilinguisme === met en rapport plusieurs
langues. Le nombre, les fonctions et le statut
des langues peuvent changer ; mais cela ne
change en rien la situation caractérisée de
multilinguisme.
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DÉFINITIONS 2
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19. •Présence de
plusieurs
langues dans
une société
Multilinguisme
• Usage de
plusieurs
langues par les
membres d’une
même société
Plurilinguisme
• Plusieurs
usages d’une
même langue
dans une
société
Variation
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RÉSUMÉ
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20. MULTILINGUISME VS PLURILINGUISME
Société X
Présence
Langue 3
Présence
Langue1
Présence
Langue 2
Individu Y dans société X
Usage
Langue 3
Usage
Langue 2
Usage
langue 1
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21. English
Multilingualism
Linguistic diversity
French
Plurilinguisme
Multilinguisme /
diversité linguistique
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IN THIS SCHOOL
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22. P I E R P A O L O D I C A R L O - Y S S A M - L E C T U R E 1 - I N T R O
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23. P I E R P A O L O D I C A R L O - Y S S A M - L E C T U R E 1 - I N T R O
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Language ideologies practical definition (many
definitions are in the literature):
“Every thought that you have which is a rule,
value, or attitude associated with one or the
other language, or specific linguistic practices”

24. EXERCISE
1. Describe 5 traits of your language
ideology
• E.g. context-dependent choices (addressee, setting, etc.)
• Language to be used
• Lexical items to be selected
• Pronunciation / other phonological variants
• E.g. (social) meaning of certain variants
• Phonological (e.g. uvular [r] in French)
• Lexical (
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25. Language
ideologies
Culture of language
Idéologies
langagières
Idéologies
linguistiques
Imaginaires
linguistiques
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NOTE 1: LANGUAGE IDEOLOGIES ENG VS FRE

26. NOTE 2: IDEOLOGIES AND SPEECH COMMUNITY
“The speech community is not defined by any marked agreement
in the use of language elements, so much as by participation in a
set of shared norms; these norms may be observed in overt
types of evaluative behaviour, and by the uniformity of
abstract patterns of variation which are invariant in respect to
particular levels of usage.”
— Labov, W. (1972b) Sociolinguistic Patterns: 120-21. Philadelphia, PA:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
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28. WESTERN SOCIETIES ARE MAINLY MONOLINGUAL
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USA
Although first-generation immigrants must have been at least bilingual,
censuses have started targeting languages only in 1980 (!).
Bilinguals were 11% in 1980, 14% in 1990, 19% in 2007. Consider that
the majority of them are immigrants from Central America
(Ispanophones).
UK
A recent study has found out that less than 25% British people are
bilingual. Most of them are recent immigrants.
FRANCE
Largely monolingual after about 230 years of language purism
(Académie Française)
GERMANY
Most multilinguals (about 20% of population) are recent immigrants.
Monolingual trend (towards German of course).

29. WHY IS THE WEST ESSENTIALLY MONOLINGUAL?
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In 1794, during
Robespierre's
reign of terror,
revolutionary
Abbot
Grégoire
preached “the
need to erase
dialects and
make French
universal”.

30. WHY IS THE WEST ESSENTIALLY MONOLINGUAL?
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In 1794, during
Robespierre's
reign of terror,
revolutionary
Abbot
Grégoire
preached “the
need to erase
dialects and
make French
universal”.
THIS IS WHAT LANGUAGE IDEOLOGIES
CAN DO WHEN THEY ARE BACKED BY
STRONG POLITICAL POWERS AND
THEREFORE LAST FOR CENTURIES!!

31. NATION-STATES AND THEIR IDEOLOGIES
Johann Gottfried Herder (German poet and philosopher 1744-
1803), proposed coextension of culture, language, and
national boundaries.
European romanticism (1800 – 1850) developed political theory
pivoting on the concept of ‘nation-states’.
‘Nation-state' is the state that incorporates people of a single
ethnic stock, with its distinctive language and cultural tradition.
During the same period, European literary imaginary elaborated
also an ideal of rural areas: backward and pure in their quasi
atemporal life, it is here that the origins of national
distinctiveness must be sought.
For one thing, according to this imaginary, peasants are
expected to only speak their regional variety and no other
language at all.
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32. WESTERN IDEOLOGIES
The language ideology that all this produced was thus
characterized by
(i) an accent on nation-wide linguistic homogeneity (recall
France)
(ii) an idea of rural areas as monolingual and archaic.
This led to:
1. A pervasive idea that languages are naturally discrete
entities (whereas their being discrete or not depends mainly
from the ideologies of their speakers);
2. An equally pervasive idea that, as it happened in the West,
also in the rest of the world the only areas where people
speak multiple languages are cities. Rural areas “must” be
backward, immutable and, hence, strictly monolingual.
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33. HOW THIS TRANSLATED ONTO AFRICA
When Europeans colonized Africa they brought with them
their political theories and language ideologies.
As France was subdivided into regional dialects (recall
image), so the same was expected to happen also in
places like Cameroon. Here, however, the situation
seemed even clearer because the ideology brought by the
colonizers fitted very well with the local linguistic
diversity.
In its turn, this fitted very well with the concept of “tribe”, at
the time central in anthropological theory: self-contained,
discrete, bounded territories in which homogenous
populations spoke only one language and had an internally
homogenous culture, too.
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36. In the title of some of the slides you just
saw I made a mistake according to the
school terminology rules…
Have you noticed it?
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…JUST A SMALL TEST…

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38. COMPARTMENTALIZATION
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Regional dialect
State language (French)
Formal settings
Administration School …
Family
Informal settings
Close bonds …

39. COMPARTMENTALIZATION
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“Tribal” language
Colonial language
Formal settings
Administration School …
Family
Informal settings
Close bonds …