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33-645: The total population is estimated to be 15,000. Most of the Bassari are concentrated on either side of the Senegal-Guinea border southwest of Kedougou , Kédougou Region , which is part of the larger Bassari Country . This area is referred to in French as Pays Bassari , or liyan in the Bassari language . They migrate to the cities and towns of Senegal and Guinea in the dry season in search of wage-labor, using

66-478: A Senegalese human rights group, the mass arrest and torture of suspects. There were also reports that many residents fled the town, some as far as Guinea . Security forces reported one dead, 23 civilians and 10 gendarmes wounded. Kédougou has a tropical savanna climate ( Köppen Aw ) featuring hot to sweltering, rainless winters and hot, rainy summers. Wolof language Wolof ( / ˈ w oʊ l ɒ f / WOH -lof ; Wolof làkk , وࣷلࣷفْ لࣵکّ )

99-469: A circular center. Though the true meaning behind this motif is a secret held by their initiation society, it is theorized to be symbolic of the hierarchy of knowledge involving the progression of levels within the society. This is deduced by the significance of the number six within Bassari precolonial mathematics, and its relationship to the Bassari calendar as well as divination rites. Bassari dancers often employ special rattles known as Bamboyo. Each Bamboyo

132-461: A community radio station and library, a Peace Corps Office and a number of small businesses. The most commonly spoken languages are Pulaar , Bassari , Bedik , Diakhanké , Malinké and French . In 2007, according to official estimates, Kédougou had a population of 18,860. A proposed railway branching off the existing line at Tambacounda would serve this town. The gold-mining industry has brought several large-scale foreign mining companies to

165-481: A cultural hero in the area as someone who gives training to local woman in industry skills. Participants have dubbed her the Queen of the fonio, and the festival serves as a place for political speeches, traditional singing and dances, and the gifting of offerings made to Ndiaye. The Bassari speak o -niyan , which is a Tenda language . They refer to themselves as a-liyan , pl. be-liyan, which translates to "those of

198-569: A decree, as the effort by the Senegalese ministry of education was to be part of a multi-national standardization effort. This alphabet has been used since pre-colonial times, as the first writing system to be adopted for Wolof, and is still used by many people, mainly Imams and their students in Quranic and Islamic schools. Additionally, another script exists: Garay , an alphabetic script invented by Assane Faye 1961, which has been adopted by

231-652: A faint epenthetic schwa vowel. Of the consonants in the chart above, p d c k do not occur in the intermediate or final position, being replaced by f r s and zero, though geminate pp dd cc kk are common. Phonetic p c k do occur finally, but only as allophones of b j g due to final devoicing . Minimal pairs : Unlike most sub-Saharan African languages, Wolof has no tones . Other non-tonal languages of sub-Saharan Africa include Amharic , Swahili and Fula . In Wolof, verbs are unchangeable stems that cannot be conjugated. To express different tenses or aspects of an action, personal pronouns are conjugated – not

264-463: A leafy mass or a chameleon. Each of the three levels of the society gives initiators access to the roles of masks and kore, which in turn creates six modes of simulated entities. Kore, along with many other initiation societies were almost destroyed under the Sekou Toure regime of the 1960's. Toure's Militia performed public unmasking ceremonies in front of women and children in order to undermine

297-561: A small number of Wolof speakers. The first syllable of words is stressed ; long vowels are pronounced with more time but are not automatically stressed, as they are in English. The vowels are as follows: There may be an additional low vowel, or this may be confused with orthographic à . All vowels may be long (written double) or short. /aː/ is written ⟨à⟩ before a long (prenasalized or geminate) consonant (example làmbi "arena"). When é and ó are written double,

330-703: A −ATR root, any further suffixes harmonize with the root. That is, the +ATR suffix/clitic is "transparent" to vowel harmony. An example is the negative -u- in, Door-u-ma-leen-fa /dɔːrumalɛːnfa/ begin- NEG - 1SG - 3PL - LOC Door-u-ma-leen-fa /dɔːrumalɛːnfa/ begin-NEG-1SG-3PL-LOC 'I did not begin them there.' where harmony would predict *door-u-më-léén-fë . That is, I or U behave as if they are their own −ATR analogs. Authors differ in whether they indicate vowel harmony in writing, as well as whether they write clitics as separate words. Consonants in word-initial position are as follows: All simple nasals, oral stops apart from q and glottal, and

363-628: 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 belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo language family. Unlike most other languages of its family, Wolof is not a tonal language . Wolof

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396-526: Is composed of twenty plaited capsules, with each capsule being folded in an antiprism using a single palm leaf. 12°35′36″N 12°50′45″W  /  12.5933°N 12.8458°W  / 12.5933; -12.8458 Kedougou Kédougou ( Wolof : Keédugu) is a town in the Kédougou Region of south-eastern Senegal near the border with Mali and Guinea . It lies at an elevation of 167 m (548 ft) above sea level. Founded by

429-488: Is most often written in this orthography, in which phonemes have a clear one-to-one correspondence to graphemes . Table below is the Wolof Latin alphabet and the corresponding phoneme. Highlighted letters are only used for loanwords and are not included in native Wolof words. The Arabic -based script of Wolof, referred to as Wolofal , was set by the government as well, between 1985 and 1990, although never adopted by

462-657: Is one of the Senegambian languages , which are characterized by consonant mutation . It is often said to be closely related to the Fula language because of a misreading by Wilson (1989) of the data in Sapir (1971) that have long been used to classify the Atlantic languages. Senegalese/Mauritanian Wolof and Gambian Wolof are distinct national standards: they use different orthographies and use different languages (French vs. English) as their source for technical loanwords. However, both

495-461: Is spoken by more than 10 million people and about 40 percent (approximately 5 million people) of Senegal's population speak Wolof as their native language. Increased mobility, and especially the growth of the capital Dakar, created the need for a common language: today, an additional 40 percent of the population speak Wolof as a second or acquired language . In the whole region from Dakar to Saint-Louis , and also west and southwest of Kaolack , Wolof

528-568: Is spoken by the vast majority of people. Typically when various ethnic groups in Senegal come together in cities and towns, they speak Wolof. It is therefore spoken in almost every regional and departmental capital in Senegal. Nevertheless, the official language of Senegal is French . In The Gambia , although about 20–25 percent of the population speak Wolof as a first language, it has a disproportionate influence because of its prevalence in Banjul ,

561-495: 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. The principal dialect of Dakar , for instance, is an urban mixture of Wolof, French , and Arabic . Wolof is the standard spelling and may also refer to the Wolof ethnicity or culture. Variants include

594-686: The Malinké people , Kédougou means the "Land of Man". The town lies on the N7 road and the River Gambia amid the Pays Bassari hills and Fouta Djallon foothills. Local attractions include the Dindefelo Falls and Niokolo-Koba National Park . The main sources of income in the town are agriculture, small-scale commerce, construction, and gold mining . There is a military camp, a hospital,

627-505: The laterite ." While o-niyan is the traditional language of the Bassari people, the Kedougou population is also fluent in Wolof , which is one of the vernacular language between Senegal villages. French is the official language of Senegal, but only educated men are fluent in it. Some training courses have taught some of the women French, but due to structural inequalities most educational opportunities remain inaccessible to women. Most of

660-463: The Fonio is an annual event used to popularize the usage of fonio as a local crop and food in the Kedougou region. Previous to the festival, fonio was often associated with the poor, so the event serves to legitimize fonio's cultural significance and its usage as an adaption to climate change. The festival is largely thanks to a local Economic Interest Group ran by Adja Aissatou Aya Ndiaye, who has become

693-622: The Gambian capital, where 75 percent of the population use it as a first language. Furthermore, in Serekunda , The Gambia's largest town, although only a tiny minority are ethnic Wolofs, approximately 70 percent of the population speaks or understands Wolof. In Mauritania , about seven percent of the population (approximately 185,000 people) speak Wolof. Most live near or along the Senegal River that Mauritania shares with Senegal. Wolof

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726-495: The Kédougou area. This has been a source of tension with some local residents, who point to a lack of jobs available to locals. In late 2008, protests over the practices of gold mines in the region turned violent. On 23 December 2008, a protest march culminated in the burning of government buildings and the security forces firing on demonstrators. The next several days saw widespread destruction of property, looting, and according to

759-522: The accent mark is often only on the first letter. Vowels fall into two harmonizing sets according to ATR : i u é ó ë are +ATR, e o a are the −ATR analogues of é ó ë . For example, Lekk-oon-ngeen /lɛkːɔːnŋɡɛːn/ eat- PAST - FIN . 2PL Lekk-oon-ngeen /lɛkːɔːnŋɡɛːn/ eat-PAST-FIN.2PL 'You (plural) ate.' Dóor-óon-ngéen /doːroːnŋɡeːn/ hit- PAST - FIN . 2PL Dóor-óon-ngéen /doːroːnŋɡeːn/ hit-PAST-FIN.2PL 'You (plural) hit.' There are no −ATR analogs of

792-651: The cultural relevancy of the society, followed by a beating of the men and burnings of ritual objects.The Bassari tradition however has survived. The Bassari have a long standing tradition of metallurgy which have been included in European records since the late 19th century. Importing materials through trade with the Coniagui for iron ore and Fula for copper, the Bassari process these metals within their own line of blacksmiths to craft tools and jewelry. Bassari initiation masks most commonly involve rings of hexagons around

825-401: The first stage occurs when a boy is fifteen, in which he is temporarily separated from his family to undergo a symbolic rebirth as an initiate into the society. This rebirth is mythically possible due to an entity known as endaw, which is a formless being that exists as a guttural sound performed by initiates, and this sound is its only mode of existence. Endaw is often represented visually as

858-502: The group are animists , with a significant minority of Christians (both Catholic and Protestant ). Very few Bassari are Muslims . The mythology of the Bassari is centered on the creation god Unumbotte . To the Bassari male adulthood is defined by entrance into the Bassari sect of the Kore initiation society, which in turn has three distinct levels of adulthood, each lasts six years and has its own initiation process. Initiation into

891-426: The high vowels i u . They trigger +ATR harmony in suffixes when they occur in the root, but in a suffix, they may be transparent to vowel harmony. The vowels of some suffixes or enclitics do not harmonize with preceding vowels. In most cases following vowels harmonize with them. That is, they reset the harmony, as if they were a separate word. However, when a suffix/clitic contains a high vowel (+ATR) that occurs after

924-632: The money they earn to buy household equipment, clothing and other necessary items. Within the Kedougou Region, there are three cultural landscapes divided between the Bassari, the Bedik , and the Fula people . The area of Kedougou inhabited by the Bassari is known as Salemata . On the Guinean side of the border, the Bassari mainly live in a group of villages collectively referred to as Bokore, which can be translated to "Those of Kore ," Kore being

957-565: The name of the initiation society within the region. The Bassari are subsistence farmers for the most part, growing rice , millet , earth-peas and fonio . Within Bassari Country around 80% of production is for self consumption, as the off season from August to November are particular harsh agriculturally. The Bassari particularly have been documented to stock pile food for 2–3 years in advance, which also opens up opportunity for market trade with neighboring communities. The Festival of

990-666: The older French Ouolof , Jollof , or Jolof , which 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 . English is believed to have adopted some Wolof loanwords , such as banana , via Spanish or Portuguese , and nyam , used also in Spanish: 'ñam' as an onomatopoeia for eating or chewing, in several Caribbean English Creoles meaning "to eat" (compare Seychellois Creole nyanmnyanm , also meaning "to eat"). Wolof

1023-414: The sonorants l r y w may be geminated (doubled), though geminate r only occurs in ideophones . (Geminate consonants are written double.) Q is inherently geminate and may occur in an initial position; otherwise, geminate consonants and consonant clusters, including nt, nc, nk, nq ( [ɴq] ), are restricted to word-medial and -final position. In the final place, geminate consonants may be followed by

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1056-569: The spoken and written languages are mutually intelligible. Lebu Wolof , on the other hand, is incomprehensible to standard Wolof speakers, a distinction that has been obscured because all Lebu speakers are bilingual in standard Wolof. Note: Phonetic transcriptions are printed between square brackets [] following the rules of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The Latin orthography of Wolof in Senegal

1089-434: Was set by government decrees between 1971 and 1985. The language institute " Centre de linguistique appliquée de Dakar " (CLAD) is widely acknowledged as an authority when it comes to spelling rules for Wolof. The complete alphabet is A, À, B, C, D, E, É, Ë, F, G, I, J, K, L, M, N, Ñ, Ŋ, O, Ó, P, Q, R, S, T, U, W, X, Y. The letters H, V, and Z are not included in native Wolof words. They are only used in foreign words. Wolof

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