Laalaa

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A language of Senegal

ISO 639-3
cae
Alternate Names
Lala, Lehar, Serer
Autonym
Kelaalaa
User Population

17,300 (2019 SIL).

Location

Tambacounda region: Tambacounda department, Missira district, Nguene and Saal villages; Thiès region: Tivaouane department, Pambal district.

Language Maps
Language Status

5 (Developing).

Classification
Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Atlantic, Northern, Cangin
Dialects

Yung, Yendane-Terokh. Minor differences between the 2 dialects. 52% intelligibility with Noon [snf]. Lexical similarity: 84% with Noon [snf], 74% with Saafi-Saafi [sav], 68% with Ndut [ndv] and Paloor [fap], 22% with Serer-Sine [srr].

Typology

SVO; nontonal.

Language Use

Children learn Laalaa first. Youth being lost to cities causing decrease in L1 speakers. Shifting to Wolof [wol]. All domains. Used by all. Positive attitudes. Many also use Wolof [wol], as the language of commerce and interethnic communication (Sarr and Thiaw 2012). Some also use French [fra], as the language of education and government (Diouf et al 2017). Used as L2 by Ndut [ndv].

Language Development

Literacy rate in L2: 60% in French [fra], 35% in Wolof [wol]. Cultural association works on language development. Dictionary. Grammar. Texts.

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Laalaa
Writing

Latin script [Latn].

Other Comments

Often identified by themselves and by the majority population as Serer, a widely used name for a cultural and linguistic group which includes the Serer-Sine language and the 5 Cangin languages. Muslim, Christian, traditional religion.