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VOWELS

VOWEL	ENGLISH EQUIVALENT	WOLOF EXAMPLES
a	absorb naan	sant last name
aa	far sore	laaj question
e	get jot	dem to go
ee	where ana	seet examine
é	say wax	bés day
ée	sane regle	wéer lean against
ë	bird picc	kër house
i	pit leeñ	fit courage
ii	meet daje	siis not wanting to share
o	moment saa	fomp wipe clean
ó	no déedéet	jóg get up
oo	door bunt	loos neck
óo	phone telefon	fóon to smell
u	cook togg	ubbi to open
uu	moon weer	juuyoo to miss each other

CONSONANTS

CONSONANT	ENGLISH EQUIVALENT	WOLOF EXAMPLES
b	boy bóoy	ban clay
c	chat werante	ceeb rice
d	dog xaj	dara nothing
f	fire safara	fas tie
g	good baax	agsi arrive
j	job liggéey	jox give
k	keep denc	kaani hot pepper
l	land suuf	lakk burn
m	mark màndarga	naam answer to name
n	nice rafet	àdduna life here below
ñ	genius xel	gaañ hurt
p	paint pentuur	puso sewing needle
r	rat janax	raxas cleanse
s	soup supp	kawas sock
t	take fab	tubaab westerner
w	wait nég	kéwél red-fronted gazelle
x	(see note) *	xaalis money
y	yes waaw	yaa to be wide

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

PRENASALIZED CONSONANTS

CONSONANT	WOLOF EXAMPLES
mb	mbaa otherwise
mp	dàmp massage
nd	ndey expression of pity
ng	ngan to be the guest of a host
nj	njaay sale

VELAR NASAL

ŋ	masoŋ builder

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

Basic layout for pronunciation guide adopted from the Peace Corps Wolof English dictionary.

Wolof pronunciation is primarily a one-to-one correlation between graphemes (distinct units of writing) and phonemes (distinct units of sound). In other words, each letter of the Wolof alphabet should correspond to a single vocal pronunciation.

Vowel	How to Pronounce
a	pronounce a as in ‘butter‘
à	pronounce à as in British ‘life‘
aa	pronounce aa as in ‘far’
e	pronounce e as in ‘bedroom‘
ee	pronounce ee as in ‘where’
é	pronounce é as in ‘big‘
éé	pronounce éé as in ‘sane’
ë	pronounce ë as in ‘bird‘
i	pronounce i as in ‘beetle‘
ii	pronounce ii as in ‘meet’
o	pronounce o as in ‘hot‘
ó	pronounce ó as in French ‘beau‘
oo	pronounce oo as in ‘door’
óó	pronounce óó as in ‘phone’
u	pronounce u as in ‘book‘ (with lips rounded)
uu	pronounce uu as in ‘moon’

Wolof vowels can be written twice to indicate they are pronounced as long vowels.

e.g. xol (heart); xool (to look at).

Consonant	How to Pronounce
b	pronounce b as in ‘boy’
c	pronounce c as in ‘chat‘ (with tongue close to top front teeth)
d	pronounce d as in ‘dog’
f	pronounce f as in ‘fire’
g	pronounce g as in ‘good’
j	pronounce j as in ‘jazz’ (with tongue close to top front teeth)
k	pronounce k as in ‘cool’
l	pronounce l as in ‘land’
m	pronounce m as in ‘moon’
n	pronounce n as in ‘not’
ñ	pronounce ñ as in ‘onion‘ (with tip of tongue behind front teeth)
p	pronounce p as in ‘park’
q	pronounce q like a ‘k‘ pulled back into throat (audio example: sëqat — cough)
r	pronounce r as in ‘rat’
s	pronounce s as in ‘sign’
t	pronounce t as in ‘stamp’
w	pronounce w as in ‘war’
x	pronounce x as in Scottish ‘loch‘
y	pronounce y as in ‘your’

For prenasalized consonants slightly pronounce the initial letter while putting greater emphasis on the second letter. For example: mBUH for the consonant mb (hint: form your lips like you are about to make the sound for m and then sound out b). The proper way to do this is through the nose but even if you have trouble nasalizing simply pronouncing it like the example above should suffice.

Prenasalized consonants: mb, mp, nd, ng, nj.

Finally, there’s one other nasalized consonant that is found in some Wolof words. It is called the velar nasal and it looks like ŋ. This letter is pronounced similar to the ng in the English word single.

With the exception of f, s, and r, all consonants have long and short counterparts. Long consonants are indicated by double consonants.

e.g. dalla (shoes); matta (firewood). When pronounced slowly one hears: dal–la; mat–ta (especially in Gambian Wolof).

To an outsider a terminal (ending letter) b, and a terminal p are often very similar. The sound that is heard depends on the word following. Terminal c and j are also close.

You may come across some Wolof sources that leave out accented letters. These accents are important because words that are spelled similarly can have completely different meanings.

e.g. reer (supper) / réer (to be lost); woor (to fast) / wóor (to be sure).

Different orthographies may employ different pronunciation rules but the rules here are the most common (or very near approximations of these rules).

These are the same word spelled using different orthographic rules:

jëre–jëf / djeredieuf (thank you).

As the same word they are pronounced the same despite differing spelling. The first spelling is the standardized CLAD spelling — the second spelling is a common Francophone (French) spelling. In the first one the initial j (and the following j) is pronounced how we would more or less pronounce it in English (like the j in ‘jazz’), while the second one starts with a d instead of a j yet that d (or dj) and the following d is still pronounced much like the j in the first example since French d‘s usually have an English j-ish sound. 

Some written examples of Wolof syllables & approximate pronunciation:

bayyi baiy∘yi (cancel)
sàngara saan∘ga∘ra (alcohol)
mbàjj mbaaj (blanket)
bët buht (eye)
ñépp nyip (all)
penku pen∘koo (east)
ci biti chee bee∘tee (outside)
ndox ndokh (water)
mbedd mbed (street)

Ndax dégg nga angale? ndakh deg nguh an∘ga∘ley (Do you speak English?)

Benn waxtu moo jot. ben wakh∘too moh jot (It’s one o’clock.)

Maangi dem ndakaaru. maan∘gee dem nda∘kaa∘roo (I’m going to Dakar.)

More written examples here.

A few English words that sound nearly the same as some Wolof words:

bought / boot (carry on back)
your / yoo (mosquito)
rare / reer (dinner)
rub / rab (beast)
rat / rat (a type of plant)
rye / raay (caress)

Some audio examples of Wolof pronunciation:

More audio examples here.

Portions of this document have been adopted from the works of David P. Gamble.

The following links will open in a new tab:

Back-released velar click (Wikipedia)

Final consonants with nasal release (Wikipedia)

Click to access sounds.pdf

For more on Wolof pronunciation click here.