ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relationship between dialects, varieties and languages in a more technical way and from a linguistic point of view. The distribution of different languages and of different varieties of languages in Africa, and how they influence identities, make this setting a particularly interesting one for sociolinguistic research and for exploring the notion of languages and identities. Interference of the mother tongue is a widely distributed phenomenon in multilingual countries such as those found on the African continent. Dialects appear to vary along a continuum and not along clear geographical or social lines. In multilingual African communities, the existence of different languages alongside one another may at times complicate communication processes. Ethnomethodology aims to present a detailed analysis of conversational interaction. Language variety and dialect is indeed a phenomenon that reflects and affects societal variety in Africa. .
