Cover not available
Part of
Anthropological Linguistics: Perspectives from Africa
Edited by Andrea Hollington, Alice Mitchell and Nico Nassenstein
[Culture and Language Use 23] 2024
► pp. 306–330

Chapter 12
Perception and expression of color among the Wolof of Senegal

| Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar

The analysis and description of color terms has re-emerged at the center of discussions in contemporary anthropological linguistic research (based on well-established previous studies over the past decades). However, work on color terms is still lacking in most West African linguistic research, particularly in Senegal. Wolof, a lingua franca spoken mainly in Senegal, has three basic colors used with adverbs that are never used in other contexts, namely ñuul ‘black’, ñuul kukk ‘extremely black’, weex ‘white’, weex tàll ‘extremely white’, xonq ‘red’ and xonq coyy ‘extremely red’, around which gravitate other shades of color whose terms are taken from the surrounding vocabulary. The aim of this chapter is first to present the color concepts and their “shades” in Wolof and to discuss the question of the morphosyntactic encoding of color terms in linguistic constructions. We will also consider their classification on the basis of their semantic properties and occurrence in idiomatic expressions. Finally, we will show how the community identifies itself through colors and what symbolic representations of colors exist in the Wolof-speaking community.

Keywords: categorization, color, cultural representation, morphosyntactic encoding, Wolof
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Wolof: The ethnolinguistic context, data and the present study
    • 1.2General theoretical framework on color terminology
  • 2.Terminology of color concepts in Wolof
  • 3.Categorization of colors in Wolof
    • 3.1Basic color terms
      • 3.1.1Black, red and white
      • 3.1.2Other linguistic operations with basic color terms
      • 3.1.3Cultural connotations related to basic color terms
        • i.The color white
        • ii.Idiomatic expressions with ñuul ‘black’
        • iii.Idiomatic expressions with xonq ‘to be red’
    • 3.2Secondary color terms
    • 3.3Luminosity, brightness, saturation, brilliance
    • 3.4Syntactic operations
  • 4.Names of colors distinguishing animate referents
    • 4.1Human beings
    • 4.2Animals
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 1 February 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.23.12sal
References
Berlin, B. & Kay, P.
(1969) Basic color terms. Their universality and evolution. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Boilat, D.
(1858) Grammaire de la langue woloffe. Imprimerie Impériale.Google Scholar
Church, E.
(1981) Le système verbal du wolof. Documents Linguistiques, 27. Département de Linguistique Générale et Négro-africaine, Dakar.Google Scholar
Cissé, M.
(2009) Parole chantée et communication sociale chez les Wolof du Sénégal. Harmattan.Google Scholar
Dard, J.
(1826) Grammaire wolofe. Imprimerie Royale.Google Scholar
Diagne, P.
(1971) Grammaire du wolof moderne. Présence Africaine.Google Scholar
Diagne, M.
(2017) Langue et dénomination de la couleur: Analyse croisée dans deux langues du Sénégal, le bayot et le wolof. Sciences et Techniques du Langage, 13.Google Scholar
Dialo, A.
(1981) Structures verbales du wolof contemporain. Centre linguistique appliquée de Dakar.Google Scholar
(1983) Eléments systématiques du wolof contemporain. In Centre linguistique appliquée de Dakar (Ed.), Les langues nationales du Sénégal, 24 (n.p.). Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar.Google Scholar
Diané, M.
(2012) L’expression des couleurs en mandinka de Kankan. Mandenkan, 48, 21–38.Google Scholar
Dimmendaal, G. J.
(2022) Nurturing language. Anthropological linguistics in an African context. De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diouf, Jean L.
(2003) Dictionnaire wolof-français et français-wolof. Karthala.Google Scholar
(2016) Particularités du Lébu. Un dialecte wolof (Unpublished manuscript).Google Scholar
Fal, A.
(1999) Précis de grammaire fonctionnelle de la langue wolof. Organisation Sénégalaise d’Appui au Développement (OSAD), Dakar.Google Scholar
Heider Rosch, E.
(1972) Universals in color naming and memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 93, 10–20. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hering, E.
(1964) Outlines of a theory of the light sense. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Jameson, K. A.
(2005) On the role of culture in color naming: Remarks on the articles of Paramei, Kay, Roberson, and Hardin on the topic of cognition, culture, and color experience. Cross-Cultural Research, 39(1), 88–106. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jameson, K., & D’Andrade, R. G.
(1997) It’s not really red, green, yellow, blue: An inquiry into perceptual color space. In C. L. Hardin & L. Maffi (Eds.), Color categories in thought and language (pp. 295–319). Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kay, P., & McDaniel, C. K.
(1978) The linguistic significance of the meanings of basic color terms. Language, 54(3), 610–646. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kay, P., & Maffi, L.
(1999) Color appearance and the emergence and evolution of color lexicons. American Anthropologist, 101, 743–760. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kay, P., Berlin, B., & Merrifield, W.
(1991) Biocultural implications of systems of color naming. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 1, 12–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kobès, A.
(1869) Grammaire de la langue wolofe. Saint-Joseph de Ngasobil: Mission Catholique. Imprimerie de la mission.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G.
(1997) Women, fire, and dangerous things. What categories reveal about the mind. The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Levinson, S.
(2000) Yélî Dnye and the theory of basic color terms. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 10(1), 3–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Robert, S.
(1991) Approche énonciative du système verbal: Le cas du wolof. CNRS Éditions.Google Scholar
Rosch, E.
(1975) The nature of mental codes for color categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 1(4), 303–322.Google Scholar
Sall, A. O., Dramé, M., & Diop, M.
(2021) Junney baat ci… Lexique suivi de chants galvanisant le cultivateur. Harmattan.Google Scholar
Sauvageot, S.
(1965) Description syntaxique d´un dialecte wolof: Le parler du Djolof. IFAN, Dakar.Google Scholar
Segerer, G., & Vanhove, M.
(2019) Color naming in Africa. In I. Raffaelli, D. Katunar & B. Kerovec (eds.), Lexicalization patterns in colour naming: A cross-linguistic perspective (pp. 287–330). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Siouffi, G., & van Raemdonck, D.
(2018) 100 fiches pour comprendre la linguistique. Editions Bréal.Google Scholar
Tornay, S. A. M.
(1979) Voir et nommer les couleurs. Journal des Africanistes, 49(1), 192–193.Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A.
(1992) Semantics, culture and cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific configurations. Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar

Other material

Ba Maryaama ama
(2007) Bataaxal bu gudde nii, ci tekkim Maam Yunus Jeŋ, Aram Faal. NEAS, Dakar.Google Scholar
Juuf Axmet, Aram Faal
(1996) Ndeyum àttum réew mi. PUBLIFAN, Dakar.Google Scholar
Diop Boubacar Boris
(2012) Doomi golo. EJO Editions, Dakar.Google Scholar
(2017) Bàmmeelu Kocc Barma, téereb nettali. EJO Editions, Dakar.Google Scholar
Ndao Séex Aliou
(2019) Dige géej. OSAD, Dakar.Google Scholar
(2020) Jigéen Faayda, recueil de nouvelles en wolof. OSAD, Dakar.Google Scholar
Mbaay, Lamin
(2020) Guddig Mbooyo. EJO Editions, Dakar.Google Scholar
WAX (Wolof Ak Xamle) on Twitter: “#wolof # wirgo yi Ban ak ban ngeen si xam?
2020Google Scholar