Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post provides information about names for days of the week in Soninke and Wolof. Soninke and Wolof are two traditional West African languages.
This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series that provides information about and lists for day names in various African languages. Click the "African languages days of the week" tag to find other posts in this ongoing series.
The content of this post is presented for linguistic, cultural, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/excerpts-from-two-articles-by-fallou.html for a related pancocojams post entitled "Excerpts From Two Articles By Fallou Ngom About The Use Of French, Arabic, English, & Pulaar Loanwords In Senegal's Wolof Language"
****
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT SONINKE (LANGUAGE)
Excerpt #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soninke_language
"The Soninke language (Soninke: Sooninkanxanne[3]) is a Mande language spoken by the Soninke people of West Africa. The language has an estimated 1,096,795 speakers, primarily located in Mali, and also (in order of numerical importance of the communities) in Senegal, Ivory Coast, The Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Ghana. It enjoys the status of a national language in Mali, Senegal, and Mauritania.
The language is relatively homogeneous, with only slight phonological, lexical, and grammatical variations."...
****
Excerpt #2:
From https://www.alsintl.com/resources/languages/Soninke/
"Soninke Language
Soninke (also called Marka, Maraka, Sarakole, Sarakule, Sarawule, Serahuli, Silabe, Toubakai, Wakore, Gadyaga, Aswanik, Diawara) is a Mande language of the Niger-Congo language family. It is the national language of Mali. Soninke is also spoken in Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, and Senegal.
There are more than one million Soninke speakers worldwide.
Soninke dialects include Azer (Adjer, Aser), Kinbakka, and Xenqenna."...
****
Excerpt #3
From http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/audio/languagelessons/mauritania/MR_Soninke_Language_Lessons.pdf
Days Of The Week [in Soninke]
Tineeni Monday
Talaata Tuesday
Araba Wednesday
Alaxamisa Thursday
Al juma Friday
Sibiti Saturday
Alahadi Sunday
Koota su Every day
****
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT WOLOF
Excerpt #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolof_language
Wolof ... is a language of Senegal, the Gambia, and Mauritania, and the native language of the Wolof people. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, it belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo language family. Unlike most other languages of Sub-Saharan Africa, Wolof is not a tonal language.
Wolof originated as the language of the Lebu people.[3][4] It is the most widely spoken language in Senegal, spoken natively by the Wolof people (40% of the population) but also by most other Senegalese as a second language.
Wolof dialects vary geographically and between rural and urban areas. "Dakar-Wolof", for instance, is an urban mixture of Wolof, French, and Arabic.
"Wolof" is the standard spelling and may refer to the Wolof people or to Wolof culture. Variants include the older French Ouolof and the principally Gambian "Wollof". "Jolof", "jollof", etc., now typically refers either to the Jolof Empire or to jollof rice, a common West African rice dish. Now-archaic forms include "Volof" and "Olof".
The English language is believed to have adopted some Wolof words, such as banana, via Spanish or Portuguese,[5] and yum/yummy, from Wolof nyam "to taste";[6] nyam in Barbadian English[7] meaning "to eat" (also compare Seychellois Creole nyanmnyanm, also meaning "to eat").[8]
****
Excerpt #2
From http://www.omniglot.com/writing/wolof.htm
"Wolof (Wollof)
Wolof is a member of the Senegambian branch of the Niger-Congo language family with about 7 million speakers in Senegal, France, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Mauritania. Wolof is one of the six national languages of Senegal (Senegaal / سِنِڭَالْ), along with Serer, Mandinka, Pulaar, Diola and Soninke.
Wolof was first written with a version of the Arabic script known as Wolofal, which is still used by many older men in Senegal. The Wolof orthography using the Latin alphabet was standardised in 1974 and is the official script for Wolof in Senegal.
Wolof is also sometimes written with the Garay alphabet which was devised by Assane Faye, a Senegalese artist, in 1961. This alphabet is written from right to left and is modelled loosely on the Arabic script."...
****
Excerpt #3
From DAYS OF THE WEEK / BÉSI AYUBÉS BI
From https://jangawolof.wordpress.com/2007/12/27/days-of-the-week-besi-ayubes-bi/
December 27, 2007 by Amadou
"Wolof names for the days of the week are mostly adopted from Arabic.:
[...]
Monday – Alteneh / Altinay / Altine [al-ti-ney]
Tuesday – Talarta / Talata / Talaata [ta-laa-ta]
Wednesday – Arlahrba / Alarba / Àllarba [al-lar-ba]
Thursday – Alheames / Alxamess / Alxames [al-kha-mes]
Friday – Arjuma / Ajuma / Àjjuma [aj-ju-ma]
Saturday – Gaaw / Gaawo / Gaawu [gaa-woo]
Sunday – Dibéér / Dibeer / Dibéer [dee-beyr]
Saturday may also be known as Aséér. (found this trans. in a Gambian source)"
****
Help please! While I've found online information about Serer (Serer-Sine), I've not been able to find any internet list of the names for the days of the week in that language. Please add to online information about traditional African languages by sharing the names for the days of the week in Serer in the discussion thread of this post. Thanks!
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label Wolof language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wolof language. Show all posts
Friday, April 28, 2017
Friday, September 2, 2016
African Underground: Hip Hop in Senegal (2008 documentary with a transcript)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This post showcases a video of a 2008 documentary about Senegalese Hip Hop. In addition to this video, this post includes my transcription of the English words that were spoken and the English language subtitles that were given on the screen.
Selected comments from that video's discussion thread are also included in this post.
[Update 9/2/2016 4:00 PM] An excerpt of a 2015 article about Senegalese Hip Hop is included in the Addendum to this post.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are featured in this documentary, and all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the producers of this documentary and its publisher on YouTube.
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO - African Underground: Hip Hop in Senegal
mediathatmatters Uploaded on Jun 4, 2008
Step into the African Underground and listen to a new voice inspired by religion, politics, old school Hip Hop and Senegalese culture.
****
TRANSCRIPT
Pancocojams Editor - This is my transcription of that video. Sentences or parts of sentences given in italics mean that I'm not sure of that transcription. Additions and corrections are welcome.
Aziz Ndiaye- old school rapper
[speaking in English] “I said ah hip hop the hippy
the hippy to the hip hop
you don’t stop the rockin to the bang bang”
[English sub-titles] “Really these were my biggest influences”.
[screen titles] Nomadic Wax and Sol Productions presents An Underground Projic
African Underground: Democracy In Dakar
Filmed on location in Dakar
Aziz Ndiaye
[English subtitles] “I remember, Didier Awadi and I, back in the day, we were copying Kurtis Blow, and Grandmaster Flash, and Grandmaster Melle Mel.”
nix
Dakar All Stars
[English subtitles] – That is the force of America. It is not just rap that has come like that.
Ndongo d
DAARA J
[English subtitles] Public Enemy Fight the power, that influenced me so much. That’s when I began to write lyrics in Wolof.
Jojo
YATPU
[Speaking in English] – “I didn’t understand English. And he translate “Fight The Power” for us. And when we heard “Fight the power”, we wanted to do the same, you know.”
[English sub- titles- several speakers] – It was a form of expression that we soon realized could really educate people. So it was because we wanted to exteriorize what we had inside our hearts. What we really felt about this country. It wasn’t to copy the Americans, but we somehow were obliged in the beginning because it is a culture from the States.
Xuman
PEE PROIS
[speaking in English] When we say we rapping, when we making Hip Hop, definitely, we have a western way of the American experience. In the beginning, for me for instance, I was like “Okay. I was like wearing American people Nikes, big, big chains. I’m rhyming in English, talking about stuff that I didn’t really, um, understand the sense.
Aziz Ndiaye
[English subtitles]- They rapped in English and we did the same thing in Wolof. We were lucky to be able to go to learn English at school. So that is how we knew what they were talking about and it was then that real Senegalese Hip Hop began.
Xuman
PEE PROIS
[speaking in English] So when you talk about Hip Hop culture definitely you got a big influence from the U. S. But we start to um to flip this influence.
djiby daddy & bakhaw
DA BRAINS
[English subtitles] It is because of where we are from, because where we are from, the realities cannot be the same.
[speaking English subtitles] Africa is a ghetto.
Dakar is a ghetto.
The city of Dakar is a ghetto.
But it is not like BK, Brooklyn, Harlem.
It is not the same thing.
We don’t live the same way.
[rapping – with English sub-titles]
We give love to the fans
through the M-I-C.
We will never forget you.
We will always respect you.
We will never disrespect you.
We will never minimalize you.
[speaking- English subtitles]-We were born in this country- Senegal.
For example, we are Muslims. We are believers. We practice. We believe in God and we are young. We are messengers. Therefore there are certain things we cannot say to these young guys listening to our music.
[rapping- English subtitles]
So get closer, get closer.
Da Brains are back.
We will never fight with you.
There is mutual respect between us.
For more than 10 years, you have been good Muslims.
Only because of the love of God.
In the name of God, we can pay you back.
Xuman
PEE PROIS
[speaking English] In Senegalese Hip Hop, you have not the right church because now here it’s more- Islam influences more of the people than you know in the Western or you know whenever in the UK.
p- blow
TIGRAM-BI
[speaking English] For example, we respect the old people, you know. We respect the rule of Islam, you know. And we cannot in how we say say whatever we want
We don’t use to, for example, [English subtitle- misogynistic text]. -end of subtitle.
We never do this. You know. In our images, we never, for example [English sub-titles] we never have young girls and young women wearing sexy clothes.
-end of subtitle-
We never do this. Yeah, ‘cause we believe in something, you know. We must. We believe in God and we must respect the rule of Islam.
Gen kumbe
[rapping – English subtitle]
Thanks be to God.
You gave it to us.
You took it back from us.
Thanks be to God.
Would never refuse working hard.
Thanks be to God.
Even if you gave it and took it back.
Thanks be to God.
Xuman
PEE PROIS
[Speaking in English] Yeah, I’m a gangster. I kill. I kill people for fun. I sell drugs- No.
We can not do stuff like this. No. Never.
So our culture, we definitely must be conscious. We must be tough for the future.
Jo jo
YATPU
[Rapping- English sub-titles]
Globalization reminds me of balkanization.
Just like during colonization,
we call for our debts to be erased.
Liberation of the nations of the third world.
The system is a total shame.
Life in the ghetto is filthy.
Manipulation and pressure on the population.
The Question:
Why so much tension?
And hatred leads to violence, desolation, division,
genocide and concentration camps.
Uncle Sam has dirty hands.
The world’s elite in his back room.
Holdings, trusts, and multinationals.
[English subtitles- unidentified speaker]- In Africa, we have our own realities, our own culture,
and we are trying to export this culture.
Xuman
PEE PROIS
[Speaking in English] – We have a lot of different influences – from the Europe, from um France, from the U.S. And, ah, still our country is not that strong that we can not lose it.
djiby daddy & bakhaw
DA BRAINS
[English subtitles]- Heere, when we are on stage we just put on regular clothes, but when we are on tour, we get dressed in African attire.
[A video clip of gokb-bi-system dancing to djembe drums is playing in the background.]
We are obliged to because we represent Senegal. We represent the Red, Yellow, and Green. We represent Africa.
We do not rap in English or French. We rap in Wolof because we are Senegalese.
[other men speaking in English] – If we go down to USA to export our music, we just tell what we believe. We don’t do like them because we are not the same.
****
SELECTED COMMENTS
These comments from the video African Underground: Hip Hop in Senegal are given in relative chronological order based on their posting date on YouTube, except for replies.
These comments aren’t meant to be taken as fact but rather to document the bloggers’ knowledge and/or lack of knowledge about the nation of Senegal and Senegalese Hip Hop and the bloggers' opinions about American Hip Hop and Senegalese Hip Hop.
2008
Rereversed
"Holy Jesus, Rap with a point!"
**
TeamPCA
"its seems like its got more points than the rap i hear in the U.S"
**
DJStewiee
"This is the kind of hip-hop that should be on mainstream in the US... No im not saying in their language, but I'm saying rap/hip-hop that has meaning"
UpwardFalls8 years ago
"Sick"
-snip-
"Sick" is an African American Vernacular English word that means "very very good".
****
2009
Medy
"SALAM TO MY BROTHER IN SENEGAL FRO KEEPING IT 100 PERCENT, UR MUSLIM BROTHER FROM CHICAGO AND EGYPT. keep real hiphop alive its essence self expression"
**
JoeMclarg
"We use rap as a blunt instrument they use it as a surgical tool"
**
SmashingKinpumps
"What language are they speaking in? It sounds like french but I know it's not..right?"
**
Reply
gio80shardao7
"in the video are speking mostly wolof, french or english;) real hip hop !"
**
Reply
eternalshadow2006
"they speak french and wolof^^"
**
Reply
Gameris1973
"wolof what is that"
**
Reply
frogator
"one of the THOUSANDS of languages spoken in Africa, more specifically, I believe of Senegal...correct me if I'm wrong"
**
sexymodelboy
"I didn't know they spoke French in Senegal."
**
hahayo44
"i speak hatian creole so i kinda understand i never knew the people of senegal speak french....................there hot but i like todays hip-hop!!!!!!"
****
ADDENDUM
From http://musicinafrica.net/hip-hop-senegal?language=en Hip-hop in Senegal
Feb 09, 2015 • by In-house Senegal, By Keyti
"Senegalese rap music is considered today as a genre of its own; a genre with such a persuasion and mobilization power that it is often feared.
In the history of music in Senegal, the meteoric rise of rap music is probably one of the most interesting phenomena to witness. For several decades, rap music has become the true voice of the youth and is now accepted as an art. Furthermore, it has proven to be a powerful force capable of persuading and mobilizing the masses. This makes it the most controversial music genre in Senegal.
Thousands of young people are using this musical genre to express their creativity, struggles and dreams of a better life, from the depths of the Fouta region in the north to the remotest village of Casamance in the south and from the border with Mali to Dakar, the capital city...
In the early 1980s, Dakar was booming and changing. In its early days, Dakar had been home to mostly middle-class neighborhoods. As the city expanded, suburbs emerged for more disadvantaged people coming from other parts of the country, often fleeing a severe drought that lasted for decades. These new demographic and economic factors, combined with a strong tradition of immigration, opened the city of Dakar to the rest of the world and thus to new lifestyles, clothing fashions and music trends....
In this context, hip-hop began to take over Dakar. Dances like ‘smurf’, popping and breakdancing inspired the creation of hundreds of dance groups across the city. The growing Americanization trend of Senegalese youth through these dances opened the doors to rap in the mid-1980s. Indeed many of the early rappers’ careers started with dance. Most of them plunged back into anonymity, with the exception of Duggy Tee and Matador, who enjoyed successful music careers.
One of the greatest paradoxes of the introduction of hip-hop music in Senegal is that unlike the United States, where it originated, or Europe, it was the privileged class that first adopted and promoted its lifestyle...This is simply because the wealthier youth had the opportunity to travel abroad and were returning with albums, movies and VHS tapes of rap videos. These tapes were copied and exchanged throughout the city....
Despite its popularity at live events, it was only in 1991 that the first rap single from a Senegalese artist was released. It was a single by MC Lida, a rapper unknown on the local scene because he was living in Italy at that time. His maxi-album Teubeul Ma Teub opened the way for local rap production. Many people consider Positive Black Soul’s album released in 1992 Boul Falé as the first Senegalese rap album because of the aura of the rap group at the time and the fact that they were living in Senegal. After these early releases, so many albums have been recorded that it has become very difficult for the public to follow and keep up with all of them.
Hip-Hop in Senegal Today
Today, 25 years after its emergence, the Senegalese rap industry is undoubtedly one of the most prolific of the continent, with artists coming from all over the country as well as Dakar. They have also managed to retain a solid audience over time. However...Albums come out one after another but most of them face the same fate - they are commercial flops because of issues like a lack of distribution networks, which often makes them inaccessible to the public, a lack of proper promotion and a lack of live performances. Today only a handful of hip-hop artists are able to live off their craft and the only artists who tour regularly including outside of the country are Matador, Didier Awadi and Daara J Family...
The other major issue facing Senegalese rap is that most songs are performed mainly Wolof. This makes it difficult to have an international career, unlike artists from other parts of west Africa, who rap mostly in French and can therefore sell themselves internationally...
The strength of Senegalese hip-hop is the political commitment of the rappers, which has helped them maintain an international presence. Since its inception, Senegalese rap has been strongly influenced by politics. Most rappers denounce poor living conditions and the abuse of political power - almost to the point that every rapper feels obligated to address politics in order to be heard"."....
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This post showcases a video of a 2008 documentary about Senegalese Hip Hop. In addition to this video, this post includes my transcription of the English words that were spoken and the English language subtitles that were given on the screen.
Selected comments from that video's discussion thread are also included in this post.
[Update 9/2/2016 4:00 PM] An excerpt of a 2015 article about Senegalese Hip Hop is included in the Addendum to this post.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are featured in this documentary, and all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the producers of this documentary and its publisher on YouTube.
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO - African Underground: Hip Hop in Senegal
mediathatmatters Uploaded on Jun 4, 2008
Step into the African Underground and listen to a new voice inspired by religion, politics, old school Hip Hop and Senegalese culture.
****
TRANSCRIPT
Pancocojams Editor - This is my transcription of that video. Sentences or parts of sentences given in italics mean that I'm not sure of that transcription. Additions and corrections are welcome.
Aziz Ndiaye- old school rapper
[speaking in English] “I said ah hip hop the hippy
the hippy to the hip hop
you don’t stop the rockin to the bang bang”
[English sub-titles] “Really these were my biggest influences”.
[screen titles] Nomadic Wax and Sol Productions presents An Underground Projic
African Underground: Democracy In Dakar
Filmed on location in Dakar
Aziz Ndiaye
[English subtitles] “I remember, Didier Awadi and I, back in the day, we were copying Kurtis Blow, and Grandmaster Flash, and Grandmaster Melle Mel.”
nix
Dakar All Stars
[English subtitles] – That is the force of America. It is not just rap that has come like that.
Ndongo d
DAARA J
[English subtitles] Public Enemy Fight the power, that influenced me so much. That’s when I began to write lyrics in Wolof.
Jojo
YATPU
[Speaking in English] – “I didn’t understand English. And he translate “Fight The Power” for us. And when we heard “Fight the power”, we wanted to do the same, you know.”
[English sub- titles- several speakers] – It was a form of expression that we soon realized could really educate people. So it was because we wanted to exteriorize what we had inside our hearts. What we really felt about this country. It wasn’t to copy the Americans, but we somehow were obliged in the beginning because it is a culture from the States.
Xuman
PEE PROIS
[speaking in English] When we say we rapping, when we making Hip Hop, definitely, we have a western way of the American experience. In the beginning, for me for instance, I was like “Okay. I was like wearing American people Nikes, big, big chains. I’m rhyming in English, talking about stuff that I didn’t really, um, understand the sense.
Aziz Ndiaye
[English subtitles]- They rapped in English and we did the same thing in Wolof. We were lucky to be able to go to learn English at school. So that is how we knew what they were talking about and it was then that real Senegalese Hip Hop began.
Xuman
PEE PROIS
[speaking in English] So when you talk about Hip Hop culture definitely you got a big influence from the U. S. But we start to um to flip this influence.
djiby daddy & bakhaw
DA BRAINS
[English subtitles] It is because of where we are from, because where we are from, the realities cannot be the same.
[speaking English subtitles] Africa is a ghetto.
Dakar is a ghetto.
The city of Dakar is a ghetto.
But it is not like BK, Brooklyn, Harlem.
It is not the same thing.
We don’t live the same way.
[rapping – with English sub-titles]
We give love to the fans
through the M-I-C.
We will never forget you.
We will always respect you.
We will never disrespect you.
We will never minimalize you.
[speaking- English subtitles]-We were born in this country- Senegal.
For example, we are Muslims. We are believers. We practice. We believe in God and we are young. We are messengers. Therefore there are certain things we cannot say to these young guys listening to our music.
[rapping- English subtitles]
So get closer, get closer.
Da Brains are back.
We will never fight with you.
There is mutual respect between us.
For more than 10 years, you have been good Muslims.
Only because of the love of God.
In the name of God, we can pay you back.
Xuman
PEE PROIS
[speaking English] In Senegalese Hip Hop, you have not the right church because now here it’s more- Islam influences more of the people than you know in the Western or you know whenever in the UK.
p- blow
TIGRAM-BI
[speaking English] For example, we respect the old people, you know. We respect the rule of Islam, you know. And we cannot in how we say say whatever we want
We don’t use to, for example, [English subtitle- misogynistic text]. -end of subtitle.
We never do this. You know. In our images, we never, for example [English sub-titles] we never have young girls and young women wearing sexy clothes.
-end of subtitle-
We never do this. Yeah, ‘cause we believe in something, you know. We must. We believe in God and we must respect the rule of Islam.
Gen kumbe
[rapping – English subtitle]
Thanks be to God.
You gave it to us.
You took it back from us.
Thanks be to God.
Would never refuse working hard.
Thanks be to God.
Even if you gave it and took it back.
Thanks be to God.
Xuman
PEE PROIS
[Speaking in English] Yeah, I’m a gangster. I kill. I kill people for fun. I sell drugs- No.
We can not do stuff like this. No. Never.
So our culture, we definitely must be conscious. We must be tough for the future.
Jo jo
YATPU
[Rapping- English sub-titles]
Globalization reminds me of balkanization.
Just like during colonization,
we call for our debts to be erased.
Liberation of the nations of the third world.
The system is a total shame.
Life in the ghetto is filthy.
Manipulation and pressure on the population.
The Question:
Why so much tension?
And hatred leads to violence, desolation, division,
genocide and concentration camps.
Uncle Sam has dirty hands.
The world’s elite in his back room.
Holdings, trusts, and multinationals.
[English subtitles- unidentified speaker]- In Africa, we have our own realities, our own culture,
and we are trying to export this culture.
Xuman
PEE PROIS
[Speaking in English] – We have a lot of different influences – from the Europe, from um France, from the U.S. And, ah, still our country is not that strong that we can not lose it.
djiby daddy & bakhaw
DA BRAINS
[English subtitles]- Heere, when we are on stage we just put on regular clothes, but when we are on tour, we get dressed in African attire.
[A video clip of gokb-bi-system dancing to djembe drums is playing in the background.]
We are obliged to because we represent Senegal. We represent the Red, Yellow, and Green. We represent Africa.
We do not rap in English or French. We rap in Wolof because we are Senegalese.
[other men speaking in English] – If we go down to USA to export our music, we just tell what we believe. We don’t do like them because we are not the same.
****
SELECTED COMMENTS
These comments from the video African Underground: Hip Hop in Senegal are given in relative chronological order based on their posting date on YouTube, except for replies.
These comments aren’t meant to be taken as fact but rather to document the bloggers’ knowledge and/or lack of knowledge about the nation of Senegal and Senegalese Hip Hop and the bloggers' opinions about American Hip Hop and Senegalese Hip Hop.
2008
Rereversed
"Holy Jesus, Rap with a point!"
**
TeamPCA
"its seems like its got more points than the rap i hear in the U.S"
**
DJStewiee
"This is the kind of hip-hop that should be on mainstream in the US... No im not saying in their language, but I'm saying rap/hip-hop that has meaning"
UpwardFalls8 years ago
"Sick"
-snip-
"Sick" is an African American Vernacular English word that means "very very good".
****
2009
Medy
"SALAM TO MY BROTHER IN SENEGAL FRO KEEPING IT 100 PERCENT, UR MUSLIM BROTHER FROM CHICAGO AND EGYPT. keep real hiphop alive its essence self expression"
**
JoeMclarg
"We use rap as a blunt instrument they use it as a surgical tool"
**
SmashingKinpumps
"What language are they speaking in? It sounds like french but I know it's not..right?"
**
Reply
gio80shardao7
"in the video are speking mostly wolof, french or english;) real hip hop !"
**
Reply
eternalshadow2006
"they speak french and wolof^^"
**
Reply
Gameris1973
"wolof what is that"
**
Reply
frogator
"one of the THOUSANDS of languages spoken in Africa, more specifically, I believe of Senegal...correct me if I'm wrong"
**
sexymodelboy
"I didn't know they spoke French in Senegal."
**
hahayo44
"i speak hatian creole so i kinda understand i never knew the people of senegal speak french....................there hot but i like todays hip-hop!!!!!!"
****
ADDENDUM
From http://musicinafrica.net/hip-hop-senegal?language=en Hip-hop in Senegal
Feb 09, 2015 • by In-house Senegal, By Keyti
"Senegalese rap music is considered today as a genre of its own; a genre with such a persuasion and mobilization power that it is often feared.
In the history of music in Senegal, the meteoric rise of rap music is probably one of the most interesting phenomena to witness. For several decades, rap music has become the true voice of the youth and is now accepted as an art. Furthermore, it has proven to be a powerful force capable of persuading and mobilizing the masses. This makes it the most controversial music genre in Senegal.
Thousands of young people are using this musical genre to express their creativity, struggles and dreams of a better life, from the depths of the Fouta region in the north to the remotest village of Casamance in the south and from the border with Mali to Dakar, the capital city...
In the early 1980s, Dakar was booming and changing. In its early days, Dakar had been home to mostly middle-class neighborhoods. As the city expanded, suburbs emerged for more disadvantaged people coming from other parts of the country, often fleeing a severe drought that lasted for decades. These new demographic and economic factors, combined with a strong tradition of immigration, opened the city of Dakar to the rest of the world and thus to new lifestyles, clothing fashions and music trends....
In this context, hip-hop began to take over Dakar. Dances like ‘smurf’, popping and breakdancing inspired the creation of hundreds of dance groups across the city. The growing Americanization trend of Senegalese youth through these dances opened the doors to rap in the mid-1980s. Indeed many of the early rappers’ careers started with dance. Most of them plunged back into anonymity, with the exception of Duggy Tee and Matador, who enjoyed successful music careers.
One of the greatest paradoxes of the introduction of hip-hop music in Senegal is that unlike the United States, where it originated, or Europe, it was the privileged class that first adopted and promoted its lifestyle...This is simply because the wealthier youth had the opportunity to travel abroad and were returning with albums, movies and VHS tapes of rap videos. These tapes were copied and exchanged throughout the city....
Despite its popularity at live events, it was only in 1991 that the first rap single from a Senegalese artist was released. It was a single by MC Lida, a rapper unknown on the local scene because he was living in Italy at that time. His maxi-album Teubeul Ma Teub opened the way for local rap production. Many people consider Positive Black Soul’s album released in 1992 Boul Falé as the first Senegalese rap album because of the aura of the rap group at the time and the fact that they were living in Senegal. After these early releases, so many albums have been recorded that it has become very difficult for the public to follow and keep up with all of them.
Hip-Hop in Senegal Today
Today, 25 years after its emergence, the Senegalese rap industry is undoubtedly one of the most prolific of the continent, with artists coming from all over the country as well as Dakar. They have also managed to retain a solid audience over time. However...Albums come out one after another but most of them face the same fate - they are commercial flops because of issues like a lack of distribution networks, which often makes them inaccessible to the public, a lack of proper promotion and a lack of live performances. Today only a handful of hip-hop artists are able to live off their craft and the only artists who tour regularly including outside of the country are Matador, Didier Awadi and Daara J Family...
The other major issue facing Senegalese rap is that most songs are performed mainly Wolof. This makes it difficult to have an international career, unlike artists from other parts of west Africa, who rap mostly in French and can therefore sell themselves internationally...
The strength of Senegalese hip-hop is the political commitment of the rappers, which has helped them maintain an international presence. Since its inception, Senegalese rap has been strongly influenced by politics. Most rappers denounce poor living conditions and the abuse of political power - almost to the point that every rapper feels obligated to address politics in order to be heard"."....
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Excerpts From Two Articles By Fallou Ngom About The Use Of French, Arabic, English, & Pulaar Loanwords In Senegal's Wolof Language
Edited by Azizi Powell
This post excerpts two pdf files written in 2000 and 2006 by Fallou Ngom about the use of loan words in Senegal, West Africa's Wolof language.
The content of this post is presented for linguistics and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owner.
Thanks to Fallou Ngom for this research and writing.
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PANCOCOJAMS NOTE:
These excerpts are presented in chronological order based on the year that is indicated in the pdf file, with the oldest article (chapter?) given first.
In the excerpt given as #1, the words from the tables are spelled without any accent or other marks.
Also in that excerpt, the word “from” is used instead of a drawing of an arrow pointing to the Wolof word and in (k) the words “changed to” are used in place of an arrow pointing towards a letter.
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EXCERPT #1: SOCIOLINGUISTIC MOTIVATIONS OF LEXICAL BORROWINGS IN SENEGAL [by] Fallou Ngom
From https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/9657/SLS2000v30.2-10Ngom.pdf
[total 14 pages]
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences Volume 30, Number 2 (Fall 2000)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign...
[page] 161
"Although lexical borrowing has always been a central topic in linguistic research, its study has suffered from three major limitations: (1) it has failed to consider social variations in patterns of borrowings;
(2) it has assumed a model of two languages in contact; (3) researchers collect data mostly from communities regardless of the social strata, the political and cultural motivations of the subjects, and conclusions
are generalized to the whole community (Deroy 1956, Haugen 1956, Calvet 1974, Benthahila & Davis 1983, etc.). Thus,these studies on lexical borrowing miss the fact that loanwords also reflect the unbalanced distribution of power and prestige in speech communities, especially in multilingual communities. This study challenges these assumptions by showing that lexical borrowing acts as social-group and class indices in Senegal, a socially diverse multilingual community in which lexical borrowings and phonological processes that accompany them are often socially conditioned. In so doing, this paper shows that linguistic patterns used to define social groups or classes generally referred to as sociolinguistic variables in the variationist framework (Labov 1978) are not exclusively limited to phonological patterns, but include larger segmental units, such as lexical units. This study is based on 145 loanwords collected from the Senegalese audiovisual website 'www.homeviewsenegal.com' over a period of three hours, of which 66 words were borrowed from French, 57 from Arabic, 17 from English into Wolof, and 5 from Wolof into French...
[page] 162
Senegal occupied a central place in the colonization of West Africa, as the capital of Afnque Occidentale Francaise (A.O.F ) 'French West Africa' was established in Saint-Louis. Although some lexical units were coined in Wolof and other local languages to cover new concepts brought into the country by the French, many lexical items were borrowed from French to account for constructs that came along with the advent of French culture, political system, and religion in Senegal, or for purely prestige reasons. The Arabic influence in Senegal dates back to the Islami1zation of West Africa between the 11th and the 16th century. By the 14th century, Koranic schools (Islamic schools) were established in Senegal, and most Senegalese Muslims especially in the region of Saint-Louis) were already able to use classical Arabic scripts to write their own languages by the first half of the twentieth century, especially Wolof and Pulaar (Diop 1989). The English influ- ence is conveyed through American youth culture, the media, TV, and the Ameri- can movie industry. Lexical borrowings from Pulaar (the only local language in competition with Wolof) are mainly found among the youth. These lexical bor- rowings are due to the rising prestige of Pulaar in the 1990s. Pulaar lexical bor- rowings in Wolof are the result of the Haal-Pulaar (Pulaar speakers) cultural movement for the revitalization of Pulaar culture, language, and customs in Senegal (especially in the region of Saint-Louis, the hometown of most Pulaar speakers in the country). The Pulaar linguist Yero Sylla, Pulaar cultural associations (such
as Kawral and Gandal e Pinal), and the Pulaar musician Baaba Maal, helped spread the movement. The primary goal of this movement was to resist the Wolof expansion in Senegal and assert a Pulaar identity, language, and culture.
3. Borrowing as evidence of the unequal distribution of power and prestige
The unequal distribution of power and prestige in speech communities is generally reflected through the rate of loans that one language gives to the other. For instance, in former French colonies of West Africa, the high rate of lexical borrowings from French into local languages represents the surface trace of the French linguistic superstructure imposed in the local communities as the result of French glottophagia (Calvet 1974:92). In contrast, the relative statistical equilibrium of borrowings between English and French (despite the ongoing French lin guistic protectionism against American English) shows the extent to which the two languages (therefore the two communities) are 'equal', i.e., they do not entertain relationships of domination (Calvet 1974:91). In contrast, in the former. French colonies in Africa such as Senegal, French borrows almost nothing from the local languages, whereas those languages borrow extensively from French. This statistical disequilibrium is evidence of the domination of the local communities by France (Calvet 1974: 91). This is partly due to the fact that colonization did not introduce French in former colonies so that the colonized people speak French, but rather it created a minority French-speaking group to govern and im- pose the law on the non-Francophone majority (Calvet 1974:118).
[page] 163
Thus, as the result of colonization, most African languages whose people were dominated borrowed quantum words from languages of the dominant Europeans, either to fill a lexical gap, or in an attempt to acquire the prestige associated with them, or both. For this reason, Wolof has borrowed copiously from French, while French has only borrowed a few words from Wolof. Similarly, due to the high number of Muslims in Senegal as the result of the early Islamization of the country, Wolof has borrowed many words from Arabic. In contrast, unlike what would be expected due to the role of the United States in the world today, the English influence in Senegal is minor. This is partly due to the fact that the American influence in Senegal is very recent. Figure 1, based on loanwords col- lected from the Senegalese audiovisual website, illustrates the unequal distribu- tion of power and prestige expressed through lexical borrowing, as it shows that all three languages (French, Arabic, English) lend more words to Wolof than they borrow from it...
borrowings from French into Wolof generally fall in the areas of politics, media, institutions, and culture while those from Arabic are mostly found in religious settings. The English influence is almost exclusively limited to youth exposed to American youth culture, music, TV, and movie industry, who dream of traveling to the United States. For this reason, English words used in this study were exclusively found among urban youth.
It is important to note that, although English has been introduced into the educational system, since the 1960s (as a result of the growing cooperation between Senegal, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other English speaking countries of the world), its influence is still minimal, compared to French and Arabic....
[page] 169
8. Lexical borrowings as markers of modernity and fashion among urban youth
Urban youth in Senegal have the most complex linguistic repertoire in the country. This is due to their exposure to French influence (through education), Arabic influence (through Koranic or Arabic language instruction), and English (through music, TV, and movies). In opposition to other social groups in the country, this social group is the only one that borrows words from Pulaar (the second major national language) and English. However, lexical borrowings from Pulaar are minimal in comparison to those borrowed from French, Arabic, and English respectively. The borrowings from Pulaar result from the growing prestige of Pulaar in Senegal promoted by Pulaar musicians, cultural organizations, and scholars in the 1990s. This group is characterized by particular lexical borrowings (from French, Arabic, and English) and linguistic patterns that act as markers of group membership. In other words, the use of such lexical borrowings and linguistic patterns mark one as ‘trendy, modern, and in-fashion’ and thus sets the speaker apart from the ‘hicks’ (i.e. the rural youngsters with little or no exposure to the urban youth culture. models, ideals, and way of life). The most common linguistic patterns of this group are the following (1) syllable truncation (deletion) of French loans (2) overuse of the French filler quoi at the end of syntactic units (3) phonological hypercorrection, and (4) semantic shifts and specifications...
It is important to note that, the French borrowed word guerrier ‘warrior’ and artiste ‘artist’ and the Arabic lexical borrowing saaba are interchangeably used to refer to someone trendy and admirable in this social group....
[page] 170
Table 9 Marks of ‘trendiness’ among urban youth
French Loans
(a) [tons] from French [toto] ‘uncle’ truncation
(b) [Presi] from French [presida’] ‘president’ truncation
(c) [kwa] from French [kwa] called quoi ponctuant, a filler with no semantic meaning in French
(d) Biddiwudakar from calque from French l’etiole de Dakar ‘the star of Dakar
(e) Guerrier ‘cool guy’ from French Guerrier ‘warrior’ (semantic shift)
(f) Artiste ‘cool guy’ from French artiste ‘artist’ (semantic shift)
English loans
(g) [gajn] from English guy {pronunciation explanation given} [hypercorrection]
(h) [gel] from English girlfriend {pronunciation explanation given} (Wolof influence + semantic specification)
[i] [cajn] Chinese tea from {pronunciation explanation given} [hypercorrection + semantic specification] (English pronunciation of the French word Chine ‘China’)
(j) [trok] ‘car’ from ‘truck’ English {pronunciation explanation given} (Wolof influence + semantic specification)
Arabic Loans
(k) [saaba] "cool" guy from Arabic [saha:ba] ‘apostle’ {pronunciation explanation given} Wolof influence + semantic specification}
Pulaar words
(l) [jaaraama] from Pulaar [jaaraama] thank you
[m] [galle] from Pulaar [galle] house"
....
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EXCERPT #2: Loanwords in the Senegalese Speech Community: Their Linguistics Features and Sociolinguistic Significance [by] Fallou Ngom
From https://repozytorium.amu.edu.pl/bitstream/10593/4729/1/09-Ngom.pdf
unity.[total 11 pages]
Language, Communication, Information
P. Nowak, P. Nowakowski (eds)
1/2006
[page] 103
"Abstract. Senegal is a West African French-speaking country. Officially, the country has 6 major national languages: Wolof, Pulaar, Mandinka, Joola, Seereer, and Soninke. Of these 6 languages, Wolof is the major lingua franca used by over 70% of the population.
As a former French colony, French remains the official language of the country used in the administration and in the public education system. Because over 90% of the Senegalese people are Muslim, the Arabic influence in the country is considerable. Furthermore, the global impact of American youth culture, mass media, the Internet, and the significant number of Senegalese immigrants living in the United States have resulted in the growing influence of American English in the country. The study of loanwords in Senegal (where language contact phenomena between African and non-African languages is the norm) shows that loanwords do not occur arbitrarily. In such a multilingual speech community, loanwords are often triggered and constrained by various cultural, political, religious and social forces that operate or have once operated in the speech community. Consequently,
[page] 104
the study of loanwords provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the past and current socio-cultural dynamics in the country. This paper provides an overview of French, Arabic and English loanwords in Wolof and examines their general linguistic traits and their sociolinguistic significance in the country.
1. Introduction
Loanwords reflect in many ways the impact of French colonization, Islamization, globalization (or Americanization) and the synchronic social structure of the Senegalese speech community. While some loanwords are understood and used by the entire speech community regardless of people’s social group, or religion, not all loanwords are used by all members of the speech community. In fact, some loanwords are restricted to particular social groups in the country due to the social value, prestige or stigma associated with them. Consequently, Wolof speakers are often selective in their use of loanwords.
Moreover, linguistic incorporation processes (phonological, morphological, and semantic) of loanwords into Wolof also reflect the social stratification of the Senegalese speech community. Because Senegal is a country where Arabic, European and African cultures, religions and ideologies regularly interact, some groups are
more exposed to certain foreign influences than others for particular social or religious reasons. For instance, Arabic words are equated with the knowledge of Islam and are used by some people to display their religious knowledge, which is highly respected in the country. In contrast, English words are considered to be features of the language of the ‘wanna-be American’ urban youth who use them to display their
so-called ‘modernity’.
The lexical repertoire of the urban youth is more complex than that of any other social group in the speech community due to young people’s exposure to many languages and cultures, including Wolof, French, Arabic, and English. The main reasons why young people are exposed to these languages are: 1) Wolof is the major lingua
franca in urban areas, 2) French is the language of instruction in public schools, 3) children generally attend Koranic school prior to public school, and 5) the growing influence of American youth culture (especially rap and hip-hop) and movie industry which have generated a ‘love’ for English words among younger people in urban areas across the country.
Loanwords shared by the entire speech community are usually those that are fully incorporated into the Wolof linguistic system. In other words, foreign words that are used by all social groups in the speech community are those that native Wolof speakers cannot distinguish from actual Wolof words, because they have been in Wolof for so long that they have lost their original foreign linguistic traits and prestige. While some
foreign words are borrowed primarily because Wolof speakers do not have equivalent words, others are borrowed despite the existence of Wolof synonyms, because of the social prestige associated with them.
Loanwords in the Senegalese Speech Community...
[page] 105
The types of linguistic (phonological, morphological, or semantic) processes involved in borrowings are generally different from one social group or age group to another... Loanwords in Senegal generally fall in the following categories:
1) unintegrated, partially integrated, and fully integrated loans,
2) hybrid and monolingual lexicalized loans.
3). Unincorporated, partially incorporated and fully incorporated loans
Loanwords typically undergo three phases:
1) Initial borrowing of the new word,
2) partial integration of the loanword in the borrowing language, and
3) full integration in the borrowing language
...Loanwords and the linguistic incorporation processes that accompany them also reflect the social
stratification of the Senegalese speech community because of their particular historical, religious, social or cultural meanings. Thus, some social groups use new loanwords, while others use partially integrated loans or fully integrated loans for different reasons...
The long contact between French, Arabic and English and Wolof has created two major varieties of Wolof in Senegal: urban Wolof, especially used in cities and rural Wolof mostly used in the countryside. While both urban and rural Wolof have been
[page] 106
influenced by Arabic (as the majority of the population are Muslim), urban Wolof significantly diverged from the more conservative rural variety by incorporating massive French loanwords (McLaughlin, 2001: 161). This is consistent with Swigart’s (1994) claim that urban Wolof refers to a wide range of linguistic forms that are commonly used in major urban areas in Senegal, and that it is primarily characterized by extensive borrowings from French. With respect to English loanwords, their presence is generally limited in Wolof, and they are primarily found in the speech of urban youngsters.
Unincorporated French and Arabic loanwords are typically used by people exposed to standard French and Arabic. These words are generally used by those who want to mark themselves as members of the educated elite. Consequently, Wolof speakers who use unincorporated French loanwords with the metropolitan French uvular fricative [ʁ] are often attempting to underscore their educated status and ‘modernism’, and thus to differentiate themselves from their so-called ‘less modern’ fellow countrymen. Because French is the official language of the country, it has always had a prestigious status because it is perceived as the language of socioeconomic mobility. Thus, some urban Wolof speakers and Senegalese expatriates from France often overuse
the French uvular fricative [ʁ] in their loanwords in order to highlight their so-called ‘modernity’ and to have access to the social prestige associated with standard French. Interestingly, members of other social groups generally consider such speakers to be victim of ‘French assimilation and acculturation’ and to have lost their traditional African cultural and moral values.
Wolof speakers who generally use unincorporated Arabic loanwords are people who have some formal education in standard Arabic or Islamic studies. Thus, the regular use of unincorporated Arabic loanwords often highlights the speaker’s special education in Arabic which is equated with the knowledge of Islam. Because Islam is
the religion of over 90% of the population of Senegal, using unincorporated Arabic loanwords is highly respected in the speech community. Consequently, the more one uses the standard Arabic phonological features, the more one acquires the respect and prestige granted to religious scholars.
Unincorporated English loanwords in Wolof are generally used by the ‘wanna-be American’ urban youngsters exposed to American youth culture, rap, movies and mass media. The limited formal education in English through the public education system that most urban youngsters have and the overwhelming presence of Internet cybercafés across the country have accelerated the diffusion of English loanwords among urban youngsters. The use of unincorporated English loans among urban youngsters has become a marker of being ‘in-fashioned, modern and sophisticated’. However, the use of such English loanwords is stigmatized outside the social
group of urban youngsters, particularly among older people. Older people consider the use of such English words to be evidence of the ongoing degradation of the traditional cultural values of urban youngsters. Thus, to many older people in Senegal, the regular use of such English loanwords may signal ‘untrustworthiness’ and loss of the long-established values such as the respect of elders, honoring and taking
[page] 107
care of one’s parents in their old ages etc. This is because, older people associate English loanwords used with ‘gangster and raper speech’ which they consider to be disrespectful and inconsistent with the expected linguistic and cultural behaviors of decent Senegalese youngsters. Consequently, the less a younger person uses English loanwords in his/her Wolof, the more s/he will be accepted in the social group of older people, and the more s/he uses English loanwords, the more likely s/he will be rejected from their group. Because of the religious prestige associated with Arabic loanwords, using Arabic loans is often the best way to gain trust and acceptance into the social group of the older people, particularly in rural areas.
The majority of Wolof speakers regularly use partially incorporated and incorporated French loans in their speech regularly. Those who use more partially incorporated loans (less influence of Wolof) are often more educated than those who only use fully incorporated loans which have completely lost their standard French features. Wolof does not accept consonant clusters (such as ‘gr’, ‘kr’, ‘pl’ etc.) at syllable onset
positions. Consequently, onsets with such clusters are typically simplified (broken) by uneducated speakers to respect Wolof preferred CV syllable structure. Similarly, all standard French vowels and consonants which do not exist in Wolof (such as [y], [ ], nasal vowels etc.) are generally replaced by their closest Wolof counterparts in the speech of people with limited or no education in French. Paradis & Lacharité (1997: 9) refer to these incorporation processes as repair strategies. Unlike unincorporated loans, fully incorporated French loanwords have generally no social prestige. This is because the initial critical standard French features in the loanwords are typically replaced by the phonological traits of Wolof as the words continue to be used by uneducated people.
Similarly, partially incorporated Arabic loans are used by people with limited education in Arabic and Islamic studies and fully incorporated loans are used by most Wolof speakers. While partly incorporated loans do carry some limited religious prestige because of the few standard Arabic features they contain, fully incorporated Arabic loans into Wolof do not exhibit such prestige. This is because they have lost all the noticeable standard Arabic features. In the long run, most French and Arabic loanwords become lehnwörter (fully incorporated loans) into Wolof to the extent that most monolingual Wolof speakers cannot tell whether they are French, Arabic or Wolof words. This is consistent with McLaughlin’s (2001: 162) claim that speakers of urban Wolof vary in their ability to recognize French influences in their language, and that speakers who are fluent in French recognize and even joke about French loans in Wolof, but those who know no French are frequently oblivious to its influences in their own speech. This is consonant with Sankoff’s (2001: 9) claim that the longer the loanword has been introduced into the borrowing language, the more likely the
pronunciation is to have been nativized.
With respect to English loanwords, it is important to note that they are mostly restricted to the social group of younger people. Partially incorporated English loans are used by younger people with some degree of exposure to the global American youth culture influence in the country though movies, television, music and the Internet.
[page] 108
In contrast, those who use fully incorporated English loans are generally the so-called ‘less modern rural youngsters’ who attempt to be ‘cool’ (in-fashioned and modern), but who clearly lack the exposure to American English typically found in urban areas. Because English loans are generally used by younger people, when older people purposely use them to sound younger, they trigger humor or being ridiculed. This is because such a usage violates the tacit sociolinguistic norms of loanwords in the speech community. It is particularly for this reason that many Senegalese comedians regularly use these linguistic variables to produce humor.
3. Monolingual and hybrid lexicalized loans
Hybrid and monolingual lexicalized forms typically consist of the fusion of several different lexical units to form one new lexical item. This process is common in Wolof. While some of these lexicalized forms result from the normal incorporation processes of foreign loans into the Wolof linguistic system, others are constructed by speakers for particular social reasons. Posner (1997: 193) indicated that such lexicalizations
represent efforts of a culture to give a name to a concept, which it deems necessary. The following items exemplify these types of lexicalized items commonly found in Wolof.
A. Monolingual lexicalized items
1. Wolof: ‘(i)fok’ ← (one has to/must) from French ‘il faut que’
2. Wolof: ‘potusambur’ ← (peeing pot) from French ‘pot de chambre’
3. Wolof: ‘ampagaay’ ← (a lot) from French ‘en pagaille’
4. Wolof: ‘garampalas’ ← (meeting place) from French ‘grande place’
5. Wolof: ‘diwlin’ ← (cooking oil) from French ‘de l’huile’
6. Wolof: ‘lakare’ ← (chalk) from French ‘la craie’
7. Wolof: ‘surtuma’ ← (above all) from French ‘surtout’ + ‘-ment’
8. Wolof: ‘pertema’ ← (loss) from French ‘perte’+ ‘-ment’
9. Wolof: ‘commeque’ ← (like/as) from French ‘comme’ + ‘que’
10. Wolof: ‘ilimam’ ← (imam) from Arabic ‘al-imam’
11. Wolof: ‘lislam’ ← (Islam) from Arabic ‘al-islam’
12. Wolof: ‘ajuma’ ← (Friday) from Arabic ‘al-ʒumʕa’
13. Wolof: ‘asaka’ ← (charity) from Arabic ‘al-zakaat’.
These monolingual lexicalized items are usually the oldest loanwords that have entered the Wolof language. As such, they are regarded as Wolof words by most monolingual Wolof speakers. Examples 1 through 6 are fusions of several normally used structures in French. The structures ‘il faut que’, ‘pot de chambre’, ‘en pagaille’,
‘grande place’, ‘de l’huile’ et ‘la craie’ in examples 1 through 6 are all grammatical structures in standard French. In contrast, examples 7 and 8 result from the merger of two elements that cannot be combined in French. The adverb ‘surtout’ and the noun ‘perte’ do not take the French adverbial suffix ‘-ment’ which is the equivalent of the Loanwords in the Senegalese Speech Community...
[page] 109
English morpheme ‘-ly’ in ‘nicely’ (normally pronounced as [mã] in standard French and [ma] by uneducated Wolof speakers). Similarly, the example 9 consists of the combination of two French elements ‘comme’ (as/like) and the relative pronoun ‘que’ (that). This combination is ungrammatical in standard French. While examples 1 through 9 are mostly used by Wolof speakers who are uneducated in French, they also occur in the speech of educated people. The lexicalized Arabic loans are all based on grammatical Arabic structures and are equally used by all Wolof speakers in the country. The diffusion of these monolingual lexicalized Arabic loans across social groups in Senegal is likely due to the combination of several factors: 1) These Arabic loans fall within the religious register, 2) they have been in Wolof long before the French loans
(because Islamization preceded colonization in the country), and 3) because of their frequency in Wolof. These monolingual lexicalized loans contrast with hybrid lexicalized loans.
B. Hybrid lexicalized items
1. ‘lirando’ ← (travel together) from French (read) + Wolof ‘-ando’
2. ‘organisewu’ ← (organize oneself) from French (organize) + Wolof ‘-u’
3. ‘liraat’ ← (read again) from French (read) + Wolof ‘-aat’
4. ‘geunman’ ← (name of a raper) from Wolof ‘geun’ + English ‘-man’
5. ‘xuman’ ← (name of a raper) from Wolof ‘(ma)xu’ + English ‘-man’
6. ‘toojeranguman’ ← (thief) from Wolof ‘tooje’ + English ‘-man’
7. ‘tempsboy’ ← (childhood) from French ‘temps’ + English ‘boy’
8. ‘ikstime’ ← (any time) from French ‘x’ + English ‘time’
9. ‘nicement’ ← (nicely) from English ‘nice’ + French ‘-ment’
10. ‘coolment’ ← (In a cool manner) from English ‘cool’ + French ‘-ment’
11. ‘nicesal’ ← (make nice) from English ‘nice’ + Wolof ‘-al’
12. ‘dekaawe’ ← (to steel) from French ‘dé-’ + Wolof ‘-kaawe’
13. ‘queni’ ← (that) from French ‘que’ + Wolof ‘ne/i’
14. ‘nique’ ← (that) from Wolof ‘ni/e’ + French ‘que’.
These hybrid lexicalized structures are regularly used in Senegal. The hybrid structures in example 1, 2 and 3 are found in the speech of most Wolof speakers, regardless of their social group or education level. They represent some of the most common hybrid lexical constructions that French loans undergo in Senegal, which typically consist of the suffixation of a Wolof morpheme such as ‘-ando’ (to do something together), ‘-u’ (oneself), ‘-aat’ (to do something again) to a French verb stem.
Similarly, the use of the double hybrid relative pronoun ‘queni’ or ‘nique’ (which consist of the French relative pronoun ‘que’ + the Wolof relative pronoun ‘ni’ also pronounced as ‘ne’) is commonly found in the country, particularly in urban areas. In rural areas, the Wolof relative pronoun ‘ni’or ‘ne’ is normally used. This is because urban areas are naturally more influenced by French. As the examples show, some
hybrid structures are constructed by adding the English morphemes ‘-man’ to Wolof nouns, others are formed by adding the French adverbial suffix ‘-ment’ to English adjectives or by adding a Wolof suffix to a French or English word. It is worth
[page] 110
noting that all the lexicalized structures involving English are exclusively found in the speech of the ‘wanna-be American’ urban youngsters. In sum, despite their different sociolinguistic implications, lexicalization (monolingual and hybrid lexicalizations) is one way that Wolof accommodates foreign words, constructs, and artifacts so that they can function effectively in the language and the speech community."...
4. Semantic & grammatical changes, syllable truncations and calques
Loanwords in the Senegalese speech community undergo various transformations such as semantic and grammatical changes, deletion of syllables, calques etc. While some of these patterns are part of loanwords’ incorporation processes in Wolof, others are used as sociolinguistic tools to indicate group membership. The following examples illustrate these types of changes and their sociolinguistic implications in the Senegalese speech community.
A. Semantic extensions & specializations
1. French ‘fils’ : ‘son’ and ‘guy’ in Wolof → semantic extension
2. English ‘boy’ : ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ in Wolof → semantic extension
3. English ‘town’ : ‘town’ and ‘Dakar city’ in Wolof → semantic extension
4. English ‘mind’ : ‘mind’ and ‘to be afraid’ in Wolof → semantic extension
5. French ‘(pa)pa’ : ‘father’ and ‘old man’ in Wolof → semantic extension
6. English ‘truck’ : ‘cars in general’ in Wolof → semantic extension
7. French ‘science’ : ‘idea’ and ‘something’ in Wolof → semantic extension
8. English ‘change’ : (pronounced as [t∫ent∫]): ‘money’ → semantic specialization
9. French ‘artiste’ : ‘trendy person’ in Wolof → semantic specialization
10. French ‘guerrier’ : ‘bold guy’ in Wolof → semantic specialization"...
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Visitor comments are welcome.
This post excerpts two pdf files written in 2000 and 2006 by Fallou Ngom about the use of loan words in Senegal, West Africa's Wolof language.
The content of this post is presented for linguistics and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owner.
Thanks to Fallou Ngom for this research and writing.
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PANCOCOJAMS NOTE:
These excerpts are presented in chronological order based on the year that is indicated in the pdf file, with the oldest article (chapter?) given first.
In the excerpt given as #1, the words from the tables are spelled without any accent or other marks.
Also in that excerpt, the word “from” is used instead of a drawing of an arrow pointing to the Wolof word and in (k) the words “changed to” are used in place of an arrow pointing towards a letter.
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EXCERPT #1: SOCIOLINGUISTIC MOTIVATIONS OF LEXICAL BORROWINGS IN SENEGAL [by] Fallou Ngom
From https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/9657/SLS2000v30.2-10Ngom.pdf
[total 14 pages]
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences Volume 30, Number 2 (Fall 2000)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign...
[page] 161
"Although lexical borrowing has always been a central topic in linguistic research, its study has suffered from three major limitations: (1) it has failed to consider social variations in patterns of borrowings;
(2) it has assumed a model of two languages in contact; (3) researchers collect data mostly from communities regardless of the social strata, the political and cultural motivations of the subjects, and conclusions
are generalized to the whole community (Deroy 1956, Haugen 1956, Calvet 1974, Benthahila & Davis 1983, etc.). Thus,these studies on lexical borrowing miss the fact that loanwords also reflect the unbalanced distribution of power and prestige in speech communities, especially in multilingual communities. This study challenges these assumptions by showing that lexical borrowing acts as social-group and class indices in Senegal, a socially diverse multilingual community in which lexical borrowings and phonological processes that accompany them are often socially conditioned. In so doing, this paper shows that linguistic patterns used to define social groups or classes generally referred to as sociolinguistic variables in the variationist framework (Labov 1978) are not exclusively limited to phonological patterns, but include larger segmental units, such as lexical units. This study is based on 145 loanwords collected from the Senegalese audiovisual website 'www.homeviewsenegal.com' over a period of three hours, of which 66 words were borrowed from French, 57 from Arabic, 17 from English into Wolof, and 5 from Wolof into French...
[page] 162
Senegal occupied a central place in the colonization of West Africa, as the capital of Afnque Occidentale Francaise (A.O.F ) 'French West Africa' was established in Saint-Louis. Although some lexical units were coined in Wolof and other local languages to cover new concepts brought into the country by the French, many lexical items were borrowed from French to account for constructs that came along with the advent of French culture, political system, and religion in Senegal, or for purely prestige reasons. The Arabic influence in Senegal dates back to the Islami1zation of West Africa between the 11th and the 16th century. By the 14th century, Koranic schools (Islamic schools) were established in Senegal, and most Senegalese Muslims especially in the region of Saint-Louis) were already able to use classical Arabic scripts to write their own languages by the first half of the twentieth century, especially Wolof and Pulaar (Diop 1989). The English influ- ence is conveyed through American youth culture, the media, TV, and the Ameri- can movie industry. Lexical borrowings from Pulaar (the only local language in competition with Wolof) are mainly found among the youth. These lexical bor- rowings are due to the rising prestige of Pulaar in the 1990s. Pulaar lexical bor- rowings in Wolof are the result of the Haal-Pulaar (Pulaar speakers) cultural movement for the revitalization of Pulaar culture, language, and customs in Senegal (especially in the region of Saint-Louis, the hometown of most Pulaar speakers in the country). The Pulaar linguist Yero Sylla, Pulaar cultural associations (such
as Kawral and Gandal e Pinal), and the Pulaar musician Baaba Maal, helped spread the movement. The primary goal of this movement was to resist the Wolof expansion in Senegal and assert a Pulaar identity, language, and culture.
3. Borrowing as evidence of the unequal distribution of power and prestige
The unequal distribution of power and prestige in speech communities is generally reflected through the rate of loans that one language gives to the other. For instance, in former French colonies of West Africa, the high rate of lexical borrowings from French into local languages represents the surface trace of the French linguistic superstructure imposed in the local communities as the result of French glottophagia (Calvet 1974:92). In contrast, the relative statistical equilibrium of borrowings between English and French (despite the ongoing French lin guistic protectionism against American English) shows the extent to which the two languages (therefore the two communities) are 'equal', i.e., they do not entertain relationships of domination (Calvet 1974:91). In contrast, in the former. French colonies in Africa such as Senegal, French borrows almost nothing from the local languages, whereas those languages borrow extensively from French. This statistical disequilibrium is evidence of the domination of the local communities by France (Calvet 1974: 91). This is partly due to the fact that colonization did not introduce French in former colonies so that the colonized people speak French, but rather it created a minority French-speaking group to govern and im- pose the law on the non-Francophone majority (Calvet 1974:118).
[page] 163
Thus, as the result of colonization, most African languages whose people were dominated borrowed quantum words from languages of the dominant Europeans, either to fill a lexical gap, or in an attempt to acquire the prestige associated with them, or both. For this reason, Wolof has borrowed copiously from French, while French has only borrowed a few words from Wolof. Similarly, due to the high number of Muslims in Senegal as the result of the early Islamization of the country, Wolof has borrowed many words from Arabic. In contrast, unlike what would be expected due to the role of the United States in the world today, the English influence in Senegal is minor. This is partly due to the fact that the American influence in Senegal is very recent. Figure 1, based on loanwords col- lected from the Senegalese audiovisual website, illustrates the unequal distribu- tion of power and prestige expressed through lexical borrowing, as it shows that all three languages (French, Arabic, English) lend more words to Wolof than they borrow from it...
borrowings from French into Wolof generally fall in the areas of politics, media, institutions, and culture while those from Arabic are mostly found in religious settings. The English influence is almost exclusively limited to youth exposed to American youth culture, music, TV, and movie industry, who dream of traveling to the United States. For this reason, English words used in this study were exclusively found among urban youth.
It is important to note that, although English has been introduced into the educational system, since the 1960s (as a result of the growing cooperation between Senegal, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other English speaking countries of the world), its influence is still minimal, compared to French and Arabic....
[page] 169
8. Lexical borrowings as markers of modernity and fashion among urban youth
Urban youth in Senegal have the most complex linguistic repertoire in the country. This is due to their exposure to French influence (through education), Arabic influence (through Koranic or Arabic language instruction), and English (through music, TV, and movies). In opposition to other social groups in the country, this social group is the only one that borrows words from Pulaar (the second major national language) and English. However, lexical borrowings from Pulaar are minimal in comparison to those borrowed from French, Arabic, and English respectively. The borrowings from Pulaar result from the growing prestige of Pulaar in Senegal promoted by Pulaar musicians, cultural organizations, and scholars in the 1990s. This group is characterized by particular lexical borrowings (from French, Arabic, and English) and linguistic patterns that act as markers of group membership. In other words, the use of such lexical borrowings and linguistic patterns mark one as ‘trendy, modern, and in-fashion’ and thus sets the speaker apart from the ‘hicks’ (i.e. the rural youngsters with little or no exposure to the urban youth culture. models, ideals, and way of life). The most common linguistic patterns of this group are the following (1) syllable truncation (deletion) of French loans (2) overuse of the French filler quoi at the end of syntactic units (3) phonological hypercorrection, and (4) semantic shifts and specifications...
It is important to note that, the French borrowed word guerrier ‘warrior’ and artiste ‘artist’ and the Arabic lexical borrowing saaba are interchangeably used to refer to someone trendy and admirable in this social group....
[page] 170
Table 9 Marks of ‘trendiness’ among urban youth
French Loans
(a) [tons] from French [toto] ‘uncle’ truncation
(b) [Presi] from French [presida’] ‘president’ truncation
(c) [kwa] from French [kwa] called quoi ponctuant, a filler with no semantic meaning in French
(d) Biddiwudakar from calque from French l’etiole de Dakar ‘the star of Dakar
(e) Guerrier ‘cool guy’ from French Guerrier ‘warrior’ (semantic shift)
(f) Artiste ‘cool guy’ from French artiste ‘artist’ (semantic shift)
English loans
(g) [gajn] from English guy {pronunciation explanation given} [hypercorrection]
(h) [gel] from English girlfriend {pronunciation explanation given} (Wolof influence + semantic specification)
[i] [cajn] Chinese tea from {pronunciation explanation given} [hypercorrection + semantic specification] (English pronunciation of the French word Chine ‘China’)
(j) [trok] ‘car’ from ‘truck’ English {pronunciation explanation given} (Wolof influence + semantic specification)
Arabic Loans
(k) [saaba] "cool" guy from Arabic [saha:ba] ‘apostle’ {pronunciation explanation given} Wolof influence + semantic specification}
Pulaar words
(l) [jaaraama] from Pulaar [jaaraama] thank you
[m] [galle] from Pulaar [galle] house"
....
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EXCERPT #2: Loanwords in the Senegalese Speech Community: Their Linguistics Features and Sociolinguistic Significance [by] Fallou Ngom
From https://repozytorium.amu.edu.pl/bitstream/10593/4729/1/09-Ngom.pdf
unity.[total 11 pages]
Language, Communication, Information
P. Nowak, P. Nowakowski (eds)
1/2006
[page] 103
"Abstract. Senegal is a West African French-speaking country. Officially, the country has 6 major national languages: Wolof, Pulaar, Mandinka, Joola, Seereer, and Soninke. Of these 6 languages, Wolof is the major lingua franca used by over 70% of the population.
As a former French colony, French remains the official language of the country used in the administration and in the public education system. Because over 90% of the Senegalese people are Muslim, the Arabic influence in the country is considerable. Furthermore, the global impact of American youth culture, mass media, the Internet, and the significant number of Senegalese immigrants living in the United States have resulted in the growing influence of American English in the country. The study of loanwords in Senegal (where language contact phenomena between African and non-African languages is the norm) shows that loanwords do not occur arbitrarily. In such a multilingual speech community, loanwords are often triggered and constrained by various cultural, political, religious and social forces that operate or have once operated in the speech community. Consequently,
[page] 104
the study of loanwords provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the past and current socio-cultural dynamics in the country. This paper provides an overview of French, Arabic and English loanwords in Wolof and examines their general linguistic traits and their sociolinguistic significance in the country.
1. Introduction
Loanwords reflect in many ways the impact of French colonization, Islamization, globalization (or Americanization) and the synchronic social structure of the Senegalese speech community. While some loanwords are understood and used by the entire speech community regardless of people’s social group, or religion, not all loanwords are used by all members of the speech community. In fact, some loanwords are restricted to particular social groups in the country due to the social value, prestige or stigma associated with them. Consequently, Wolof speakers are often selective in their use of loanwords.
Moreover, linguistic incorporation processes (phonological, morphological, and semantic) of loanwords into Wolof also reflect the social stratification of the Senegalese speech community. Because Senegal is a country where Arabic, European and African cultures, religions and ideologies regularly interact, some groups are
more exposed to certain foreign influences than others for particular social or religious reasons. For instance, Arabic words are equated with the knowledge of Islam and are used by some people to display their religious knowledge, which is highly respected in the country. In contrast, English words are considered to be features of the language of the ‘wanna-be American’ urban youth who use them to display their
so-called ‘modernity’.
The lexical repertoire of the urban youth is more complex than that of any other social group in the speech community due to young people’s exposure to many languages and cultures, including Wolof, French, Arabic, and English. The main reasons why young people are exposed to these languages are: 1) Wolof is the major lingua
franca in urban areas, 2) French is the language of instruction in public schools, 3) children generally attend Koranic school prior to public school, and 5) the growing influence of American youth culture (especially rap and hip-hop) and movie industry which have generated a ‘love’ for English words among younger people in urban areas across the country.
Loanwords shared by the entire speech community are usually those that are fully incorporated into the Wolof linguistic system. In other words, foreign words that are used by all social groups in the speech community are those that native Wolof speakers cannot distinguish from actual Wolof words, because they have been in Wolof for so long that they have lost their original foreign linguistic traits and prestige. While some
foreign words are borrowed primarily because Wolof speakers do not have equivalent words, others are borrowed despite the existence of Wolof synonyms, because of the social prestige associated with them.
Loanwords in the Senegalese Speech Community...
[page] 105
The types of linguistic (phonological, morphological, or semantic) processes involved in borrowings are generally different from one social group or age group to another... Loanwords in Senegal generally fall in the following categories:
1) unintegrated, partially integrated, and fully integrated loans,
2) hybrid and monolingual lexicalized loans.
3). Unincorporated, partially incorporated and fully incorporated loans
Loanwords typically undergo three phases:
1) Initial borrowing of the new word,
2) partial integration of the loanword in the borrowing language, and
3) full integration in the borrowing language
...Loanwords and the linguistic incorporation processes that accompany them also reflect the social
stratification of the Senegalese speech community because of their particular historical, religious, social or cultural meanings. Thus, some social groups use new loanwords, while others use partially integrated loans or fully integrated loans for different reasons...
The long contact between French, Arabic and English and Wolof has created two major varieties of Wolof in Senegal: urban Wolof, especially used in cities and rural Wolof mostly used in the countryside. While both urban and rural Wolof have been
[page] 106
influenced by Arabic (as the majority of the population are Muslim), urban Wolof significantly diverged from the more conservative rural variety by incorporating massive French loanwords (McLaughlin, 2001: 161). This is consistent with Swigart’s (1994) claim that urban Wolof refers to a wide range of linguistic forms that are commonly used in major urban areas in Senegal, and that it is primarily characterized by extensive borrowings from French. With respect to English loanwords, their presence is generally limited in Wolof, and they are primarily found in the speech of urban youngsters.
Unincorporated French and Arabic loanwords are typically used by people exposed to standard French and Arabic. These words are generally used by those who want to mark themselves as members of the educated elite. Consequently, Wolof speakers who use unincorporated French loanwords with the metropolitan French uvular fricative [ʁ] are often attempting to underscore their educated status and ‘modernism’, and thus to differentiate themselves from their so-called ‘less modern’ fellow countrymen. Because French is the official language of the country, it has always had a prestigious status because it is perceived as the language of socioeconomic mobility. Thus, some urban Wolof speakers and Senegalese expatriates from France often overuse
the French uvular fricative [ʁ] in their loanwords in order to highlight their so-called ‘modernity’ and to have access to the social prestige associated with standard French. Interestingly, members of other social groups generally consider such speakers to be victim of ‘French assimilation and acculturation’ and to have lost their traditional African cultural and moral values.
Wolof speakers who generally use unincorporated Arabic loanwords are people who have some formal education in standard Arabic or Islamic studies. Thus, the regular use of unincorporated Arabic loanwords often highlights the speaker’s special education in Arabic which is equated with the knowledge of Islam. Because Islam is
the religion of over 90% of the population of Senegal, using unincorporated Arabic loanwords is highly respected in the speech community. Consequently, the more one uses the standard Arabic phonological features, the more one acquires the respect and prestige granted to religious scholars.
Unincorporated English loanwords in Wolof are generally used by the ‘wanna-be American’ urban youngsters exposed to American youth culture, rap, movies and mass media. The limited formal education in English through the public education system that most urban youngsters have and the overwhelming presence of Internet cybercafés across the country have accelerated the diffusion of English loanwords among urban youngsters. The use of unincorporated English loans among urban youngsters has become a marker of being ‘in-fashioned, modern and sophisticated’. However, the use of such English loanwords is stigmatized outside the social
group of urban youngsters, particularly among older people. Older people consider the use of such English words to be evidence of the ongoing degradation of the traditional cultural values of urban youngsters. Thus, to many older people in Senegal, the regular use of such English loanwords may signal ‘untrustworthiness’ and loss of the long-established values such as the respect of elders, honoring and taking
[page] 107
care of one’s parents in their old ages etc. This is because, older people associate English loanwords used with ‘gangster and raper speech’ which they consider to be disrespectful and inconsistent with the expected linguistic and cultural behaviors of decent Senegalese youngsters. Consequently, the less a younger person uses English loanwords in his/her Wolof, the more s/he will be accepted in the social group of older people, and the more s/he uses English loanwords, the more likely s/he will be rejected from their group. Because of the religious prestige associated with Arabic loanwords, using Arabic loans is often the best way to gain trust and acceptance into the social group of the older people, particularly in rural areas.
The majority of Wolof speakers regularly use partially incorporated and incorporated French loans in their speech regularly. Those who use more partially incorporated loans (less influence of Wolof) are often more educated than those who only use fully incorporated loans which have completely lost their standard French features. Wolof does not accept consonant clusters (such as ‘gr’, ‘kr’, ‘pl’ etc.) at syllable onset
positions. Consequently, onsets with such clusters are typically simplified (broken) by uneducated speakers to respect Wolof preferred CV syllable structure. Similarly, all standard French vowels and consonants which do not exist in Wolof (such as [y], [ ], nasal vowels etc.) are generally replaced by their closest Wolof counterparts in the speech of people with limited or no education in French. Paradis & Lacharité (1997: 9) refer to these incorporation processes as repair strategies. Unlike unincorporated loans, fully incorporated French loanwords have generally no social prestige. This is because the initial critical standard French features in the loanwords are typically replaced by the phonological traits of Wolof as the words continue to be used by uneducated people.
Similarly, partially incorporated Arabic loans are used by people with limited education in Arabic and Islamic studies and fully incorporated loans are used by most Wolof speakers. While partly incorporated loans do carry some limited religious prestige because of the few standard Arabic features they contain, fully incorporated Arabic loans into Wolof do not exhibit such prestige. This is because they have lost all the noticeable standard Arabic features. In the long run, most French and Arabic loanwords become lehnwörter (fully incorporated loans) into Wolof to the extent that most monolingual Wolof speakers cannot tell whether they are French, Arabic or Wolof words. This is consistent with McLaughlin’s (2001: 162) claim that speakers of urban Wolof vary in their ability to recognize French influences in their language, and that speakers who are fluent in French recognize and even joke about French loans in Wolof, but those who know no French are frequently oblivious to its influences in their own speech. This is consonant with Sankoff’s (2001: 9) claim that the longer the loanword has been introduced into the borrowing language, the more likely the
pronunciation is to have been nativized.
With respect to English loanwords, it is important to note that they are mostly restricted to the social group of younger people. Partially incorporated English loans are used by younger people with some degree of exposure to the global American youth culture influence in the country though movies, television, music and the Internet.
[page] 108
In contrast, those who use fully incorporated English loans are generally the so-called ‘less modern rural youngsters’ who attempt to be ‘cool’ (in-fashioned and modern), but who clearly lack the exposure to American English typically found in urban areas. Because English loans are generally used by younger people, when older people purposely use them to sound younger, they trigger humor or being ridiculed. This is because such a usage violates the tacit sociolinguistic norms of loanwords in the speech community. It is particularly for this reason that many Senegalese comedians regularly use these linguistic variables to produce humor.
3. Monolingual and hybrid lexicalized loans
Hybrid and monolingual lexicalized forms typically consist of the fusion of several different lexical units to form one new lexical item. This process is common in Wolof. While some of these lexicalized forms result from the normal incorporation processes of foreign loans into the Wolof linguistic system, others are constructed by speakers for particular social reasons. Posner (1997: 193) indicated that such lexicalizations
represent efforts of a culture to give a name to a concept, which it deems necessary. The following items exemplify these types of lexicalized items commonly found in Wolof.
A. Monolingual lexicalized items
1. Wolof: ‘(i)fok’ ← (one has to/must) from French ‘il faut que’
2. Wolof: ‘potusambur’ ← (peeing pot) from French ‘pot de chambre’
3. Wolof: ‘ampagaay’ ← (a lot) from French ‘en pagaille’
4. Wolof: ‘garampalas’ ← (meeting place) from French ‘grande place’
5. Wolof: ‘diwlin’ ← (cooking oil) from French ‘de l’huile’
6. Wolof: ‘lakare’ ← (chalk) from French ‘la craie’
7. Wolof: ‘surtuma’ ← (above all) from French ‘surtout’ + ‘-ment’
8. Wolof: ‘pertema’ ← (loss) from French ‘perte’+ ‘-ment’
9. Wolof: ‘commeque’ ← (like/as) from French ‘comme’ + ‘que’
10. Wolof: ‘ilimam’ ← (imam) from Arabic ‘al-imam’
11. Wolof: ‘lislam’ ← (Islam) from Arabic ‘al-islam’
12. Wolof: ‘ajuma’ ← (Friday) from Arabic ‘al-ʒumʕa’
13. Wolof: ‘asaka’ ← (charity) from Arabic ‘al-zakaat’.
These monolingual lexicalized items are usually the oldest loanwords that have entered the Wolof language. As such, they are regarded as Wolof words by most monolingual Wolof speakers. Examples 1 through 6 are fusions of several normally used structures in French. The structures ‘il faut que’, ‘pot de chambre’, ‘en pagaille’,
‘grande place’, ‘de l’huile’ et ‘la craie’ in examples 1 through 6 are all grammatical structures in standard French. In contrast, examples 7 and 8 result from the merger of two elements that cannot be combined in French. The adverb ‘surtout’ and the noun ‘perte’ do not take the French adverbial suffix ‘-ment’ which is the equivalent of the Loanwords in the Senegalese Speech Community...
[page] 109
English morpheme ‘-ly’ in ‘nicely’ (normally pronounced as [mã] in standard French and [ma] by uneducated Wolof speakers). Similarly, the example 9 consists of the combination of two French elements ‘comme’ (as/like) and the relative pronoun ‘que’ (that). This combination is ungrammatical in standard French. While examples 1 through 9 are mostly used by Wolof speakers who are uneducated in French, they also occur in the speech of educated people. The lexicalized Arabic loans are all based on grammatical Arabic structures and are equally used by all Wolof speakers in the country. The diffusion of these monolingual lexicalized Arabic loans across social groups in Senegal is likely due to the combination of several factors: 1) These Arabic loans fall within the religious register, 2) they have been in Wolof long before the French loans
(because Islamization preceded colonization in the country), and 3) because of their frequency in Wolof. These monolingual lexicalized loans contrast with hybrid lexicalized loans.
B. Hybrid lexicalized items
1. ‘lirando’ ← (travel together) from French (read) + Wolof ‘-ando’
2. ‘organisewu’ ← (organize oneself) from French (organize) + Wolof ‘-u’
3. ‘liraat’ ← (read again) from French (read) + Wolof ‘-aat’
4. ‘geunman’ ← (name of a raper) from Wolof ‘geun’ + English ‘-man’
5. ‘xuman’ ← (name of a raper) from Wolof ‘(ma)xu’ + English ‘-man’
6. ‘toojeranguman’ ← (thief) from Wolof ‘tooje’ + English ‘-man’
7. ‘tempsboy’ ← (childhood) from French ‘temps’ + English ‘boy’
8. ‘ikstime’ ← (any time) from French ‘x’ + English ‘time’
9. ‘nicement’ ← (nicely) from English ‘nice’ + French ‘-ment’
10. ‘coolment’ ← (In a cool manner) from English ‘cool’ + French ‘-ment’
11. ‘nicesal’ ← (make nice) from English ‘nice’ + Wolof ‘-al’
12. ‘dekaawe’ ← (to steel) from French ‘dé-’ + Wolof ‘-kaawe’
13. ‘queni’ ← (that) from French ‘que’ + Wolof ‘ne/i’
14. ‘nique’ ← (that) from Wolof ‘ni/e’ + French ‘que’.
These hybrid lexicalized structures are regularly used in Senegal. The hybrid structures in example 1, 2 and 3 are found in the speech of most Wolof speakers, regardless of their social group or education level. They represent some of the most common hybrid lexical constructions that French loans undergo in Senegal, which typically consist of the suffixation of a Wolof morpheme such as ‘-ando’ (to do something together), ‘-u’ (oneself), ‘-aat’ (to do something again) to a French verb stem.
Similarly, the use of the double hybrid relative pronoun ‘queni’ or ‘nique’ (which consist of the French relative pronoun ‘que’ + the Wolof relative pronoun ‘ni’ also pronounced as ‘ne’) is commonly found in the country, particularly in urban areas. In rural areas, the Wolof relative pronoun ‘ni’or ‘ne’ is normally used. This is because urban areas are naturally more influenced by French. As the examples show, some
hybrid structures are constructed by adding the English morphemes ‘-man’ to Wolof nouns, others are formed by adding the French adverbial suffix ‘-ment’ to English adjectives or by adding a Wolof suffix to a French or English word. It is worth
[page] 110
noting that all the lexicalized structures involving English are exclusively found in the speech of the ‘wanna-be American’ urban youngsters. In sum, despite their different sociolinguistic implications, lexicalization (monolingual and hybrid lexicalizations) is one way that Wolof accommodates foreign words, constructs, and artifacts so that they can function effectively in the language and the speech community."...
4. Semantic & grammatical changes, syllable truncations and calques
Loanwords in the Senegalese speech community undergo various transformations such as semantic and grammatical changes, deletion of syllables, calques etc. While some of these patterns are part of loanwords’ incorporation processes in Wolof, others are used as sociolinguistic tools to indicate group membership. The following examples illustrate these types of changes and their sociolinguistic implications in the Senegalese speech community.
A. Semantic extensions & specializations
1. French ‘fils’ : ‘son’ and ‘guy’ in Wolof → semantic extension
2. English ‘boy’ : ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ in Wolof → semantic extension
3. English ‘town’ : ‘town’ and ‘Dakar city’ in Wolof → semantic extension
4. English ‘mind’ : ‘mind’ and ‘to be afraid’ in Wolof → semantic extension
5. French ‘(pa)pa’ : ‘father’ and ‘old man’ in Wolof → semantic extension
6. English ‘truck’ : ‘cars in general’ in Wolof → semantic extension
7. French ‘science’ : ‘idea’ and ‘something’ in Wolof → semantic extension
8. English ‘change’ : (pronounced as [t∫ent∫]): ‘money’ → semantic specialization
9. French ‘artiste’ : ‘trendy person’ in Wolof → semantic specialization
10. French ‘guerrier’ : ‘bold guy’ in Wolof → semantic specialization"...
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