Cover not available

In:Language and Food: Verbal and nonverbal experiences
Edited by Polly E. Szatrowski
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 238] 2014
► pp. 103–130

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Food and identity in Eegimaa and Wolof

We eat what we are

 | Rutgers University
 | University of Minnesota
Published online: 10 January 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.238.05bas
This study examines loanwords, coined native words and code-switching in taster meal conversations and how their use relates to food identity and linguistic identity in Wolof and Eegimaa (two languages spoken in Senegal). The analysis reveals that the use of loanwords by Wolof and Eegimaa participants in food assessment is not always motivated by practical reasons. In many cases, foreign words are used to refer to foreign food as a demarcation/ evaluation strategy to distance the participants from the foreign food which is viewed as a symbol of foreign culture. Results clearly show that not only the food people eat, but also the kind of language they use to describe it constitute a means for expressing their sense of membership in a community.
References (17)
References
Auer, P. (1998). Introduction: Bilingual Conversation revisited. InP. Auer (Ed.), Code-switching in conversation: Language, interaction and identity (pp. 1–26). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barthes, R. (1997). Toward a psychosociology of contemporary food consumption. InC. Counihan & P. Van Esterik (Eds.), Food and culture: A reader (2nd ed., pp. 20–27). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brillat-Savarin, J. A. (1926). Physiologie du gout: Ou, méditations de gastronomie transcendante [The physiology of taste: Or, meditations on transcendental gastronomy]. Paris: Les Arts et le Livre.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Counihan, C. & Van Esterik, P. (Eds.). (2008 [1997]). Food and culture: A reader (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duffy, M. (2009). Cee bak jën [Rice and fish]: Deconstructing Senegal’s national plate in search of cultural values. Unpublished report, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio.
Duranti, A. (Ed.). 1997. Linguistic anthropology . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duroy, L. (1956). Les emprunts linguistiques [Linguistic borrowing]. Paris: Belles Lettres.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fee, M. (2008). French borrowing in Quebec English. Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies , 19, 173–188.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fischler, C. (1988). Food, self and identity. Social Science Information 27(2), 275–292. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gaw, N. (2009). We have a language problem here: Linguistic identity in East Africa. [URL]
McLaughlin, F. (2001). Dakar Wolof and the configuration of an urban identity. Journal of African Cultural Studies , 14(2), 153–172. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2004). Is there an adjective class in Wolof?InR. M. W. Dixon & A. Y. Aikhenvald (Eds.), Adjective classes: A cross-linguistic typology (pp.242–262). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ngom, F. (2000). Sociolinguistic motivations of lexical borrowings in Senegal. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences , 30(2), 159–172.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2003). The social status of Arabic, French, and English in the Senegalese speech community. Language Variation and Change , 16(3), 351–368.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schieffelin, B. B. (2005[1990]). The give and take of everyday life : Language socialization of Kaluli children . Tucson, AZ: Fenestra Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spolsky, B. (1999). Second-language learning. InJ. A. Fishman (Ed), Handbook of language and ethnic identity (pp. 181–192). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Welmers, W. E. (1973). African language structures . Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Anchimbe, Eric A.
2020. Naming food in English in multilingual Cameroon. In Talking about Food [IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society, 47], ► pp. 257 ff. DOI logo
Fitrisia, Dohra, Robert Sibarani, Mulyadi, Mara Untung Ritonga & Laili Suhairi
2020. THE NAMING OF ACEHNESE TRADITIONAL CULINARY. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews 8:2 ► pp. 815 ff. DOI logo
Yount‐André, Chelsie
2016. Snack Sharing and the Moral Metalanguage of Exchange: Children's Reproduction of Rank‐Based Redistribution in Senegal. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 26:1 ► pp. 41 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue