Mamour Dramé

Visited the IAS from May to June 2023

I am a researcher in linguistics and language sciences at the IFAN - Cheikh Anta Diop Linguistics Laboratory at the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD). My research focuses on Wolof dialectology, documentation, and the didactics of African languages. In 2012, I defended my doctoral thesis at the Department of Linguistics and Language Sciences of UCAD's Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences (FLSH), entitled "Phonology and comparative morphosyntax of three Wolof dialects". My latest publications include two books, namely a teacher's book and a learner's book, written in Wolof for learning to read and write the language. Before defending my thesis, I began teaching courses in Wolof in the Departments of English, Sociology, Russian, and Modern Literature at the FLSH, as well as courses in French Articulatory Phonetics in the Department of Modern Literature at the same faculty. I am also a Professor of French Oral Expression in the Department of Linguistics and Language Sciences at the Center for Information Science and Technology Studies (CESTI), Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar.

I am a co-founder of Kàllaamay Réew Mi, a digital platform in development for learning to read and write Wolof, Poular, Serer, Diola, Mandingo, and Soninke.

From 31 May to 19 June 2023, I was invited to the University of Bayreuth for research and exchanges related to my specialty. I was made very welcome in Bayreuth by the colleague who had invited me and all the colleagues in her department. My stay in Bayreuth, a very quiet town that I really enjoyed, was very pleasant, instructive, and enriching because it enabled me to go elsewhere and meet other people in the university, people who have knowledge of African languages and who are willing to share it with others. It was also an opportunity for me to make two presentations on certain aspects of my field of research, one on the digital platform Kàllaamay Réew Mi, which is currently being developed, and another on the scientific productions available in/on Senegalese languages. I didn't just stay in Bayreuth, because I also had to travel to visit two German cities, Nuremberg and Leipzig, which were both very pleasant visits that took place in excellent conditions.