Improving the visibility of Equatorial Guinea as a Spanish-speaking country

This project analyzes linguistic data from Equatorial Guinea collected in 2022.

The research data was collected in different geographical regions in Equatorial Guinea: on the island of Bioko (in Malabo, Rebola, Basupú del Oeste, and Batete), and on the mainland Río Muni (in Bata, Niefang, Aseng, Ebibeyín, and Mongomo).

Background: Equatorial Guinea presents an exceptional research field within the studies of the Spanish language. Geographically located in central Africa, on the equator, in the Gulf of Guinea, it is today the only Hispanophone country in Africa (except for the politically sensitive case of Western Sahara) and thus offers a completely unique view of the world language Spanish, complementary to Europe and America. Despite this outstanding position, Equatorial Guinea still occupies a marginal status in studies on the dialectology, history, sociolinguistics, and language contacts of Spanish. Although some important authors in the field of Spanish linguistics, such as De Granda, Quilis, Casado-Fresnillo, or Lipski, have dedicated part of their work to Equatorial Guinea, modern publications are rare, which is why knowledge of the Equatoguinean variety of Spanish is still fragmentary. Its invisibility in studies about Spanish is intensified by a widespread lack of knowledge and consciousness about this only Hispanophone country in central Africa and a still dominantly European view on African realities based on (post)colonial stereotypes, evaluations and hierarchizations. In fact, the general knowledge about Equatorial Guinea within the Spanish-speaking world is very incomplete, which is particularly surprising in the case of Spain, since Equatorial Guinea only gained its independence from Spain less than 60 years ago (1968). Overall aim of the project: This research project aims at filling the existing research gap about Equatorial Guinea and at improving its visibility as part of the global Hispanophone world. Modern research data has been collected and critical questions answered, showing its relevance for Hispanic studies and trying to overcome traditional images about Equatorial Guinea and its Spanish, often perceived as a "peripheric", "incomplete", "incorrect", "exceptional", or "non-standard" variety. Objectives, methods, expected results: The main part of this research project focuses on dialectological and sociolinguistic data collection in Equatorial Guinea (both on the island of Bioko and on mainland Río Muni). Through the collection and analysis of semi-structured guideline interviews, a sociolinguistic questionnaire, a linguistic questionnaire, a narrative task, and a Verbal Guise Test, modern dialectological and sociolinguistic descriptions of Spanish in Equatorial Guinea can be prepared. The interview transcripts constitute the first modern and digital corpus of spoken Equatoguinean Spanish. Sociolinguistic analyses on language perception, attitudes and ideologies are possible; and the digital analyses of specific linguistic features allow to elaborate modern dialectological descriptions on different linguistic levels. Classical summaries about Equatoguinean Spanish in linguistic manuals can be revised and completed, and an answer can be given to the important question about the internal (diatopic, diastratic, diaphasic, ethnic) homogeneity or diversity of Equatoguinean Spanish. Impact: The EG-Spanish Project offers multiple and diverse views on Equatorial Guinea, raises awareness about its importance within the linguistic research community and in Equatorial Guinea itself, and contributes considerably to the knowledge about and the visibilization of this unique Hispanophone country in Africa.

In this research project, we collected sociolinguistic and dialectological data from 186 participants (89 men, 97 women) who live in different parts of Equatorial Guinea and represent different socio-demographic profiles (age, ethnicity, place of birth, level of education, professional situation). Specifically, the data corpus includes the following datasets (cf. Schlumpf & Carreira, 2024): - Sociolinguistic questionnaire: from all 186 participants involved in the study; - Linguistic questionnaire: 152 participants (73 men, 79 women); - Narrative task: 135 participants (66 men, 69 women), a total of 393 minutes (43 925 tokens); - Semi-structured guideline interviews (life story interviews): 62 interviews (30 men, 32 women), a total of 47 hours and 37 minutes. Of these, a representative selection is available in transcribed and digitized form (36 interviews, 27 hours and 52 minutes, 263 698 tokens); - Verbal Guise Test: conducted with 58 participants (35 men, 23 women). As this task was a major challenge for many of the participants, not all of the data collected is valid. After excluding invalid data, 44 remain for the analyses (27 men, 17 women). During the duration of the project, we have been working on the following topics, among others: - Area of sociolinguistics, glottopolitics and language policy: language ideologies, values and transmission of languages in Equatorial Guinea, (language) attitudes of Equatoguineans about Spain and Spanish, language policy. - Area of dialectology: language contact phenomena, verbs of motion, unstressed personal pronouns, pronominalization, forms of address. The analyses allow two central conclusions to be drawn, which are of great relevance for the adequate classification of Equatoguinean Spanish among the totality of Spanish varieties: (1) On the one hand, the data clearly show that Equatoguinean Spanish must be recognized as a contact variety of Spanish and described using appropriate theories that consider and acknowledge its unique geographical, historical-political, and sociolinguistic context. Interesting parallels to other contact varieties, especially in Hispanic America, can be recognized. This approach contradicts traditional descriptions of this variety of Spanish, which is generally compared – from a normative and purist perspective – with the monolingual standard of central and northern Spain (Castilian). (2) On the other hand, the dialectal analyses have shown that Equatoguinean Spanish is characterized by a striking internal heterogeneity, which is mainly influenced by factors such as age, level of education, professional profile (stronger or weaker awareness of linguistic norms), and place of residence. Two population groups in particular can be contrasted: (i) people aged 35 and more, low level of education, low awareness of linguistic norms; (ii) people aged 18-34, higher level of education, stronger awareness of linguistic norms. Finally, from a sociolinguistic and language ideological perspective, it was shown that Spanish in Equatorial Guinea is now more established than ever, particularly among the younger, educated population in the cities (especially in the capital: Malabo). The language has positive connotations, is seen as a valuable skill and is associated with values such as national unity and internationality. On the other hand, the use of local (Bantu) languages is declining (cf. language shift).