Revision as of 15:05, 16 February 2023

Grammar documentation - Wolof

Wolof is an SVO language

Verbs are static and do not change for tense, aspect, or mood
Nouns have 10 classes, 8 of which are singular classes and are marked by specific prefixes, and 2 are plural classes also marked by prefixes
- However, these prefixes are not morphologically marked on the noun itself, but on the dependent that agrees with the noun
  - Therefore, plural and singular nouns cannot be distinguished unless they occur in a noun phrase
Pronouns in Wolof are the most morphologically complex
- separated into five categories: personal, possessive, demonstrative, interrogative, relative, indefinite^[5]

The k- class and it's plural the ñ- class have rigid and exclusive membership. Nouns in this class are:

k- class includes nit "person", and kef "thing"
ñ- class includes nit "person", and (speaker dependent) jigeén "women", góor "men", gaa "people"
- other than these nouns, plural nouns are always in the y- class

noun class examples with determiners
- determiners will always have a prefix based on noun class and cannot exist without a class morpheme (ask about putting eng glossing after the arrows instead since the lemma cannot exist independently)

plural determiners
- nit i<n><pl det> ↔ nit ñi The people
- kër i<n><pl det> ↔ kër yi The houses

** nit i`<n><sg det>` ↔ nit ki	The person
** tëgg i`<n><sg det>` ↔ tëgg bi	The blacksmith
** kër i`<n><sg det>` ↔ kër gi	The house
** jigéen i`<n><sg det>` ↔ jigéen ji	The woman
** ngunu i`<n><sg det>` ↔ ngunu li	The chicken coop
** picc i`<n><sg det>` ↔ picc mi	The bird
** ndaw i`<n><sg det>` ↔ ndaw si	The young woman
** waasintoor i`<n><sg det>` ↔ waasintoor wi	The fish scale

samay yax ak sama suux (wol_output.txt line 73) - samay = my (pl) ; sama = my (sing),

xeet-am, muy-toj sa-bopp

son.3pPOSS F.crush 2pPOSS.head

Her son will crush your head

@@ Line 61: / Line 61: @@
 ** {{morphTest|nit i{{tag|n}}{{tag|pl det}}|nit ñi}} The people
 ** {{morphTest|kër i{{tag|n}}{{tag|pl det}}|kër yi}} The houses
+{| cellpadding=5
+|** {{morphTest|nit i{{tag|n}}{{tag|sg det}}|nit ki}} || The person
+|-
+| ** {{morphTest|tëgg i{{tag|n}}{{tag|sg det}}|tëgg bi}} || The blacksmith
+|-
+| ** {{morphTest|kër i{{tag|n}}{{tag|sg det}}|kër gi}} || The house
+|-
+| ** {{morphTest|jigéen i{{tag|n}}{{tag|sg det}}|jigéen ji}} || The woman
+|-
+| ** {{morphTest|ngunu i{{tag|n}}{{tag|sg det}}|ngunu li}} || The chicken coop
+|-
+| ** {{morphTest|picc i{{tag|n}}{{tag|sg det}}|picc mi}} || The bird
+|-
+| ** {{morphTest|ndaw i{{tag|n}}{{tag|sg det}}|ndaw si}} || The young woman
+|-
+| ** {{morphTest|waasintoor i{{tag|n}}{{tag|sg det}}|waasintoor wi}} || The fish scale
+|}
 ====Pronominal morphemes====