Abstract EN:

This thesis explores the everyday uses of language by male adolescents in the multilingual environment of Mayotte. The sample chosen concerns 22 adolescents living in bangas, small huts built by the adolescents themselves at puberty, according to well defined rituals. Mayotte belongs to the Comorian archipelago situated in the Canal between Mozambique and Madagascar, The population is composed of three ethnical groups (African, Asian, and Mediterranean) and the presence of three families of languages (Bantu, Semitic, and Malay-Polynesian) is representative of the process of acculturation and assimilation that has integrated distinct and yet exclusive groups into a way of life peculiar to Mayotte. The present linguistic situation is the result of different waves of migration, without taking into account the fact that that this island has been French since 1841. Alongside French, two traditional oral languages are locally predominant (the Shibushi and the Shimaore). Indeed, Mayotte, unlike the three other islands that make up the Comorian archipelago, has a second native language derived from Sakalave, a language which originates in the north of Madagascar. This oral language has two variants, the Kibushi-Kimaore and the Kiantalaoutsi. Shibushi is spoken in about ten villages, while Kiantalaoutsi, apart from two villages, is only spoken by the inhabitants of the immediate outskirts of Mamoudzou. French, the colonial language, used in public services and in schools, has generated related socio-cultural learning problems. Inadequate knowledge of French may partly explain the level of academic failure even though perceptions towards French are undergoing a change, notably because of its importance on the linguistic marketplace : it is no longer perceived as a colonial language which render users “kafir” infidel, but instead as the “language of bread and butter,” enabling its users to find jobs. The adolescents in this survey used local languages mainly within their familial framework and among their peers. Local languages, shimaoré and shibushi fulfill two functions : one of integration and the other of identification – a function of integration insofar as the use of the local language is, in itself, evidence of affiliation. But although the adolescents questioned, endorsed their continued attachment to local languages, and particularly to their mother tongue, they nonetheless admitted unanimously that it was hardly possible to avoid using French. Moreover, they remarked a loss of vocabulary in local languages and the increased presence of words borrowed from French. As in the “cités,” of the suburban areas of France, a specific “youth language” has emerged as something of a trend in the urban areas of Mamoudzou, the capital of Mayotte, and this “youth language” has started to become generalized even in outer “bush” villages. The nature of the intended message, whether phatic, cryptic, or amusing, determines the choice of the language used, and this in turn, determines the extent of code-switching between languages observed. This phenomena of a specific “youth language” may also be observed in some African countries, in Madagascar and on the island of Reunion, etc. The emergence of a “language” for communicating with portable telephones has also been remarked along with the concomitant passion for these devices, and French tends to be favored with this mode of communication because local languages are not standardized enough. French has thus become the language of modernity. And although it may be inadequately mastered, French remains a very important part of the local linguistic repertoire and has evolved to the point where it is now the language used to express emotions, a fact attested by its favored status in love-letters. This situation of hierarchical bilingualism remains complex and much work is needed before a linguistic politic that allows more balanced multilingualism can be envisaged in order to prevent local languages from disappearing under the present hegemonic pressure of French