Wolof

WALS coordinates: 15° 15′ N, 16° W

spoken in Gambia, Senegal

Find examples here.

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Wolof
Routledge:
Other:
  • Dyolof,
  • Wolof (Dakar)
ISO 639-3:

Features

ID Feature Value Area References  
1A Consonant Inventories Moderately large Phonology
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2A Vowel Quality Inventories Large (7-14) Phonology
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3A Consonant-Vowel Ratio Average Phonology
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4A Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives In plosives alone Phonology
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5A Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems None missing in /p t k b d g/ Phonology
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6A Uvular Consonants None Phonology
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7A Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants Phonology
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8A Lateral Consonants /l/, no obstruent laterals Phonology
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10A Vowel Nasalization Contrast absent Phonology
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11A Front Rounded Vowels None Phonology
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12A Syllable Structure Complex Phonology
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13A Tone No tones Phonology
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18A Absence of Common Consonants All present Phonology
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19A Presence of Uncommon Consonants None Phonology
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26A Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Little affixation Morphology
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27A Reduplication Full reduplication only Morphology
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33A Coding of Nominal Plurality Mixed morphological plural Nominal Categories
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35A Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person-number stem Nominal Categories
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37A Definite Articles Definite word distinct from demonstrative Nominal Categories
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38A Indefinite Articles Indefinite word distinct from 'one' Nominal Categories
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47A Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns Identical Nominal Categories
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51A Position of Case Affixes No case affixes or adpositional clitics Nominal Categories
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53A Ordinal Numerals First, two-th, three-th Nominal Categories
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57A Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes Possessive suffixes Nominal Categories
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63A Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' identical to 'with' Nominal Syntax
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64A Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Differentiation Nominal Syntax
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65A Perfective/Imperfective Aspect No grammatical marking Verbal Categories
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66A The Past Tense Present, no remoteness distinctions Verbal Categories
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67A The Future Tense No inflectional future Verbal Categories
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68A The Perfect Other perfect Verbal Categories
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69A Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes No tense-aspect inflection Verbal Categories
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70A The Morphological Imperative Second singular and second plural Verbal Categories
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71A The Prohibitive Normal imperative + special negative Verbal Categories
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72A Imperative-Hortative Systems Maximal system Verbal Categories
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74A Situational Possibility Verbal constructions Verbal Categories
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75A Epistemic Possibility Verbal constructions Verbal Categories
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76A Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking Overlap for either possibility or necessity Verbal Categories
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81A Order of Subject, Object and Verb SVO Word Order
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82A Order of Subject and Verb SV Word Order
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83A Order of Object and Verb VO Word Order
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84A Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb VOX Word Order
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85A Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Prepositions Word Order
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86A Order of Genitive and Noun Noun-Genitive Word Order
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87A Order of Adjective and Noun Noun-Adjective Word Order
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88A Order of Demonstrative and Noun Noun-Demonstrative Word Order
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89A Order of Numeral and Noun Numeral-Noun Word Order
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90A Order of Relative Clause and Noun Noun-Relative clause Word Order
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90C Postnominal relative clauses Noun-Relative clause (NRel) dominant Word Order
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91A Order of Degree Word and Adjective Adjective-Degree word Word Order
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92A Position of Polar Question Particles Initial Word Order
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93A Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Initial interrogative phrase Word Order
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94A Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause Initial subordinator word Word Order
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95A Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase VO and Prepositions Word Order
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96A Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun VO and NRel Word Order
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97A Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun VO and NAdj Word Order
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101A Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject pronouns in different position Simple Clauses
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105A Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Double-object construction Simple Clauses
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109A Applicative Constructions Benefactive and other; both bases Simple Clauses
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109B Other Roles of Applied Objects Instrument and locative Simple Clauses
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112A Negative Morphemes Negative word, unclear if verb or particle Simple Clauses
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115A Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Predicate negation also present Simple Clauses
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116A Polar Questions Question particle Simple Clauses
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118A Predicative Adjectives Verbal encoding Simple Clauses
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119A Nominal and Locational Predication Different Simple Clauses
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120A Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Impossible Simple Clauses
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121A Comparative Constructions Exceed Simple Clauses
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124A 'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is left implicit Complex Sentences
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138A Tea Others Lexicon
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examples
143A Order of Negative Morpheme and Verb Type 1 / Type 4 Word Order
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143E Preverbal Negative Morphemes NegV Word Order
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143F Postverbal Negative Morphemes [V-Neg] Word Order
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143G Minor morphological means of signaling negation None Word Order
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144A Position of Negative Word With Respect to Subject, Object, and Verb More than one position Word Order
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144B Position of negative words relative to beginning and end of clause and with respect to adjacency to verb Immed preverbal Word Order
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144D The Position of Negative Morphemes in SVO Languages More than one construction Word Order
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144E Multiple Negative Constructions in SVO Languages SNegVO/S[V-Neg]O Word Order
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144H NegSVO Order No NegSVO Word Order
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144I SNegVO Order Word&NoDoubleNeg Word Order
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144J SVNegO Order Suffix&NoDoubleNeg Word Order
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144K SVONeg Order No SVONeg Word Order
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