The Status of French among Ivory Coast Speakers

Abstract

Colonized by France from 1893, Ivory Coast (IC) obtained its independence in 1960 and adopted the French language as the official language of the country. However, before IC officially became a French colony, many local and African languages were spoken by all Ivorians. In spite of their covert prestige face to the status of French and its prestige in the country, those local languages kept their strength against French as not to disappear. Thus, since that time and till now, the status of French is challenged among Ivorian speakers. Thenceforth, the present study aims at explaining how French is perceived in IC and also the attitude of Ivorian speakers towards this language as well. To carry out this study, three research instruments were used: an observation that helped in preparing questions, a survey addressed to a sample of 90 educated participants involving three different categories of age and an interview which was administered to seniors from the township of Port Bouet.