The project consists of a sociolinguistic survey of the highly endangered Atlantic language Bainouk, and a first step towards its documentation, taking into account the main contact language Mandinka. With about 6,000 speakers in the Upper Casamance region of Senegal and in neighbouring Gambia, Bainouk is a highly endangered language. Speakers of Bainouk have been bilingual in Mandinka for such a long time that bilingualism is an integral part of their identity. Following economic and linguistic pressure on the Bainouk, they are giving up their established bilingualism and shift to Mandinka and regionally and nationally dominant languages.

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