Languages of Mauritania

The languages of Mauritania include the four national languages, Arabic, Pulaar, Soninke and Wolof while Arabic is the sole official language. French, a former official language, is sometimes used for working, education and administration.

The languages fall into two families: Afroasiatic languages, namely Hassaaniya Arabic and Standard written Arabic; and Niger-Congo languages, principally Pulaar, Soninke and Wolof.

The speakers of the Niger–Congo languages make up 20–30% of the population. There have been efforts by some Mauritanians to elevate the status of these languages as official languages, similar to Arabic.

According to Ethnologue, there are 705,500 speakers of French in Mauritania. It serves as a de facto national working language. Mauritania is a member of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (La Francophonie).

Sometimes French is used for certain speeches by parliamentarians in the Senate and the National Assembly, and they are broadcast on radio and television in this language. In certain areas of administration, it has undeniably established itself as the working language. For example, all structures of the Ministry of Finance (Customs, Taxes, Budget, Treasury, Domains, etc.) work in this language; at the Ministry of Health, it’s the same thing. The only exception that could be cited is the Ministry of Justice where Arabic undeniably predominates; the Ministry of the Interior and that of National Education are almost equal in terms of the use of the two languages which depends mainly on the training of the user.

However, here too, there are exceptions: for example, at the Ministry of the Interior, encrypted messages and at the Ministry of National Education, Baccalaureate transcripts are exclusively in French.