Similarities and Differences Between Wolof and English: A Speech-Language Pathologist's Guide for Assessment

 Dr. Cristina Saldaña

 

PHONOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WOLOF AND ENGLISH

Wolof is spoken by millions of people in several countries, including Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Mali, and France. There are two main variants of Wolof. Senegal Wolof is the standard form of the language. Gambian Wolof is spoken primarily in Gambia.

Wolof and English belong to different language families and have distinct phonological characteristics. The following are some key phonological differences between Wolof and English:

CONSONANTS

1. Voicing: Wolof has a three-way contrast in voicing for stops: voiceless, voiced, and prenasalized. English, on the other hand, has a two-way contrast in voicing for stops.
• Example in Wolof: [p] (voiceless), [b] (voiced), [mb] (prenasalized)
• Example in English: [p] (voiceless), [b] (voiced)
  
  
2. Nasal Consonants: Wolof has a variety of nasal consonants, including prenasalized stops, whereas English primarily has nasal stops.
• Example in Wolof: [mb] (prenasalized), [ŋ] (nasal)
• Example in English: [m], [n], [ŋ]
  
  
3. Consonant Clusters: Both languages have consonant clusters, but the specific clusters and their phonotactics can differ. Wolof may allow more complex clusters than English.
• Example in Wolof: [mb], [nd]
• Example in English: [bl], [tr]

VOWELS

1. Vowel System: Wolof typically has a simpler vowel system than English. English has a larger number of vowel sounds, including diphthongs.
• Example in Wolof: [i], [e], [a], [o], [u]
• Example in English: [i], [ɛ], [æ], [a], [ɔ], [o], [u], [ɪ], [eɪ], [aɪ], [ɔɪ], etc.
  
  
2. Vowel Length: Wolof generally does not make lexical distinctions based on vowel length, while English does (e.g., "beat" vs. "bit").
• Example in Wolof: [bi] (meaning "tooth")
• Example in English: [biː] (meaning "bee")

TONE

Wolof is a tonal language, meaning that the pitch or tone of a word can distinguish its meaning. English, on the other hand, is not a tonal language.

Keep in mind that individual speakers may vary in their pronunciation, and there can be regional variations within both Wolof and English. The above examples provide a general overview of phonological differences between the two languages.

 

GRAMMATICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WOLOF AND ENGLISH

Wolof and English exhibit several differences and some similarities in their grammatical structures due to their distinct linguistic origins. Here are some key points regarding the grammar of Wolof and English:

SIMILARITIES

1. Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) Word Order: Both Wolof and English generally follow the Subject-Verb-Object word order, where the subject typically precedes the verb, and the object follows the verb.
• Example in Wolof: "Nopp bi fët" (The woman is cooking).
• Example in English: "The woman is cooking."
  
  
2. Noun-Adjective Order: Both languages tend to follow the order of placing adjectives before the nouns they modify.
• Example in Wolof: "màggat ci xët" (big house)
• Example in English: "big house"
  
  
3. Use of Prepositions: Both languages use prepositions to indicate relationships between elements in a sentence.
• Example in Wolof: "ci jëm" (in the water)
• Example in English: "in the water"
  
  

DIFFERENCES

1. Agglutinative vs. Analytic Structure:
• Wolof is an agglutinative language, meaning that it often forms words by adding affixes to a root. For example, verb conjugation in Wolof involves adding prefixes and suffixes.
• Example in Wolof: "buñ tër" (to see), "muñ tër" (I see), "nuñ tër" (we see)
• English, on the other hand, is more analytic and relies on word order and auxiliary verbs to convey grammatical relationships.
• Example in English: "to see," "I see," "we see"
  
  
2. Verb Conjugation:
• Wolof has a complex system of verb conjugation with prefixes and suffixes indicating the subject, object, and tense of the verb.
• Example in Wolof: "ndox ci jëm" (I am swimming), "ndox gi jëm" (You are swimming)
  
  
• English typically uses auxiliary verbs to convey tense and aspect, and the verb itself remains relatively unchanged.
• Example in English: "I am swimming," "You are swimming"
  
  
3. Noun Class System:
• Wolof has a system of noun classes, where nouns are categorized into different classes, each with its own concord markers for agreement.
• Example in Wolof: "jëf" (child), "yàpp" (book), "biir" (dog)
  
  
• English does not have a noun class system, and noun-adjective agreement is generally based on number and not class.
  
  
4. Definite and Indefinite Articles:
• English uses definite and indefinite articles ("the" and "a/an") to indicate whether a noun is specific or nonspecific. Wolof, however, does not have articles in the same way.
• Example in English: "the cat" (definite), "a cat" (indefinite)
• Example in Wolof: "xari ci mbir" (cat in the house)

Additionally, English uses a number of prefixes to express repetition, negation and negative forms while Wolof does not use prefixes. Suffixation is mainly used in English to obtain adjectives from verbs and nouns but Wolof uses suffixation to express reduction (Hafissatou, 2016).

These differences and similarities highlight the distinct grammatical features of Wolof and English, providing insights into the structures that speakers of each language use to convey meaning.

 

SUGGESTED READING

Babou, C. A. & Loporcaro, M. (2016). Noun classes and grammatical gender in Wolof. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 37(1), pp. 1-57. https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2016-0001

Hafissatou, K. (2020). A contrastive analysis of English and Wolof noun phrases. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 7(2). https://ijllnet.com/journals/Vol_7_No_2_June_2020/13.pdf

Oliver Bondeelle. Alternations of emotions Verb-Noun roots in Wolof: Analogy between verbs and nouns. M. Brenzinger &A.-M. Fehn. Proceedings of the 6^th African World Congress of African Linguistics, 5, Ruediger Koeppe Verlag, pp.371-381, 2012, World Congress of African Linguistics, 978-3-89645-199-6. (hal-01253116)