Lexicography and the Documentation of French-Nigerian Language Contact: A Gap Analysis

The lexicographic documentation of French-Nigerian language contact phenomena, including borrowings, calques, code-mixed forms, and hybrid registers in border communities and diaspora contexts, represents a significant gap in both French lexicography and Nigerian linguistics. This study conducts a systematic gap analysis of existing lexicographic resources for documenting French-Nigerian language contact, with the objective of identifying priorities for future lexicographic work. A critical review of seventeen published and online lexicographic resources relevant to French-Nigerian contact was conducted, evaluating each against six criteria: coverage of contact phenomena, recency of documentation, community-of-practice grounding, methodological transparency, corpus basis, and accessibility. Supplementary interviews were conducted with eight French and Nigerian linguists working on contact phenomena. Results confirm that no dedicated lexicographic resource currently exists for French-Nigerian contact varieties. Existing French dictionaries of African usage, including Le dictionnaire universel and Robert methodique, contain minimal Nigerian contact material. Nigerian English dictionaries include French loanwords but without systematic documentation of contact grammar or phonology. The most significant lexicographic gaps are in border community bilingual registers along the Benin Republic and Niger Republic frontiers, code-mixed French-Hausa in Kano and Sokoto, and diaspora French among Nigerians in France. The study proposes a lexicographic project framework including fieldwork design, corpus construction methodology, and digital dictionary architecture suitable for French-Nigerian contact documentation. Keywords: lexicography, language contact, French-Nigerian, documentation, bilingual dictionary