Plurilinguisme et variation sociolinguistique à Ziguinchor (Sénégal)

The city of Ziguinchor in the region of Casamance, southern Senegal, presents a remarkable sociolin-guistic make-up. Its diversified plurilingualism operates through daily interactions in the town. The place of code-switching in the linguistic variability is massive. This variability testifies to two main trends in this linguistic configuration: first, verbal repertories are variable and not shared by every one; second, role-related positions are contrasted through linguistic choices in interactions. In the hierarchy of languages, wolof is becoming dominant; its use has been introduced by migrants from the North and it is mostly used as a vehicular language, in competition with mandinka, a regional dominant language. Moreover, young people tend to use wolof as "their" language. Wolof, then, is becoming a language of prestige that most young girls and young women, tend to learn as quickly as they can to conform to the dominant national linguistic norm.