Language Learning: Wolof
This month we explore Wolof, an Atlantic language of the Niger-Congo language family in our ongoing Language Learning series. Wolof is spoken by 18 million people worldwide and is the national language of Senegal and is spoken by an estimated 5 million people there. It is also used as a lingua franca by another 7 million people. Wolof is also spoken in France, Mauritania, and Mali.
The origin of the name Wolof has not clearly been established but some linguists think it may have come from the area in which the Jolof empire was established in the 14th century. Eventually Wolof-speaking people moved southward from the Jolof region into other parts of Senegal.
Wolof has two dialects in Senegal: Senegal Wolof and Dakar Wolof or Urban Wolof. Urban Wolof is a mixture of Wolof, French, Arabic and English and is spoken in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Wolof spoken in Gambia is another dialect.
A distinctive feature of the Wolof consonantal system is the absence of implosive consonants which are present in other Atlantic languages. Wolof is also non-tonal like other Atlantic languages. Wolof has no gender distinction.
CETRA has provided Wolof for clients, as well as over 300 other languages. For more information on our language services, please contact us or email info@cetra.com.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wolof-language https://www.languagesgulper.com/eng/Wolof.html
