Wolof

Where it’s spoken

Wolof is the dominant language of Senegal, where it is spoken by about 40% as a first language and understood by perhaps 90% as a lingua franca. It is also widely spoken in Gambia and Mauritania. Wolof has spread far beyond ethnic Wolof communities to become Senegal’s de facto national language, despite French retaining official status.

What it sounds like

Wolof has vowel harmony — vowels in suffixes match the root in terms of advanced or retracted tongue root features. It has prenasalized consonants (mb, nd) and a gemination contrast. Stress is generally on the first syllable. Wolof is non-tonal, which is unusual for a Niger-Congo language in this region.

How it’s written

Wolof has two written forms: a Latin orthography developed in the 1970s (the standard for education and media) and Wolofal — a long tradition of writing Wolof in Arabic script that goes back centuries and remains common in religious contexts.

History

Wolof was the language of the medieval Jolof Empire. Its spread accelerated under French colonial urbanization, when Dakar attracted multilingual immigrants who adopted Wolof as the city’s everyday language.