Wolofal is a derivation of the

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...

for writing the

Wolof language Wolof ( ; , ) is a Niger–Congo language spoken by the Wolof people in much of the West African subregion of Senegambia that is split between the countries of Senegal, The Gambia and Mauritania. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, ...

. It is basically the name of a

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

Ajami script Ajami (, ) or Ajamiyya (, ), which comes from the Arabic root for 'foreign' or 'stranger', is an Arabic script, Arabic-derived script used for writing Languages of Africa, African languages, particularly Songhai languages, Songhai, Mandé languages ...

as used for that language. Wolofal was the first script for writing Wolof. Although the Latin alphabet is the primary official script of the language in today's

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

, Wolofal is still used by many people as a symbol of Islamic Wolof culture. Furthermore, Wolofal orthography has been standardized in 1990 by ''Direction de la Promotion des Langues Nationales'' (DPLN) (now known as ''Direction de l'alphabétisation des langues nationales''), an initiative of Senegal's Ministry of Education as part of a harmonized national "Arabic script". This "harmonized script is used for Wolof,

Pulaar Pulaar (in Latin script, Latin: , in Ajami script, Ajami: ), often referred to as Pulaar du Nord, is dialect of the Fula language spoken primarily as a first language by the Fula people, Fula and Toucouleur peoples in the Senegal River valley ar ...

, Soninke, Mandinka, Seereer, Joola, and Balant. The standardization of the Arabic script in Senegal was followed by an effort to teach the correct orthography to over 20,000 people, mostly Imams and their students, to write in the script. But despite the efforts of the Senegalese government in the matter, the alphabet has not been officially decreed by the government. The reason for this is that standardization of writing in

in West Africa is supposed to be a multi-national effort.

Alphabet

Wolofal, like its parent system, the

, is an

abjad An abjad ( or abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving the vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowels. The term was introd ...

. This means that only consonants are represented with letters. Vowels are shown with

diacritics A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...

. As a matter of fact, writing of diacritics, including zero-vowel (sukun) diacritic as per the orthographic are mandatory. In order to represent sounds in Wolof that are not present in Arabic, letters as well as diacritics have been created. Historically, there was different conventions among different writers and schools, but one of the aims and achievements of the push for standardization by the Senegalese Ministry of Education has been to agree upon a unified set of letters.Currah, Galien (26 August 2015) ''ORTHOGRAPHE WOLOFAL''
LinkArchive

Letters

There are 23 letters in Wolofal alphabet. The list does not include consonants that are used exclusively in Arabic loanwords and do not occur in Wolof words, nor does it include digraphs used for showing prenasalized consonants.

Vowels

Wolofal, like its parent system, the

, is an

. This means that only consonants are represented with letters. Vowels are shown with

. As a matter of fact, writing of diacritics, including zero-vowel (sukun) diacritic as per the orthographic are mandatory. Arabic has 3 vowels, and thus 3 vowel diacritics. But in Wolof, there are 9 vowels, and as all vowels are shown with diacritics in Wolofal. This means that on top of the 3 original diacritics, 6 additional ones have been created. When vowels appear at the beginning of the word, an ''alif'' (ا) is used as the carrier of the vowel. Vowels in Wolof are also distinguished by length, short and long. Short vowels are only shown with a diacritic. Similar to Arabic, long vowels are indicated by writing ''alif'' (ا), ''waw'' (و), or ''yeh'' (ي). But unlike Arabic, this does not mean that the vowel diacritic can be dropped. It cannot, as there 8 vowels and not 3. Vowel "à" (◌ࣵ) does not have a long version. * For vowel "a" (◌َ), the vowel is lengthened (aa) with an ''alif'' (ا) * For vowels "e", "é", or "i", the vowel is lengthened (ee, ée, ii) with a ''yeh'' (ي). * For vowels "o", "ó", or "u", the vowel is lengthened (oo, óo, uu) with a ''waw'' (و). * The vowel "ë" is an exception, where it is lengthened (ëe) as if it's a vowel sequence (ë-ë), with an ''ayn'' and an "ë" diacritic (عࣴـ) The same principle is followed for when a long vowel is at the beginning of a word. An ''alif'' (ا) is used as the carrier of the vowel, followed by either ''waw'' (و) or ''yeh'' (ي) as appropriate. The exception is when a word starts with the long vowel "Aa". Instead of two ''alif''s (اا) being used, an ''alif-maddah'' (آ) is used.

Consonant diacritics

There are two consonant

in Wolofal alphabet. These are ''

shadda Shaddah ( , , also called by the verbal noun from the same root, tashdid ) is one of the diacritics used with the Arabic alphabet, indicating a geminated consonant. It is functionally equivalent to writing a consonant twice in the orthograp ...

'' (◌ّ) indicating

gemination In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...

, and ''

sukun The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, which include consonant pointing known as (, ), and supplementary diacritics known as (, ). The latter include the vowel marks termed (, ; , ', ). The Arabic script is a modified abjad, where all ...

'' (◌ْ) indicating zero-vowel. These two diacritics cannot appear on the same consonant simultaneously. Geminated consonants only ever occur either at the end of the word, or before a suffix. All consonants require either a vowel diacritic or one of these diacritics (or a vowel diacritic combined with ''shadda'') except in two cases: # When a consonant is prenasalized, and is thus shown with a digraph including either the letter ''m'' "م" or ''n'' "ن". In these cases, the letters ''m'' "م" or ''n'' "ن" will remain with no diacritic. # When the letter in question is ''alif'' (ا), ''waw'' (و), or ''yeh'' (ي) and its function in the word is to indicate a long vowel, it will remain unmarked. It is important to note that unlike Arabic, it is possible for a consonant to take ''

'' (◌ّ) while not having consonants. This phenomenon mostly occurs at the end of words. Native Wolof speakers pronounce geminated nouns not as doubles but simply longer. But the distinction is essential, as the meaning of a word can change. Table below provides some examples:

Prenasalized consonants

Prenasalized consonant Prenasalized consonants are phonetic sequences of a nasal and an obstruent (or occasionally a non-nasal sonorant) that behave phonologically like single consonants. The primary reason for considering them to be single consonants, rather than ...

s are written as a digraph (combination of two consonants). While historically, there were single letter alternatives, these letters are no longer used. Prenasalized consonants are constructed using ''meem'' (م) or ''noon'' (ن) in combination with other consonants. The letter ''meem'' (م) appears in pairs with ''beh'' (ب) or ''peh'' (ݒ), whereas the letter ''noon'' (ن) appears in pairs with ''teh'' (ت), ''ceh'' (ݖ‎), ''dal'' (د), ''jeem'' (ج), ''qaf'' (ق), ''kaf'' (ک), and ''geh'' (گ). Some digraphs cannot appear at the beginning of words, ''-mp'' (مݒ), ''-nc'' (نݖ), ''-nq'' (نق). Prenasalized consonants cannot take the zero-vowel diacritic ''

'' (◌ْ). If they are at the end of the word and have no vowels, they will take the gemination diacritic ''

'' (◌ّ). Some Wolof-speaking authors treat these digraphs as their own independent letters.

Sample text

Article 1 of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal D ...

Bibliography

* Mamadou Cissé: ''« Graphical borrowing and African realities »'' in Revue du Musée National d'Ethnologie d'Osaka, Japan, June 2000. * Mamadou Cissé: ''« Écrits et écritures en Afrique de l'Ouest »'' in Sud Langue

June 2006.
PanAfriL10n Wolof
{{Arabic alphabets Languages of the Gambia Arabic alphabets Writing systems of Africa Wolof language