Alternate Names: Saafi, Safen, Safi, Safi-Safi, Sereer Saafen, Serere-Saafen, Serer-Safen
Dialects: Boukhou, Diobass, Hasab, Sebikotane, Sindia. Dialects named after villages and a zone (Diobass). Lexical similarity: 74% with Noon ,, Lehar ,, and Palor ,; 68% with Ndut ,; 22% with Serer-Sine ,.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 200,000 (2012), increasing.
Language Use: Vigorous. Most domains. Children initially monolingual. Positive attitudes. Also use English [eng], French [fra], Palor [fap], Pulaar [fuc], Serer-Sine [srr], Spanish [spa], Standard Arabic [arb], Wolof [wol]. Used as L2 by Ndut [ndv], Palor [fap].
Language Development: Literacy rate in L1: 1%. Literacy rate in L2: 40% French, 10% Arabic. Desire for Saafi-Saafi literature. 85 literacy classes of various types. Radio programs.
Typology: SVO; nontonal.
Writing System: Arabic, Latin
Nation of Origin: Senegal
Other Comments: Ethnonym: Saafi; Saafen is the area name, Families in Dakar may lose L1; the next generation will no longer consider itself Saafi. Often identified by themselves and the majority population as Serer, which is a widely used name for a cultural or linguistic group which includes the Serer-Sine language and the 5 Cangin languages. Muslim, Christian, traditional religion.