Wolof

Niger-Congo family · Wolof branch · Africa

Wolof is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

The closest grammar profile to Wolof in the atlas belongs to Tigak, an Austronesian language: the two agree on 30 of the 42 features both have coded.

Of its word-order pairings, the one Wolof shares with the fewest languages is Order of Genitive and Noun: “Noun-genitive (NGen)”, the value of 468 of the 1,249 languages coded.

The least common value coded for Wolof is “Morphological plural with no method primary” on Coding of Nominal Plurality, held by 60 of the 1,066 languages coded.

Compared with English, Wolof has the same value on 31 of the 64 features both are coded for (48%).

The order Wolof uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Wolof with Tigak or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Wolof, rarest first.

Negative MorphemesNegative word, unclear if verb or particle73 of 1,157
Other Roles of Applied ObjectsInstrument and locative12 of 183
Expression of Pronominal SubjectsSubject pronouns in different position67 of 711
ReduplicationFull reduplication only35 of 368

Inside the Niger-Congo family

Wolof matches the most frequent Niger-Congo value on 39 of the 64 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (61%). Among the 27 Niger-Congo languages profiled here, that rate ranks 23rd from the top.

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Wolof; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Iaai Austronesian31 of 44
Igbo Niger-Congo33 of 49
Drehu Austronesian32 of 49
Khmer Austro-Asiatic34 of 54

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Wolof for 64 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 57 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Wolof shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant Inventories	Moderately large	94 of 563
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
Vowel Quality Inventories	Large vowel inventory (7-14)	184 of 564
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
Tone	No tones	307 of 527
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 of 567
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
Presence of Uncommon Consonants	None	449 of 567
Uvular Consonants	No uvulars	470 of 567
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Little or no inflectional morphology	141 of 969

Nouns and pronouns 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Indefinite Articles	Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one'	102 of 534
Ordinal Numerals	First, two-th, three-th	110 of 321
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive suffixes	355 of 902
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical	94 of 168

Noun phrases 2

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Noun Phrase Conjunction	WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical	103 of 234

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	No tense-aspect inflection	152 of 1,131
Epistemic Possibility	Verbal constructions	65 of 240
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for either possibility or necessity	66 of 207
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375
The Perfect	Other perfect	80 of 222
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + special negative	182 of 496
The Past Tense	Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction	94 of 222
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234

Word order 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at beginning of sentence	129 of 884
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg)	192 of 481
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	Verb-object-oblique (VOX)	210 of 500
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem)	562 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Initial subordinator word	398 of 659
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Comparative Constructions	Exceed Comparative	33 of 167
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Double-object construction	84 of 378
Applicative Constructions	Benefactive and other; both bases	49 of 183
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding	151 of 386
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Nominal and Locational Predication	Different	269 of 386
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is left implicit	144 of 283

Vocabulary 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Tea	Others	36 of 230