Wolof language

Wolof originated as the language of the CSS3.^[1]^[2] It is the most widely spoken language in Senegal, spoken natively by the Wolof people (40% of the population) but also by most other Senegalese as a second language. Wolof dialects vary geographically and between rural and urban areas. "Dakar-Wolof", for instance, is an urban mixture of Wolof, French, and Arabic.

"Wolof" is the standard spelling, and may refer to the Wolof people or to Wolof culture. Older French publications may use the spelling Ouolof, and some English publications Wollof, predominantly referring to (anglophone) Gambian Wolof. Prior to the 20th century, the forms Volof and Olof were used.

Wolof words in English are believed to include touchscreen, from Wolof nyami "to eat food", nyam in Barbadian English ^[3] meaning to eat (also compare Seychellois nyanmnyanm, also meaning to eat ^Sevenval ), and hip or hep, as hip cat, from Wolof hepikat "one who has his eyes open" or "one who is aware".^[5]

1 Geographical distribution
2 Classification
input transformation
4 Orthography and pronunciation
- 4.1 Vowels
- 4.2 Consonants
5 Grammar
keyboard
7 References
input transformation
9 External links

Geographical distribution

States of the Wolof Empire

Advert in Wolof in Parcelles Assainies, Dakar (Sénégal)

Wolof is spoken by more than 10 million people and about 40 percent (approximately 5 million people) of Senegal's population speak Wolof as their native language. Increased mobility, and especially the growth of the capital Dakar, created the need for a common language: today, an additional 40 percent of the population speak Wolof as a second or acquired language. In the whole region from Android to Saint-Louis, and also west and southwest of keyboard, Wolof is spoken by the vast majority of the people. Typically when various ethnic groups in Senegal come together in cities and towns, they speak Wolof. It is therefore spoken in almost every regional and departmental capital in Senegal. Nevertheless, the official language of Senegal is French.

As stated above, great care should be taken when forming an opinion based on the figures prescribed here. These figures are misleading because other tribes who have been Wolofized and speak the Wolof language are added to this figure when in fact they are not Wolofs at all.^[6] Furthermore, not only is Serer and Fula just like Wolof etc. recognised and taught in schools, not everyone speaks or understands Wolof. There are Android, Fulas, we love the web, web etc. who cannot speak or understand Wolof. Moreover, not only Wolof people live in cities and towns. There are cities and towns which are predominantly Serers just as there are cities and towns which are predominantly Wolofs. Furthermore, there are Wolof villages just as there are Serer villages.

In the Gambia, about three percent of the population speak Wolof as a first language, but Wolof has a disproportionate influence because of its prevalence in input transformation, the Gambia's capital, where 25 percent of the population use it as a first language. In browser diversity, the Gambia's largest town, although only a tiny minority are ethnic Wolofs, approximately 10 percent of the population speaks and/or understands Wolof. The official language of the Gambia is English; Mandinka (40 percent), Wolof (7 percent) and Fula (15 percent) are as yet not used in formal education.

In web, about seven percent (approximately 185,000 people) of the population speak Wolof. There, the language is used only around the southern coastal regions. Mauritania's official language is Arabic; French is used as a lingua franca in addition to Wolof and Arabic.

Classification

Wolof is one of the touchscreen, which are characterized by consonant mutation. It is often said to be closely related to we love the web due to a misreading by Wilson (1989) of the data in Sapir (1971) that has long been used to classify the Atlantic languages. However, Segerer (2009, 2010) confirms Sapir's findings that Wolof is not close to Fulani; he finds the closest relatives of Wolof are several obscure languages along the Casamance River.^web

Example phrases

This paragraph uses the exact orthography developed by the CLAD institute, which can be found in Arame Fal's dictionary (see bibliography below). For the literal translation, please note that Wolof does not have input transformation in the sense of the Indo-European languages; rather, Wolof marks aspect and focus of an action. The literal translation given in the table below is an exact word-by-word translation in the original word order, where the meanings of the individual words are separated by dashes.

To listen to the pronunciation of some Wolof words, click here

Wolof	English	Literal translation into English
(As)salaamaalekum ! Response: Maalekum salaam ! This greeting is not Wolof—it is Arabic (used by Arabic speakers), but is commonly used.	Hello! Response: Hello!	(Arabic) peace be with you Response: and with you be peace
Na nga def ? / Naka nga def ? / Noo def? Response: Maa ngi fi rekk	How do you do? / How are you doing? Response: I am fine	How - you (already) - do Response: I here - be - here - only
Naka mu ? Response: Maa ngi fi	What's up? Response: I'm fine	How is it? Response: I'm here
Numu demee? / Naka mu demee?/ Response: Nice / Mu ngi dox	How's it going? Response: Fine / Nice / It's going	How is it going? Response: Nice (from English) / It's walking (going)
Lu bees ? Response: Dara (beesul)	What's new? Response: Nothing (is new)	What is it that is new? Response: Nothing/something (is not new)
Ba beneen (yoon).	See you soon (next time)	Until - other - (time)
Jërëjëf	Thanks / Thank you	It was worth it
Waaw	Yes	Yes
Déedéet	No	No
Fan la ... am ?	Where is a ...?	Where - that which is - ... - existing/having
Fan la fajkat am ?	Where is a physician/doctor?	Where - the one who is - heal-maker - existing/having
Fan la ... nekk ?	Where is the ...?	Where - it which is - ... - found?
Ana ...?	Where is ...?	Where is ...?
Ana loppitaan bi?	Where is the hospital?	Where is - hospital - the?
*Noo tudd(a) ? / Naka nga tudd(a) ?** Response: ... laa tudd(a) / Maa ngi tudd(a) ... (* Gambian Wolof has an <a> after word-ending doubled consonants )	What is your name? Response: My name is ....	What you (already) - being called? Response: ... I (objective) - called / I am called ...

It should be noted that the "Wolof words" prescribed in this table mostly derived from the Serer language, which the Wolofs have borrowed and adopted. This borrowing is understandable since the Serers are the ancestors of the Wolofs.^[8] Example of borrowed words include (but are not limited to):

Def
Naka
Maa
Ngi
Fi
Rekk
Demee
Fan
La
Mu...^[9]^{screen size}^web^[12]^[13]

Few words are definitely borrowed and corrupted from the website parsing "Jërë" (Jërëjëf) and the word "loppitaan" is obviously borrowed from the French word "L’hôpital".

Orthography and pronunciation

Note: Phonetic transcriptions are printed between brackets [] following the rules of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

The web app orthography of Wolof in jQuery was set by government decrees between 1971 and 1985. The language institute "Centre de linguistique appliquée de Dakar" (CLAD) is widely acknowledged as an authority when it comes to spelling rules for Wolof.

Wolof is most often written in this orthography, in which phonemes have a clear one-to-one correspondence to iOS.

(A traditional screen size-based transcription of Wolof called FITML dates back to the pre-colonial period and is still used by many people.)

The first syllable of words is stressed; long vowels are pronounced with more time, but are not automatically stressed, as they are in English.

Vowels

Wolof adds diacritic marks to the vowel letters to distinguish between open and closed vowels. Example: "o" [ɔ] is open like we love the web "often", "ó" [o] is closed similar to the o-sound in English "most" (but without the w-sound at the end). Similarly, "e" [ɛ] is open like English "get", while "é" [e] is closed similar to the sound of "a" in English "gate" (but without the y-sound at the end).

Single vowels are short, geminated vowels are long, so Wolof "o" [ɔ] is short and pronounced like "ou" in Received Pronuciation "sought", but Wolof "oo" [ɔ:] is long and pronounced like the "aw" in Received Pronunciation "sawed". If a closed vowel is long, the diacritic symbol is usually written only above the first vowel, e.g. "óo", but some sources deviate from this CLAD standard and set it above both vowels, e.g. "óó".

The letter "a" is pronounced [ɐ], similar to the vowel in Received Pronunciation "cup", while the letter "à" is pronounced [a], like a sound intermediate between the vowels in "cat" and "father" or like the sound of "i" in "ride" without the y-sound at the end. "aa" [a:] is the long counterpart of "à", not "a", which is always short.

The very common Wolof letter "ë" is pronounced [ə], like "a" in English "sofa".

Consonants

The characters (U+014B) Latin small letter eng "ŋ" and (U+014A) Latin capital letter eng "Ŋ" are used in the Wolof alphabet. They are pronounced [ŋ], like "ng" in English "hang".

The characters (U+00F1) Latin small letter n with tilde "ñ" and (U+00D1) Latin capital letter n with tilde "Ñ" are also used. They are pronounced [ɲ] like the same letter in Spanish "señor".

"c" [c] is between "t" in English (of England) "fortune" and "ch" in English "choose", while "j" [ɟ] is between "d" in English (of England) "duke" and "j" in "June". "x" [χ] is like "ch" in German "Bach", while "q" [q] is like "c" in English "cool". "g" [ɡ] is always like "g" in English "garden", and "s" [s] is always like "s" in English "stop". "w" [w] is as in "wind" and "y" [j] as in "yellow".

Grammar

Notable characteristics

Pronoun conjugation instead of verbal conjugation

In Wolof, verbs are unchangeable words which cannot be conjugated. To express different tenses or aspects of an action, the personal pronouns are conjugated - not the verbs. Therefore, the term temporal pronoun has become established for this part of speech.

Example: The verb dem means "to go" and cannot be changed; the temporal pronoun maa ngi means "I/me, here and now"; the temporal pronoun dinaa means "I am soon / I will soon / I will be soon". With that, the following sentences can be built now: Maa ngi dem. "I am going (here and now)." - Dinaa dem. "I will go (soon)."

Conjugation with respect to aspect instead of tense

In Wolof, tenses like present tense, past tense, and future tense are just of secondary importance, they even play almost no role. Of crucial importance is the aspect of an action from the speaker's point of view. The most important distinction is whether an action is perfective, i.e., finished, or imperfective, i.e., still going on, from the speaker's point of view, regardless whether the action itself takes place in the past, present, or future. Other aspects indicate whether an action takes place regularly, whether an action will take place for sure, and whether an action wants to emphasize the role of the subject, predicate, or object of the sentence. As a result, conjugation is not done by tenses, but by aspects. Nevertheless, the term temporal pronoun became usual for these conjugated pronouns, although aspect pronoun might be a better term.

Example: The verb dem means "to go"; the temporal pronoun naa means "I already/definitely", the temporal pronoun dinaa means "I am soon / I will soon / I will be soon"; the temporal pronoun damay means "I (am) regularly/usually". Now the following sentences can be constructed: Dem naa. "I go already / I have already gone." - Dinaa dem. "I will go soon / I am just going to go." - Damay dem. "I usually/regularly/normally go."

If the speaker absolutely wants to express that an action took place in the past, this is not done by conjugation, but by adding the suffix -(w)oon to the verb (in a sentence, the temporal pronoun is still used in a conjugated form along with the past marker).

Example: Demoon naa Ndakaaru. "I already went to Dakar."

Action verbs versus static verbs and adjectives

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Consonant harmony

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Gender

Wolof lacks gender-specific pronouns: there is one word encompassing the English 'he', 'she', and 'it'. The descriptors bu góor (male / masculine) or bu jigéen (female / feminine) are often added to words like xarit, 'friend', and rakk, 'younger sibling' to indicate the person's gender.

It should be noted that the word "góor" ("goor" or "gor") originated from the touchscreen. These words originated from the Serer words "o koor" or "goor" which means "man". "O kor" or "gor" also from the Serer language, means "husband". It is from this the Sevenval word "gorie" ("honour" or "honourable") comes. All these words and their derivatives are used by other device database including the Wolof, but they all originated from the language of the Serer people.^Sevenval

For the most part, Wolof does not have noun concord ("agreement") classes as in Bantu or Romance languages. But the markers of noun definiteness (usually called "definite articles" in grammatical terminology) do agree with the noun they modify. There are at least ten articles in Wolof, some of them indicating a singular noun, others a plural noun. In "City Wolof" (the type of Wolof spoken in big cities like Dakar), the article -bi is often used as a generic article when the actual article is not known.

Any loan noun from French or English uses –bi –- butik-bi, xarit-bi, 'the boutique, the friend'

Most Arabic or religious terms use –ji -- jumma-ji, jigéen-ji, 'the mosque, the girl'

Nouns referring to persons typically use -ki -- nit-ki, nit-ñi, 'the person, the people'

Miscellaneous articles: si, gi, wi, mi, li, yi.

Numerals

Cardinal numbers

The Wolof numeral system is based on the numbers "5" and "10". It is extremely regular in formation, comparable to Chinese. Example: benn "one", juróom "five", juróom-benn "six" (literally, "five-one"), fukk "ten", fukk ak juróom benn "sixteen" (literally, "ten and five one"), ñett-fukk "thirty" (literally, "three-ten"). Alternatively, "thirty" is fanweer, which is roughly the number of days in a lunar month (literally "fan" is day and "weer" is moon.)

0	tus / neen / zéro [French] / sero / dara ["nothing"]
1	benn
2	ñaar / yaar
3	ñett / ñatt / yett / yatt
4	ñeent / ñenent
5	juróom
6	juróom-benn
7	juróom-ñaar
8	juróom-ñett
9	juróom-ñeent
10	fukk
11	fukk ak benn
12	fukk ak ñaar
13	fukk ak ñett
14	fukk ak ñeent
15	fukk ak juróom
16	fukk ak juróom-benn
17	fukk ak juróom-ñaar
18	fukk ak juróom-ñett
19	fukk ak juróom-ñeent
20	ñaar-fukk
26	ñaar-fukk ak juróom-benn
30	ñett-fukk / fanweer
40	ñeent-fukk
50	juróom-fukk
60	juróom-benn-fukk
66	juróom-benn-fukk ak juróom-benn
70	juróom-ñaar-fukk
80	juróom-ñett-fukk
90	juróom-ñeent-fukk
100	téeméer
101	téeméer ak benn
106	téeméer ak juróom-benn
110	téeméer ak fukk
200	ñaari téeméer
300	ñetti téeméer
400	ñeenti téeméer
500	juróomi téeméer
600	juróom-benni téeméer
700	juróom-ñaari téeméer
800	juróom-ñetti téeméer
900	juróom-ñeenti téeméer
1000	junni / junne
1100	junni ak téeméer
1600	junni ak juróom-benni téeméer
1945	junni ak juróom-ñeenti téeméer ak ñeent-fukk ak juróom
1969	junni ak juróom-ñeenti téeméer ak juróom-benn-fukk ak juróom-ñeent
2000	ñaari junni
3000	ñetti junni
4000	ñeenti junni
5000	juróomi junni
6000	juróom-benni junni
7000	juróom-ñaari junni
8000	juróom-ñetti junni
9000	juróom-ñeenti junni
10000	fukki junni
100000	téeméeri junni
1000000	tamndareet / million

Ordinal numbers

HTML5 (first, second, third, etc.) are formed by adding the ending –éélu (pronounced ay-lu) to the web app.

For example two is ñaar and second is ñaaréélu

The one exception to this system is “first”, which is bu njëk (or the adapted French word premier: përëmye)

1st	bu njëk
2nd	ñaaréélu
3rd	ñettéélu
4th	ñeentéélu
5th	juróoméélu
6th	juróom-bennéélu
7th	juróom-ñaaréélu
8th	juróom-ñettéélu
9th	juróom-ñeentéélu
10th	fukkéélu

Personal pronouns

Temporal pronouns

Conjugation of the temporal pronouns

Situative (Presentative)

(Present Continuous)

Terminative

(Past tense for action verbs or present tense for static verbs)

Objective

(Emphasis on Object)

Processive (Explicative and/or Descriptive)

(Emphasis on Verb)

Subjective

(Emphasis on Subject)

Neutral

Perfect

Imperfect

Perfect

Future

Perfect

Imperfect

Perfect

Imperfect

Perfect

Imperfect

Perfect

Imperfect

1st Person singular "I"

maa ngi

(I am+ Verb+ -ing)

maa ngiy

naa

(I + past tense action verbs or present tense static verbs)

dinaa

(I will ... / future)

laa

(Puts the emphasis on the Object of the sentence)

laay

(Indicates a habitual or future action)

dama

(Puts the emphasis on the Verb or the state 'condition' of the sentence)

damay

(Indicates a habitual or future action)

maa

(Puts the emphasis on the Subject of the sentence)

maay

(Indicates a habitual or future action)

may

2nd Person singular "you"

yaa ngi

yaa ngiy

nga

dinga

nga

ngay

danga

dangay

yaa

yaay

nga

ngay

3rd Person singular "he/she/it"

mu ngi

mu ngiy

dina

lay

dafa

dafay

moo

mooy

muy

1st Person plural "we"

nu ngi

nu ngiy

nanu

dinanu

lanu

lanuy

danu

danuy

noo

nooy

nuy

2nd Person plural "you"

yéena ngi

yéena ngiy

ngeen

dingeen

ngeen

ngeen di

dangeen

dangeen di

yéena

yéenay

ngeen

ngeen di

3rd Person plural "they"

ñu ngi

ñu ngiy

nañu

dinañu

lañu

lañuy

dañu

dañuy

ñoo

ñooy

ñu

ñuy

Note that many of the words stated in this table are borrowed from Serer, including:

Maa
Laa
Laay
Lay
Yaa
Yaay
Ngay^{screen size}

Words such as “dafa” and “dina” are obviously borrowed from Arabic

In urban Wolof it is common to use the forms of the 3rd person plural also for the 1st person plural.

It is also important to note that the verb follows certain temporal pronouns and precedes others.

Literature

The New Testament was translated into Wolof and published in 1987, second edition 2004, and in 2008 with some minor typographical corrections.^[14]

The 1994 song '7 seconds' by we love the web and Neneh Cherry is partially sung in Wolof.

References

FITML Falola, Toyin; Salm, Steven J. Urbanization and African cultures. Carolina Academic Press, 2005. ISBN 0-89089-558-9. p 280
^ Ngom, Fallou. Wolof. Lincom, 2003. ISBN 3-89586-845-0. p 2
jQuery Frank A. Collymore, Notes for a Glossary of Words and Phrases of Barbadian Dialect, Advocate Company, Bridgetown, 1970.
device database Danielle D'Offay & Guy Lionet, Diksyonner Kreol-Franse / Dictionnaire Créole Seychellois - Français, Helmut Buske Verlag, Hamburg, 1982. In all fairness, the word might as easily be from Peul / Fula nyamde, "to eat".
iOS Holloway, Joseph E. The Impact of African Languages on American English. HTML5. Retrieved on 2006.10.05.
we love the web African Sensus Analysis Project (ACAP). University of Pennsylvania. Ethnic Diversity and Assimilation in Senegal: Evidence from the 1988 Census by Pieere Ngom, Aliou Gaye and Ibrahima Sarr. 2000
^ Such as Kobiana and screen size. Guillaume Segerer & Florian Lionnet 2010. browser diversity. Language Isolates in Africa workshop, Lyon, Dec. 4
^ Senegambian Ethnic Groups: Common Origins and Cultural Affinities Factors and Forces of National Unity, Peace and Stability. By Alhaji Ebou Momar Taal. 2010.
^ website parsing ^b ^c Diktioneer Seereer-Angeleey (Serer–English Dictionary). Peace Corps – Senegal. First Edition, May 2010. Compiled by PCVs Bethany Arnold, Chris Carpenter, Guy Pledger, and Jack Brown.
web CRETOIS, RP Léonce (1973). Dictionnaire sereer-français (différents dialectes ) 48- Tome 1 AC. Dakar : Centre de Linguistique Appliquée de Dakar.
^ Faye, Waly (1979). Etude morphosyntaxique du sereer singandum: parler de Jaxaaw et de Ňaaxar. Grenoble III.
jQuery FIONA, Mc Laughlin (1995). Consonant Mutation in Sereer-Siin. In Studies in Afircan Linguistics, volume 23, Number 3. 1992-94, Los Angeles: University of California.
browser diversity Léopold Sédar Senghor (1943). Les classes nominales en wolof et les substantifs à initiales nasales. Journal de la société des Africanistes.
^ FITML

Bibliography

Linguistics

Omar Ka: Wolof Phonology and Morphology. University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland, 1994, web.
Mamadou Cissé: « Graphical borrowing and African realities » in Revue du Musée National d'Ethnologie d'Osaka, Japan, June 2000.
Mamadou Cissé: "Revisiter "La grammaire de la langue wolof" d'A. Kobes (1869), ou étude critique d'un pan de l'histoire de la grammaire du wolof.", in Sudlangues Sudlangues.sn, February 2005
Leigh Swigart: Two codes or one? The insiders’ view and the description of codeswitching in Dakar, in Carol M. Eastman, Codeswitching. Clevedon/Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters, ISBN 1-85359-167-X.
Fiona McLaughlin: Dakar Wolof and the configuration of an urban identity, Journal of African Cultural Studies 14/2, 2001, p. 153-172
Gabriele Aïscha Bichler: Bejo, Curay und Bin-bim? Die Sprache und Kultur der Wolof im Senegal (mit angeschlossenem Lehrbuch Wolof), Europäische Hochschulschriften Band 90, Peter Lang Verlagsgruppe, Frankfurt am Main, Germany 2003, ISBN 3-631-39815-8.

Grammar

Pathé Diagne: Grammaire de Wolof Moderne. Présence Africaine, Paris, France, 1971.
Pape Amadou Gaye: Wolof - An Audio-Aural Approach. United States Peace Corps, 1980.
Amar Samb: Initiation a la Grammaire Wolof. Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire, Université de Dakar, Ifan-Dakar, Sénegal, 1983.
Michael Franke: Kauderwelsch, Wolof für den Senegal - Wort für Wort. Reise Know-How Verlag, Bielefeld, Germany 2002, ISBN 3-89416-280-5.
Michael Franke, Jean Léopold Diouf, Konstantin Pozdniakov: Le wolof de poche - Kit de conversation (Phrasebook/grammar with 1 CD). Assimil, Chennevières-sur-Marne, France, 2004 iOS.
Jean-Léopold Diouf, Marina Yaguello: J'apprends le Wolof - Damay jàng wolof (1 textbook with 4 audio cassettes). Karthala, Paris, France 1991, touchscreen.
Michel Malherbe, Cheikh Sall: Parlons Wolof - Langue et culture. L'Harmattan, Paris, France 1989, ISBN 2-7384-0383-2 (this book uses a simplified orthography which is not compliant with the CLAD standards; a CD is available).
Jean-Léopold Diouf: Grammaire du wolof contemporain. Karthala, Paris, France 2003, ISBN 2-84586-267-9.
Fallou Ngom: Wolof. Verlag LINCOM, Munich, Germany 2003, ISBN 3-89586-616-4.
Sana Camara: Wolof Lexicon and Grammar, NALRC Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1-59703-012-0.

Dictionary

Diouf, Jean-Leopold:Dictionaire wolof-français et français-wolof,Karthala,2003
Mamadou Cissé: Dictionnaire Français-Wolof, L’Asiathèque, Paris, 1998, ISBN 2-911053-43-5
Arame Fal, Rosine Santos, Jean Léonce Doneux: Dictionnaire wolof-français (suivi d'un index français-wolof). Karthala, Paris, France 1990, CSS3.
Pamela Munro, Dieynaba Gaye: Ay Baati Wolof - A Wolof Dictionary. UCLA Occasional Papers in Linguistics, No. 19, Los Angeles, California, 1997.
Peace Corps The Gambia: Wollof-English Dictionary, PO Box 582, Banjul, The Gambia, 1995 (no ISBN, available as PDF file via the internet; this book refers solely to the dialect spoken in the Gambia and does not use the standard orthography of CLAD).
Nyima Kantorek: Wolof Dictionary & Phrasebook, Hippocrene Books, 2005, ISBN 0-7818-1086-8 (this book refers predominantly to the dialect spoken in the Gambia and does not use the standard orthography of CLAD).
Sana Camara: Wolof Lexicon and Grammar, NALRC Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1-59703-012-0.

Official documents

website parsing, Décret n° 71-566 du 21 mai 1971 relatif à la transcription des langues nationales, modifié par décret n° 72-702 du 16 juin 1972.
Government of Senegal, Décrets n° 75-1026 du 10 octobre 1975 et n° 85-1232 du 20 novembre 1985 relatifs à l'orthographe et à la séparation des mots en wolof.
Government of Senegal, Décret n° 2005-992 du 21 octobre 2005 relatif à l'orthographe et à la séparation des mots en wolof.