Wolof - an intriguing language of West Africa

An accessible look at the Wolof language, from Senegal in West Africa, which has a unique pronoun system where pronouns do much of the work more usually done by verb tenses and moods.
00:00 Intro
00:31 Language family and demographics
00:59 Personal pronouns
02:04 Example sentences
03:04 Focus
03:49 Example sentences
04:47 Pronunciation
Many thanks to Awa, an excellent Wolof teacher and fellow polyglot, for her help.
www.italki.com/i/reft/CbBBfd/...
Languages of Africa User:SUM1, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Senegal in the world Flappiefh, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Wolof map Mikima, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

I really enjoyed finding out about this fascinating language. I hope you like it as much as I do.

[@user-hl9my4if5u]

i certainly did ! - i wish you could teach it to us !!!

[@musaamurit]

I am a wolof, and I appreciate your explanations. You explained the difference between "Téere bi laa jàng" and "Damaa jàng téere bi", the first one focusing on the book, and the other, on the person speaking. Very interesting even to a wolof native speaker.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

So glad you enjoyed it, Musaa.

[@seckownshop]

Wolof is linguistically rich. I love it

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

It is indeed.

[@benjaminsmith2287]

Fascinating language. Sometimes it sounds somewhat like Arabic, but softer. I listen to a lot of mbalax music and other Senegalese music so I hear how it sounds through the music, but also have just listened to it spoken.

[@alywadd1605]

Normal. They were in contact with Arabs . Hence some words borrowed from Arabic. Not forgeting islam which is from Arab People

[@xaadimjoob7326]

Man ab Sénégalais laa sama làkk mooy Wolof. 😍😍😍

[@limsadiane]

Man ab Sa-senegal laa, samaw làkk mooy Wolof. 😊

[@Buurba_Jolof]

@@limsadiane Samap lakk

[@ndiayengom5083]

Wàllay sunu làkk wi dafa riche Wolof xaw ma lu sunu ay ñjiit di xaar ngir def ko la Senegal officielle

[@mouhamadoumoustaphambacke9409]

Ñoo ngilay jaajëfël si vidéo bu am solo bi

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Amul sóló

[@nhialbenyihok417]

Please, can you do research on the Similarities between the Dinka and the Wollof? I am a Dinka and these people have huge similarities with us. I would like a history to carry out research about these similarities and trace the Origin of these tribes.

[@bambafall382]

Its my native language Wolof It is perfectly explained i did learn something too thank you Jereujeuf 😊🙏🏽

[@abby4115]

I'm absolutely love your videos ! You should do fulani next ! The nomadic nature of its speakers makes it a very interesting language

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thanks for the tip. I’ll look into that.

[@bclmqd]

Utterly fascinating! I'd personally refuse to feed you unless you produced at least one vid a week but that's illegal apparently! A similar vid on Chinese languages/ dialects (l know! I know!)? Japanese? ChiChewa? Jersey (Norman) French? Really love the humour ...

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Why thank you Brian. Some great ideas, apart from the thing about withholding food!

[@ousmanegueye6828]

Superbe. Toute langue est une richesse universelle qu'il faut conserver, enrichir, promouvoir et enseigner

[@ousmanegueye6828]

Chaque langue contient des valeurs que nulle autre ne detienne

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Merci Ousmane. Vous avez complètement raison sur la richesse des langues.

[@richardendall3956]

Wow! Loved this one Dave. The intricacies of the Wolof language are truly fascinating. It's mind-blowing how different languages vary so much in really subtle ways. Can't wait for the next one!

[@amadoumbaye529]

Jërëjëf am na solo yaa baax rekk ❤️❤️❤️

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Amul sóló

[@glennfolau6959]

Another linguist touches on the Wolof language on YT, and you both emphasise how complex and intriguing the Wolof language is. I'm glad you briefly mentioned Polynesian languages, as this is my interest, and indeed part of my heritage. Cheers

[@nanaaraj]

Interesting to learn about African languages especially Wolof. Thank you for sharing this video. I’m from London but I’m ethnically Ghanaian. You should do a video on the Akan language and people don’t much about our language because it’s so popular. The dialects of the Akan include Asante Twi, Fante (Ghana) and Boaule, Agni (Ivory Coast).

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Hi. Thank you. Yes, Akan languages have about 10 million speakers. I’d like to know more about them. Maybe some day.

[@BaoltechAtikhannyPro]

We are so happy for you , wolof is our rich language

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Very rich indeed:

[@mcoolcool7504]

Oooh thank you @Dave for that. It’s my mother tongue but you explain it better than me🙈😅. Thx again

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

You’re welcome 😊 It's a wonderful language.

[@barrymoustapha5513]

As a wolof speaker this is class is actually the best I've ever seen

[@a2012sansan]

Maestro Dave que bueno poder ver nuevo video...!! Muy interesante... Saludos desde México!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Gracias Alejandro. Me alegra que te haya gustado. Saludos desde California.

[@modoudiene6504]

I appreciate your work about my language Wolof. I'll be back to mention something you didn't that make our language so wonderful.

[@moustaphandiaye7612]

Wow 🤩 wonderful 🥰 Our great greetings dear prof since Sénégal 🇸🇳

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you! 😃

[@moortaalaarammbooj4259]

Loved the video. The explanation is simple and very clear.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad it was helpful!

[@majambosecka8632]

Thanks you 🇸🇳 🇬🇲 😘

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

My pleasure.

[@cheikhounadiagne1795]

Interessting your video is juste amusing. Think you for doing this, for our mather tongue language. I ve learn a lot.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

My pleasure, Cheikhouna. So glad you enjoyed it.

[@dr.sherryleonard-foots4200]

Excellent video!!❤

[@rubenofthemoon6805]

You’re an absolute gem

[@damediop814]

I lake it. I Live in Sénégal

[@pndgoethe8100]

Perfekt ....

[@khalifaseck8896]

Thank you verry mutch for the langue wolof❤️❤️

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

You are very welcome Khalifa.

[@elisabetydman360]

Very nice explanation, so interesting! Trying to learn it myself atm, as I'm currently in the Gambia :)

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

That you! Glad you enjoyed it. Wishing you every success with learning Wolof - let me know how you get on.

[@habicht6]

Whow... a Genius... with a british sense of humour.... beeindruckend!!!!

[@Jenjen-qc5eq]

The word 'hippy' is Wolof and it means to be 'in the know' or 'woke' Black Americans have been using the word hippy decades before it was used during the sixties, another African word is 'mojo' a bag which the shaman kept his magical items, Jumbo is also African actually it means elephant, the word simba was used incorrectly in the Lion King it actual means lion.UK

[@sareeyemanusqaame8723]

There’s no such thing as “African word” that claim is extremely ignorant and embarrassing!!

[@Jenjen-qc5eq]

@@sareeyemanusqaame8723 How the hell can there be no such thing as an African word when Africa has two thousand languages? your reductiveness is limitless, joker. UK

[@digitallocations1423]

@@sareeyemanusqaame8723 English is incorporating words from other languages all the time because it has many non native speakers. 🙄

[@benji272]

@@sareeyemanusqaame8723 I think they mean all words loaned in from any african language, not from the "african langauge"

[@bougnaw]

Jërëjef sëriñ bi!!!

[@badaboys2098]

Wow nice explanation diadief👏

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you liked it

[@ibrahimjobe954]

46% wolof in senegal and 18% in Gambia. So it means about 7.2 in senegal and gambia around 300 000 wolofs.

[@salioutoure2840]

Jërëjëf amna solo lool

[@nicksarker1]

Great video and very interesting.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thanks Nick.

[@mouhamedseck6996]

Very interesting

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you think so!

[@siradjindiaye2764]

Jaajëf waay jàmbaar.

[@CamouflageMaster]

Amazing video! Will you do some more as there isn't that much available on studying Wolof?

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Hi. So glad you like it. I don’t know that much more about Wolof myself but I’ll see where I can go with your idea.

[@omarbaraseck]

So interesting

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you! Glad you thought so.

[@btntetatainment]

My language!

[@mammbackekhouma67]

🙏

[@marbassinendiaye6354]

Thx

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Any time

[@babacarlatgranddiouf2404]

Superbe video. Dieureudieuf

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Amul sóló

[@Buurba_Jolof]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages Wow very nice. Nioko bokk

[@franny231123DMT]

you can do this all day, cant you? id pay money pay money to see this live

[@assanjobe2714]

Interesting

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you like it.

[@sentiktok3842]

Thanks

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Welcome

[@muhametjoob3879]

Jërëjëf

[@bougnaw]

Amna solo!

[@serigneamdymbacke4029]

It’s very easy

[@moustaphadia2638]

Wolof is nice

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

It is indeed.

[@ANTSEMUT1]

Am i mistaken in seeing AAVE has adopted some of wolof's features into it's overall structure?

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Hi Anthony. That wouldn't be surprising, since many of the people kidnapped from Africa and brought to the US were from Wolof-speaking regions. Do you have any specific features in mind?

[@ANTSEMUT1]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages how they structure their tenses and the sack of potatoes thing you mentioned.

[@muhametjoob3879]

Wolof rekk ❤❤❤

[@rynkie]

man jangakat laa

[@pradeepsinghm]

I think I'll stick with learning Swahili after seeing that pronoun system 😮

[@tamrasg6960]

Can you please, make One of Dinka language

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank for the suggestion. I’ll see what I can do.

[@tamrasg6960]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages thank, you

[@ndiayengom5083]

Wolof sant yàlla

[@MrYellowm4n]

jerejeuf

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Amul sóló

[@mwakiohouston9706]

good job from a white guy on such a topic

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thanks Mwakio.

[@lmc4355]

Do Nguni languages next

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into those. What's your favourite feature of the Nguni languages?

[@lmc4355]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages Our unique phonemes such as the click consonants c, q, x, gc, gq, gx as well as hl, dl, rh. Or the dual pronunciations of some letters such as k, kh, b, bh, p, ph, t, th. Our consonant clusters like in the words Mnguni or mntwana. The tonal differences of vowels which unfortunately they haven't distinguished with accent symbols but we can hear the difference for example the prefix U referring to you and U referring to he/she are pronounced differently. The differences between Swati and Zulu almost seem intentional. Where Zulu has Z Swati has t, where Zulu has th Swati has ts, where Zulu has d Swati has dz, so often you'll hear other Nguni people say Swati sounds like a child speaking Zulu. The clan poetry izithakazelo/tinanatelo/iziduko that every Nguni surname has. The way we distinguish family members compared to English such as we have a seperate word for fathers sister ubabakazi and fathers older brother babomkhulu and younger brother babomncane, or mothers brother umalume and mothers older sister mamkhulu and younger sister mamncane. Or mothers nieces and nephews as well as fathers sisters kids are called cousins omzala but dads brothers children are called mfo (brother) and dade(sister). This is the case with many family titles. Like my in laws/wife's parents are called umkhwe (father in law) umkhwekazi(mother in law) but my wife would call her in laws/my parents mamezala(mother in law) babazala (father in law). Or I call my father ubaba, but when I speak of your father I say uyihlo, when I speak of someone (their/he/she's) father I say uyise and mother it's umama, unyoko, unina respectively.

[@GwazaJuse]

@LMC mntwana and mnguni don't have consonant clusters though. The m in each case is a syllabic nasal and the n is a prenasalisation of the letter that follows. It's therefore a single syllabic consonant (m) followed by another single consonant that is prenasalised. The only real clusters we have are sonorant consonants after stops, such as the ndrondroza feature, as in the IsiMpondo or IsiXesibe words ndriyahamba or inkrwenkrwe. This is still only a two segment cluster in each case, because again it's prenasalisation and in the second case it is labialisation, not a full consonant. But anyway it would be nice for Mr Huxtable (whose videos I absolutely love) to do our Nguni/Mbo languages (remember that SiSwati is actually a Mbo language in terms of people group, not "Nguni", even though Linguistic typology used the word "Nguni". Similarly I think we should not use the term "Bantu" but rather call these the Ntu languages, as "Bantu" implies people not languages and is also a racist term from apartheid).

[@lmc4355]

@@GwazaJuse lm not trained in linguistics so I'm not familiar with any specific jargon. By consonant cluster I meant that it's a group of consonants following each other which non African people struggle to pronounce. Instead of saying Mnguni they say Manguni or umnyango they say umanyango. Also Nguni from what I know is the accepted term to refer to our language family and I think it's because all Nguni tribes trace their origin to an ancestor or king named Mnguni. Terms like umuMbo, iLala, iNtungwa etc. are historical subdivisions of Nguni peoples before the formation of the modern nations and so from what I understand it is more to do with individual surnames for example Mkhize which is a Zulu surname is historically Mbo but Bhengu another Zulu surname is historically Lala. They are all still Nguni peoples as they speak similar languages. You mentioned another interesting feature of Nguni language family. Some of the languages like isiMpondo and siNdebele have the ndrondroza feature so Indoda becomes indroda and some Swati have kutsefula so Indoda becomes indvodza.

[@GwazaJuse]

@@lmc4355 Mhlonishwa, abaMbo/amaLala/amaThonga are not Nguni at all and we do not trace any lineage to some ancestor called "Mnguni" this is a myth. "Nguni" is simply an old term likely referring to peoples that came down to the coastal region from the upland territories, whereas abaMbo/amaLala/amaThonga refers to the inhabitants of the lowland coastal terrain prior to this. Please do not call us Nguni we are not Nguni, and as a Mkhize person I can tell you we are also not Zulu, we are abaseMbo/amaLala who at one point were indeed part of the Zulu kingdom through tribute to iLembe (Note to Mr Huxtable: "iLembe" is a formal praise name for the renowned king iSilo uShaka kaSenzangakhona, to be clear), but when Dingane came to power he assassinated Zihlandlo and this broke off our ties with the Zulu polity. We are neither Zulu nor Nguni and most nations of the region are not Nguni at all. For example, EmaSwati are led by the Ngwane houses descended from Dlamini (like most AbaMbo nations) and so are therefore considered AbaMbo since they have an eastern origin - they are originally coastal plain peoples. The same goes for AmaNdebele (those of Musi, NOT AbaThwakazi of Zimbabwe who are AmaNtungwa), AbaThembu, AmaMpondo+AmaMpondomise+AmaXesibe, AmaZizi, AmaBhele, AmaBhaca, AmaHlangwini, EbaPhuthi, and of course the largest of all, AmaHlubi, as well as all other clans and nations referred to as amaLala or amaThonga, such as the enormous Tembe kingdom that straddles South Africa and Mozambique (they speak SiThonga on the RSA side and XiRhonga on the Moz side, as they are the people of Mabhudu/Maputru, from whence the city of Maputo gets its name). NONE of these that I have mentioned are Nguni peoples, because their ruling lineages do not historically come from upland regions. They speak many different languages, most of which are called "Nguni Languages" according to the standard naming conventions of Linguistic Typology, but these are not Nguni people at all. Please do not call us Nguni people we actively distinguish ourselves from AbeNguni in our clan praises and cultural history. For example, in our praises as ImiKhize (AbaseMbo) we say "Sibiside esimajembelezana, owayephandla waphandla ABENGUNI bavungama". You can see here that we construe our ancestor Sibiside (who by the way is also the ancestor of AmaMpondo etc) in counterposition to Nguni people who he is said to have astonished. Further on in our praises it is said "Nina MALALA amahle", which asserts again that abaMbo were also known as AmaLala and this as it happens was a counterposition to Ntungwa people, which, like Nguni folks were also uplanders, as is evidenced by the origin of the name from the intungwa thatching grass which grows at higher altitudes. Notably the ilala palm that is also sewn together as a fabrication material by contrast grows at LOW altitudes. We are "amaLala" people of eMbo, meaning the coastal region (what is today the eastern side of the province of "KZN") and NOT Nguni people at all. Nguni people are those that were said to descend from the mountains along the river, in the process known as UKWEHLA KWESILULU. I believe that the term "Nguni languages" is therefore inappropriate and should be substituted for the term "eMbo-Nguni languages". By the way: the Tsefula, Tekela, Ndrondroza, and Yeyeza features are the original speech styles of the eMbo or coastal region, and even iLembe used to speak like that, in the SiLala fashion. I thank you, futshi gibogiye 🙏

[@JordanSullivanadventures]

Interesting. I found it strange when I learned that Japanese adjectives have tense.

[@reverts3031]

Wolof spelled backwards is foloW... er... um... follow. Right?

[@simaamballa2585]

Mbaa jàmm rekk nga am ? Wolof moo neex! lu la dugal ci lii ngay def? Foo ko jàngee?

[@toubagueye5059]

Am na soolo

[@PatrickJouannes]

Please if you have a twitter account here I am also interested in languages twitter.com/dictionaric thanks ! Have you got some vocabulary to share with me concerning BAWLE ? BAOULÉ ?

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

No vocab to share unfortunately, but I now follow you on Twitter.

[@PatrickJouannes]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages okay ! nice !

[@piercemoen2269]

Fascinating grammar, great explanation. With so much added meaning to the pronouns, I’d almost want to call those words auxiliary verb forms or adverbs. That is, they don’t replace nouns in the same way a pronoun typically does. Not wanting to be Eurocentric here! Similar linguistic thought, for example, claims that Japanese has no pronouns, only nouns, as they are grammatically treated the same.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Hi Pierce. I'm sure there are other analyses for this. Whatever they are, the are definitely 'personal'. I looked at words for I, and briefly listed those for he/she/it. The full range also exists of 2nd per sing and pl and 3rd per pl.

[@megustariasabertodo2702]

Toubab bi dagna wolof bubaghe hhhhh

[@miabob130]

Hello bae

[@benthejrporter]

That must be a problem for woke Wolof-o-phones. Howe do you fit all those pronouns in your Twitter bio?

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Must be tough.

[@mddi1420]

easy work there is no woke bs in Senegal and the language is neutral gender

[@benthejrporter]

@@mddi1420 They're lucky! It's not unexpected though, I've noticed this in many other parts of Africa.

[@barnbersonol]

I'll plus verb. There, I'll is another pronoun that indicates person and tense. I'd seen and I've seen. Two pronouns that indicate different tenses but use the same verb. If i was creating a new language, I did, i was, i will i do I dont, i might etc would all contract into a single word plus the verb. No need for past particples or gerund. Very very logical. And obviously there'd be a we meaning me and you, we meaning me, you and someone else and we meaning me and someone else excluding you. Oh and and drop "it" and articles. Seems pointless. Ive point doncha think? I'd drop apostrophes too. Misuse really bug's me. Has done since the 70's.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thanks for sharing how you'd put the world to rights. I think you may be right about apostrophes - most of the rules were made up by the Victorians to prove how hedumicated they were.