Wolof language
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Wolof is a language spoken in Senegal, the Gambia, and Mauritania, and it is the native language of the ethnic group of the Wolof people. It belongs to the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo language family.
Wolof is the most widely-spoken language in Senegal, spoken not only by members of the Wolof ethnic group (approximately 40% of the population) but also by most other Senegalese. Wolof dialects may vary between countries (Senegal and the Gambia) and the rural and urban areas. "Dakar-Wolof", for instance, is an urban mixture of Wolof, French, Arabic and English spoken in Dakar, the capital of Senegal.
In older French publications the spelling "Ouolof" is often used instead of "Wolof". In some English publications, predominantly those referring to Gambian Wolof, the spelling "Wollof" is used, because this spelling will induce native English speakers to pronounce the term correctly as a Wolof speaker. In publications of the 19th century and before the spelling "Volof" and "Olof" can also be found. - The term "Wolof" itself may also refer to the ethnic group of the Wolofs or to those who speak the Wolof language.
Spreading and Neighborhood of the Wolof Language
About 40% (approximataly 3.2 million people) of Senegal's population speak Wolof as mother tongue. An additional 40% of the population speak Wolof as second or acquired language. In the whole region from Dakar to Saint-Louis, and also west and southwest of Kaolack, Wolof is spoken by the vast majority of the people. In Casamance and Senegal's west, Wolof is rarely used. The official language of Senegal is French.
In the Gambia, about 15% (approximately 200 thousand people) of the population speak Wolof as a first language, but Wolof has a disproportionate influence because of its prevalence in Banjul, the Gambia's capital, where fifty percent of the population use it as a first language. The official language of the Gambia is English. The Gambia's dominant languages, Mandinka (40%), Wolof (15%) and Fula (15%), also have official status.
In Mauritania, about 7% (approximately 185 thousand 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 lingua franca.
Useful 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 tenses in the sense of the Indo-European languages, like for example the Present Progressive Tense in English: Expressions are rather made up by Aspect and Focus of an action (and every translation into an English tense is just an approximation of the original meaning). The literal translation given in the table below is an exact word-by-word translation in the original word order, where the meaning of the single words are seperated by dashes.
Wolof | English | Literal translation into English |
---|---|---|
Salaamaalekum ! Response: Maalekum salaam ! |
Good day! Response: Good day! |
(Arabic) peace be with you Response: with you be - peace |
Nan nga def ? / Naka nga def ? Response: Maa ngi fi rekk. |
How do you do? / How are you doing? Response: How do you do? / (Thanks) I am fine. |
how - you (already) - do Response: I/me here - be - here - merely |
Ba beneen (yoon). | Goodbye. | until - other - (time) |
jëre-jëf | thanks / thank you | - |
waaw | yes | yes |
déedéet | no | no |
Fan la ... am ? | Where is a ...? | where - he who is - ... - existing/having |
Fan la fajkat am ? | Where is a physician/doctor? | where - he who is - heal-maker - existing/having |
Fan la ... nekk ? | Where is the ...? | where - it which is - ... - found |
Fan la loppitaan bi nekk ? | Where is the hospital? | where - it which is - hospital - the - being found |
Noo tudd ? / Nan nga tudd ? Response: ... laa tudd. |
What is your name? Response: My name is .... |
what you (plural) - being called Response: ... I (objective) - called |
Orthography and Pronunciation
(Note: Phonetic transcriptions are printed between brackets [] following the rules of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).)
There is no officially standardized orthography for Wolof, but 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 written with the letters of the Latin alphabet.
When learning foreign languages, the disadvantage for English and French native speakers is, that they, although using the Latin alphabet too, do neither pronounce the letters in an unambiguous way, nor do they pronounce most of the letters with their original "Latin" phonetic value. In almost all other languages using the Latin alphabet, there is, with some minor exceptions, a clear one-to-one correspondence between a letter and a phonetic sound, so that the alphabet can simultaneously serve as phonetic transcription. Example: In English, the letter "i" can either be pronounced like [i] as in "kill" or like [ay] as in "life". In almost all other languages, the letter "i" is used with its original Latin value [i] only. Wolof uses the Latin alphabet with its original unambiguous phonetic values. Some additional sounds were added, as it is the case for the letter "x" which is pronounced like [x], which sounds like the letter combination "ch" as in German "Bach" or in Scottish "loch". Furthermore, Wolof adds some diacritic symbols to the vowel letters to distinguish between open and closed vowels, and between long and short vowels. Example: "o" is open like English "often", "ó" is closed similar to the o-sound in English "most". Single vowels are short, geminated vowels are long, so Wolof "o" is short and pronounced like "o" in English "soft", but Wolof "oo" is long and pronounced like the "a" in English "call". The very common Wolof letter "ë" is pronounced very similar to the English article "a" as in "a book", if it is not stressed.
Grammar
Special Characteristics of the Wolof Language
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. It is the aspect of an action from the speaker's point of view, which is of crucial importance. The most important aspect 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 are, 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 pronouns to be conjugated, although Aspect Pronoun might be the 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. (Please bear in mind, that in a sentence the Temporal Pronoun is already used in a conjugated form besides the past marker.)
Example: Demoon naa Ndakaaru. "I already went to Dakar."
Action Verbs versus Static Verbs and Adjectives
Consonant Harmony
Missing Gender
5-Base Number System
Numerals
Cardinal Numbers
The Wolof numeral system is based on the numbers "5" and "10".
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 | ñaar téeméer |
300 | ñett téeméer |
400 | ñeent téeméer |
500 | juróom téeméer |
600 | juróom-benn téeméer |
700 | juróom-ñaar téeméer |
800 | juróom-ñett téeméer |
900 | juróom-ñeent téeméer |
1000 | junni / junne |
1100 | junni ak téeméer |
1600 | junni ak juróom-benn téeméer |
1945 | junni ak juróom-ñeent téeméer ak ñeent-fukk ak juróom |
1969 | junni ak juróom-ñeent téeméer ak juróom-benn-fukk ak juróom-ñeent |
2000 | ñaar junni |
3000 | ñett junni |
4000 | ñeent junni |
5000 | juróom junni |
6000 | juróom-benn junni |
7000 | juróom-ñaar junni |
8000 | juróom-ñett junni |
9000 | juróom-ñeent junni |
10000 | fukk junni |
100000 | téeméer junni |
1000000 | tamndareet / million |
Ordinal Numbers
Personal Pronouns
Temporal Pronouns
Conjugation of the Temporal Pronouns
Situative (Presentative) | Terminative | Objektive | Processive (Explicative) | Subjektive | Neutral | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Perfektive | Imperfektive | Perfektive | Imperfektive | Perfektive | Imperfektive | Perfektive | Imperfektive | Perfektive | Imperfektive | Perfektive | Imperfektive | |
1st Person singular "I/me" | maa ngi | maa ngiy | naa | dinaa | laa | laay | dama | damay | maa | maay | ma | 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 | na | dina | la | lay | dafa | dafay | moo | mooy | mu | muy |
1st Person plural "we" | nu ngi | nu ngiy | nanu | dinanu | lanu | lanuy | danu | danuy | noo | nooy | nu | nuy |
2nd Person plural "you" | yéena ngi | yéena ngiy | ngeen | dingeen | ngeen | ngeen di | dangeen | dangeeny | yéena | yéenay | ngeen | ngeen |
3rd Person plural "they" | ñu ngi | ñu ngiy | nañu | dinañu | lañu | lañuy | dañu | dañuy | ñoo | ñooy | ñu | ñuy |
Bibliography
- Michael Franke: Kauderwelsch, Wolof für den Senegal - Wort für Wort. Reise Know-How Verlag, Bielefeld, Germany 2002, ISBN 3-89416-280-5.
- Jean-Léopold Diouf, Marina Yaguello: J'apprends le Wolof - Damay jàng wolof (1 textbook with 4 audio cassettes). Karthala, Paris, France 1991, ISBN 2-86537-287-1.
- Arame Fal, Rosine Santos, Jean Léonce Doneux: Dictionnaire wolof-français (suivi d'un index français-wolof). Karthala, Paris, France 1990, ISBN 2-86537-233-2.
- Michel Malherbe, Cheikh Sall: Parlons Wolof - Langue et culture. L'Harmattan, Paris, France 1989, ISBN 2-7384-0383-2. - Note: This book uses a simplified orthography which is not compliant with the CLAD standards.
- Jean-Léopold Diouf: Grammaire du wolof contemporain. Karthala, Paris, France 2003, ISBN 2-8458-6267-9.
- Fallou Ngom: Wolof. Verlag LINCOM, Munich, Germany 2003, ISBN 3-89586-616-4.
- Peace Corps The Gambia: Wollof-English Dictionary, PO Box 582, Banjul, The Gambia, 1995 (no ISBN, available as PDF file via the internet). - Note: 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 0781810868. - Note: This book uses predominantly the dialect spoken in the Gambia and does not use the standard orthography of CLAD!