Difference between revisions of "Wolof/Grammar"

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contains certain liquids such as ndox 'water', meew 'milk', saw 'urine' and soow
 
contains certain liquids such as ndox 'water', meew 'milk', saw 'urine' and soow
 
'curdled milk', it also contains many words that are not liquids, and there are a
 
'curdled milk', it also contains many words that are not liquids, and there are a
−
great number of liquids that do not fall into that class, such as deret (j-class) 'blood', diwlin (j-class) 'vegetable oil', and kokaa (b-class) 'Coca-Cola'"<ref c="NOUN CLASSIFICATION IN WOLOF: WHEN AFFIXES ARE NOT RENEWED"></ref>
+
great number of liquids that do not fall into that class, such as deret (j-class) 'blood', diwlin (j-class) 'vegetable oil', and kokaa (b-class) 'Coca-Cola'"<ref>[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiYhNSqr5X9AhUbGVkFHScnDU8QFnoECA8QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fjournals.flvc.org%2Fsal%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F107395%2F102715%2F&usg=AOvVaw25U3augVPmpZE1yX8PFevq NOUN CLASSIFICATION IN WOLOF: WHEN AFFIXES ARE NOT RENEWED]</ref>
  
 
======examples======
 
======examples======

Revision as of 15:09, 16 February 2023

Grammar documentation - Wolof

  • General overview of Wolof grammar[1]
  • Long academic grammatical description[2]
  • Noun classification resource[3]
  • Notable characteristics of Wolof Grammar[4]
Parts of Speech

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]

Noun classes

Singular Classes Plural Classes
k- ñ-
b- y-
g-
j-
l-
m-
s-
w-

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
  • Although the classification system is far from simple, some categories include "liquids (m-class), trees (b-class), fruits (g-class), and family

members, especially those of maternal descent U-c1ass). Although the m-class contains certain liquids such as ndox 'water', meew 'milk', saw 'urine' and soow 'curdled milk', it also contains many words that are not liquids, and there are a great number of liquids that do not fall into that class, such as deret (j-class) 'blood', diwlin (j-class) 'vegetable oil', and kokaa (b-class) 'Coca-Cola'"[6]

examples
  • 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)


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

Pronominal morphemes

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

glosses

xeet-am, muy-toj sa-bopp

son.3pPOSS F.crush 2pPOSS.head

Her son will crush your head
  1. ↑ Languages Gulper Grammar
  2. ↑ Wolof: A Grammatical Sketch
  3. ↑ NOUN CLASSIFICATION IN WOLOF: WHEN AFFIXES ARE NOT RENEWED
  4. ↑ Peace Corps New Wolof Book
  5. ↑ Wolof Morphology
  6. ↑ NOUN CLASSIFICATION IN WOLOF: WHEN AFFIXES ARE NOT RENEWED