Parts of Speech

adv. An adverb is a word or an expression that modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering questions such as how?, in what way?, when?, where?, and to what extent?.

n. A noun is a word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas. However, noun is not a semantic category, so it cannot be characterized in terms of its meaning.

pron. In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a word that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not consider them to form a single class, in view of the variety of functions they perform cross-linguistically.

adj. In linguistics, an adjective is a word that modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.

v. A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action, an occurrence, or a state of being. In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive. In many languages, verbs are inflected to encode tense, aspect, mood, and voice.

prep. Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions, are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations or mark various semantic roles.

conj. In grammar, conjunction is a part of speech that connects words, phrases, or clauses that are called the conjuncts of the conjunctions. The term discourse marker is mostly used for conjunctions joining sentences.

det. A determiner, also called determinative, is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context.

Consonant Pronunciation

b - boy / ban

c - chat / ceeb

d - dog / dara

f - fire / fas

g - good / agsi

j - job / jox

k - keep / kaani

l - land / lakk

m - mark / naam

n - nice / àdduna

ñ - genius / gaañ

p - paint / puso

r - rat / raxas

s - soup / kawas

t - take / tubaab

w - wait / kéwél

x - (see note below) / xaalis

y - yes / yaa

There is no English equivalent for this sound, it is a slightly guttural sound that is between x and k. It may also be pronounced merely as h, especially among non-natives.

mb - mbaa

mp - dàmp

nd - ndey

ng - ngan

nj - njaay

ŋ - masoŋ

Prenasalized consonants don't exist in English the way they do in Wolof. ng and ŋ sound almost the same if not the same. Words like sing, bring, king, mango, etc. are the closest to this sound.

Please add to this project by annotating non-highlighted Wolof entries with a corresponding audio file. Thank you!

Vowel Pronunciation

a - absorb / sant

aa - far / laaj

e - get / dem

ee - where / seet

é - say / bés

ée - sane / wéer

ë - bird / kër

i - pit / fit

ii - meet / siis

o - moment / fomp

ó - no / jóg

oo - door / loos

óo - phone / fóon

u - cook / ubbi

uu - moon / juuyoo

Primary source for audio files:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wolof_pronunciation

Secondary source for audio files:

http://shtooka.net/overview.php?lang=wol

Attribution for audio files: Mamadou Sy [CC BY 2.0 fr], via Wikimedia Commons