Language Policy and Identity in Mauritania

The inseparable relationship between language and identity has created many problems for countries with multilingual and multicultural diversity. El Hacen Moulaye Ahmed explores the issue of language policy and identity in Mauritania as a case study.

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In modern-day Mauritania, as in several multilingual states, tensions over language policy and identity between the two ethnic groups—Arab and afro-Mauritanian—have been flaring ever since the nation’s independence. In Language Policy and Identity in Mauritania: Multilingual and Multicultural Tensions, El Hacen Moulaye Ahmed investigates the issue of language policy and identity in this North African country. Moulaye Ahmed traces the past and the present Mauritania’s identities and language policies and reveals Mauritanians’ language policy preferences and the relationship between their identities and their preferences.