Wolof lessons

Wolof is the main tribal language is Senegal, and is spoken by about 80% of the population I believe, even more widely than French. We had several language lessons during orientation.

Greetings:
There is a more or less prescribed dialogue for greetings, which can take awhile. There are about a dozen phrases exchanged back and forth, beginning with:

Asalaam Maalekum.
Maalekum Salaam.
Na nga def? (How are you?)
Maa ngi fii rek (I am here only.)

And ending with the all purpose phrase, Alxamdulilaay (I am thanking God).

Just as often with tubaabs (white people), though, the exchange is a simple ça va (literally, it goes in French), repeated over and over again (ça va? ça va. ça va? ça va. ça va? ça va bien.) and accompanied by shaking the hand of everyone in the vicinity. Greetings are very important.

Counting:
Wolof counts on a base five system, so once you know 1-5, 10, 100, 1000, etc, you can count anything. So:
Benn=1
Juroom=5
Juroom-Benn=6
Fukk ak Juroom-Benn=16
Juroom-benn fukk=60
Juroom-benn fukk ak juroom-benn=66
And so on.

It gets more complicated with money, since there is also a system called dërëm, where the amount of CFA francs is divided by five. So if a vendor says 100, he could mean either 100 francs or 100 dërëm, which is 500 francs. I haven’t run into a problem with this, but it’s a little something extra to watch out for.


Names and Introductions:
Oumou Diop laa tudd. (I am named Oumou Diop.)

Volunteers were bequeathed with Senegalese names by office women in Thies, who mostly named us after themselves. I was named Oumou Diop (ooh-moo-johp), and was informed that now I would have to take after my namesake and “run like a horse” in the way she does. (This comment was followed by laughter; there is a good deal of insulting humor here.)

Another common question from men when introduced to female tubaabs is “Am nga jekker?” which means “Do you have a husband?” Most serious answers to this can cause trouble, especially since many men are on the lookout for either a green card or a second or third wife (and yes, polygamy is pretty obvious and open here). The best response is a joke, either “Waaw, am naa ñeent”—Yes, I have four—or “Deedeet, Danga ñaaw, begguma doon yu ñaaw”—No, you’re ugly, I don’t want ugly children. The latter seems a bit harsh, and I haven’t tried it yet, but apparently it’s taken in stride and is a pretty common joke.

Harassment:
By far the most common things I say in Wolof (after greetings) is “Ba beneen yoon, incha’allah”—next time, God willing. This is incredibly useful for children, beggars, vendors, and the like.