Niger

Although the arrival of the French army dates back to the end of the nine- teenth century, Niger became a colony only in 1922. Today, Niger is made up of different ethnic groups which makes it extremely heterogeneous. French coexists with other na- tional languages which are: Arabic, Buduma, Fulfulde, Gourmanchéma, Hausa, Kanuri, Tamasheq, Tasawaq, Tedaga, and Zarma. Niger’s language policy has always ensured that national languages were used in education. In fact, since the early 1970s Niger has promoted various projects to develop bilingualism in primary school. As in many other French-speaking states of sub-Saharan Africa, French is an exogenous language that co- exists with other languages which are learned from childhood in the family environ- ment. The linguistic study of the Nigerien variety remains a largely unexplored field and has, to date, mostly focused on data obtained from surveys carried out in Niamey. The phenomena found appear consistent with those universal tendencies at reducing the markedness that can usually be found in other places in French-speaking Africa.