Français Tirailleur
(), also known as () or or , is a pidgin language that was spoken by West African soldiers and their white officers in the French colonial army approximately 1857–1954, and across certain French colonies. It consists of a simplified form of French. It never creolized. This "simplified" language was taught to indigenous inhabitants in the French colonial army, and colonies. Background The first West African soldiers were enrolled in the French colonial army in 1820 and the company of the Tirailleur Sénégalais was formed in 1857. They fought for France in both World Wars. The last company of West African soldiers in the French army was disbanded in 1964 and the last Tirailleur who served in WW1 died in 1998. It is important to keep in mind that while slavery was abolished in France and her colonies in 1848, this does not mean the situation changed totally overnight. There is an inter-departmental report from 1950 suggesting that the recruitment was not necessary voluntary from that point forward. The French military was to go "up-country to enroll captives, to whom the sum needed to purchase their freedom is given as enrollment bounty (Hargreaves, 1969: 100 as cited in Wilson). In