Literacies in contact when writing Wolof – orthographic repertoires in digital communication

Abstract

This paper investigates the resources writers activate when they spell Wolof, a West African language they usually use more in spoken than in written communication. I apply the notion of orthographic repertoire to examine three young women’s spelling of Wolof as socially embedded practices. The analysis covers three different sets of interactional data: (1) texting by Senegalese university students, (2) discussion forum posts, and (3) transnational digital family interaction. The spelling practices are examined with reference to the colonial history of spelling in Senegal, other contemporary informal literacies in West Africa, and the sociolinguistic context of the writers. The paper shows that the different spelling resources related to the multilingual and mediated nature of their writing are drawn upon as the three young women engage in digital literacy practices including Wolof.

Polymedia and family multilingualism

“…Li Wei and Zhu Hua 2019: 84), Aida does not incline to her aunt's mode choice, thereby training her skills in Wolof through writing. The orthography she uses, for instance when writing 'namounala' (Wolof standard: namm naa la) seems to draw on French orthography <ou>, as is often the case for informal writing in Wolof(Lexander 2020). Since Aida never took classes in French, this is probably a practice she has taken up from her Senegalese interlocutors.…”