Français tirailleur

Not just a “language of power”

Bibliographic Data

ID9367166
AuthorsMikael Parkvall (0000-0002-0840-1357, Stockholm University, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume2
Issue1-2
Pages60-76
Publication date2018-11-09
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage & ecology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1745-3631 • E-ISSN: 2452-1949
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/le.18009.par
OpenAlexW2899781823
LanguageFR
References cited16

Français-Tirailleur is the conventional name for the French-lexicon pidgin used in France’s African army during the 19th and 20th centuries. Tirailleur literally translates as ‘rifleman’ or ‘sharpshooter’, but in time, and in practice, it came to refer specifically to indigenous colonial soldiers. The literature on the variety is anything but vast, but some publications are partly or entirely devoted it, almost invariably drawing on one and the same source (an anonymously authored phrasebook intended for use by French officers commanding African soldiers; Anon. 1916 ). Another thing most of them have in common is that they see the language as an instrument of oppression, and as we shall see, quite a few claim that the pidgin was even invented for this specific purpose

Archaeology · Colonialism · Creole language · Indigenous · Lexicon · Linguistics · Oppression · Pidgin · Political science · Variety (cybernetics · African history and culture studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Computer Science · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Philosophy · Artificial Intelligence