As in most African
nations, dozens of distinct languages are spoken in the Senegambia
region of West Africa. More than 20 African languages are reported
in Terminologies Nouvelles , though Ethnologue includes dialects
and non-African languages to arrive at the number of 36 for the
languages spoken by groups living within Senegal's boundaries
(Mbodj 1994; Ethnologue 1996). However,the majority of Senegal's
population has adopted an African language as their means of intergroup
communication. Although Senegal's government has followed the
trend to keep their former colonizer's language (French) as the
official language, Senegal's peoples have developed Wolof as their
lingua franca. Additionally, Wolof and five other prominent African
languages have been made "national languages", a status
which allows them to be used in schools where the majority of
students speak one of these six as a native language (Malherbe
1989).
The Wolof people constitute an ethnic majority, representing 42.67%
of the country's population, according to the 1988 census. An
unspecified minority of other ethnic groups have adopted Wolof
as their native language, and more than one-half of the remaining
non-native speaking population uses Wolof as a second or third
language. These three groups of Wolof-speakers comprise about
80% of the population, making Senegal one of the most linguistically
unified countries in West Africa ( Mbodj 1994). Additionally,
Wolof is spoken by the majority of people in The Gambia.
Wolof is a member
of the West Atlantic sub-branch of the Niger-Congo language family.
A notable trait in most of Niger-Congo's sub-branches is a system
of noun classes, usually marke(?) affixes on nouns and agreement
markers on (?) and pronouns. Most languages with noun classes
have paired singular and plural classes. The North Atlantic sub-group
to which Wolof belongs is home to some of the most exentsive
and elaborate noun class systems in natural languages, including
those of Wolof's sister languages, Fula and Seereer-Siin.
The lack of class markers on the noun proper is one
characteristic distinguishing Wolof from other North Atlantic
Languages. Exceptions to this include cases of intitial
consonant mutation and the diminutive form (Mc Laughlin 1997).
Instead, the noun class marker is typically the initial consonant
of the particle following the noun (example from the b- class:
xale bi the child). The Wolof system includes eight singular
class markers and two plurals. Also common to West Atlantic languages
are derivitive verbal suffixes, used in Wolof to mark tense, mode,
aspect, and 
negative/affirmative
distinctions.
Despite the considerable geographic spread of Wolof speakers,
the language is relatively unmarked by dialectal differences (compared
to, for example, Seereer or Jola). Variations in Wolof are evident,
however, in comparing the Wolof of urban inhabitants to that of
rural-dwellers. The Wolof spoken in Dakar, Senegal's capital,
is particularly noted for its high level of French loans or derivitive
words and is readily distinguishable from the Wolof spoken in
other parts of Senegal. The influence of English on the Wolof
of The Gambia, a former English colony, has also been studied,
though the differences do not seem to be such that intercomprehension
is hindered greatly.
Mc Laughlin, Fiona. 1997. "Noun classification in Wolof when affixes are not removed". Studies on African Linguistics. 26.1.pgs 1-28.
Malherbe, Michel and Cheikh Sall. 1989. Parlons Wolof: Langue et Culture. L'Harmattan.
Mbodj, Cherif. 1994. "Raeseau international de naelogie
et de terminologie". Terminologie Nouvelles. Vol II.
http://www-afnet.eunet.fr/afric/senegal/wolof/wolof.html
Parler le WOLOF: beginning Wolof phrases (with French translations)
with
sound bites. This site links to phonetic correspondences ( also
with
sound) and to a basic Wolof/French and French/ Wolof lexicon.
There is
also a short grammar tutorial with sound available mainly concerning
verb
forms.
http://quartz.wabash.edu/student/gajigoo/gambia/langabot.htm
The Gambian Resource Page. The language links include information
on
publications on Wolof and Mandinka and have dictionaries which
can be
downloaded. Many useful links to pages about The Gambia, West
Africa, and
Africa in general.
http://quartz.wabash.edu/student/gajigoo/gambia/wordsearch/wordsearch.htm
Wolof Word Search: fun vocab builder.
http://notam.uio.no/~hcholm/altlang/ht/Wolof.html
Alternative Wolof Dictionary. No entries as of July 1998 but the
site is
intended for slang or other"alternative"usuages of Wolof.
http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/countries/Sene.html
Ethnologue entry for profiles of the languages spoken currently
in Senegal.
http://www.africanbooks.com/Sgwe1097.htm
African Imprint Library Services. Information on titles recently
received
from Senegal. Books and other publications, including CLAD (Centre
de
Linguistiques Appliquees de Dakar).
http://www.bok.net/pajol/index.wo.html
Sans papier: News and government articles with option to view
in Wolof,
Bambara, Soninke.
http://www.eb.com/cgi-bin/g?pt-1&sort=relevance&DBase=Articles&hits
=10&keywords=Wolof+language=%28af.+lang.%29
Britannica search: Classification info and links with linguistic
information.
http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/EthnoAtlas/Hmar/Cult_dir/Culture.7882
Society-Wolof: Substantial ethnographic information with bibliography
incuded.
http://www.w-link.net/~tadwolff/twpages/bukbujex.htm
Voices From the Ground: A Survey of Communication Resources in
Two
Villages. On-line book with photos and illustrations. Includes
lots of
cultural information, as the survey delves into the lives of villagers
and
their means of communication.
http://www.westafricanjourney.com/senegal.htm
West African Journey. A home-stay tour agency's data on the people,
climate,
and geography of Senegal.
http://www.westafricanjourney.com/gambia.htm
West African Journey. A home-stay tour agency's data on the people,
climate, and geography of The Gambia.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/worldref/country/senegal.htm
Washington Post search for recent news articles and media sources
about
Senegal.
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~lexmd/home.htm
Personal Homepage of Makhtar Diop: Links to West African music
and art
pages.
http://www.mindspring.com/~sabar/sabar/
Sabar Drumming: Senegalese Music page with many music links.
http://www.earth2000.com/connect.html
A wealth of links to businesses, government agencies, newspapers,
and
other Senegalese sites.
http://www.republicofsenegal.com/geninfo.htm
General Information: information on a wide variety of information
on the
Senegalese government, peoples, history, and religions.
http://www.calebproject.org/nance/n1453.htm
Information on Wolof people and language as would be of interest
to people
considering missionary work.
http://users.mildura.net.au/users/mjackson/
The Wolof people of Senegal: A Church of Jesus Christ site with
nice maps.
http://www.ucad.sn/
Universite Cheik Anta Diop de Dakar homepage.
