Africa

United States of America

Associate Professor; Director of the African Language Program

Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts

fngom@bu.edu

Director of the African Language Program
Department of Anthropology and African Studies Center
Boston University
232 Bay State Road
Boston, Massachusetts 02215 USA

Senegal

Interests lie in the areas of sociolinguistics, language and identity, language and culture, language and religion, and language variation and change in French, English and Portuguese speaking countries of West Africa. The work focuses on several West African languages (especially Senegambian Wolof, Mandinka, Pulaar and Portuguese Creole known as Crioulo) and their interactions with French, English and Arabic.

More recently, working on issues at the crossroads of scholarship in
African Linguistics, African Studies, History and Islamic Studies, and
Ajami linguistics. I am currently studying various (socio)linguistic,
cultural and religious aspects of various Wolof, Pulaar, and Mandinka
Ajami manuscripts from Senegambia. I intend to continue to study (and
teach about) the writing systems of Ajami manuscripts in the region, the
religious and secular messages contained in them, the speech communities
where they serve as primary means of written communication, and the
historical, cultural and religious heritage that has found expression in
this manner.

"Ajami Scripts in the Senegalese Speech Community," forthcoming in Journal
of Arabic & Islamic Studies.

"Les Implications sociolinguistiques des emprunts du wolof au
français," SAFARA: Revue Internationale de Langues,
Littératures et Cultures, 2005, p. 147-164.

"Language and Ethnic Identity in the Senegalese Speech Community,"
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Issue 170, 2004,
p. 95-111.

"The Social Status of Arabic, French and English in the Senegalese Speech
Community," Language Variation and Change, Vol. 15, 2003, p. 351-368.

"Linguistic Resistance in the Murid Community in Senegal," Journal of
Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2002,
p. 214-226.

"Linguistic Borrowing as Evidence of the Social History of the Senegalese
Speech Community," International Journal of the Sociology of Language,
Vol. 158, 2002. p. 37-51.

"Les variables sociolinguistiques dans le journal satirique
sénégalais: le Cafard Libéré," The French
Review, Vol. 75, No. 5, 2002, p. 914-924.

"Sociolinguistic Motivations of Lexical Borrowings in Senegal," Studies
in The Linguistic Sciences, Vol. 30, No. 2, 2000, p. 159-172.

"Sociolinguistic Profile of the Senegalese Speech Community," Studies
in The Linguistic Sciences, Vol. 29, No. 1, 1999, p. 131-146.

sociolinguistics ; language ; identity ; culture ; religion ; lusophone Africa ; West Africa.