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The List Who Cried Wolof!

A list of 252 words by bilby.

About

Some charming translations lifted from The Wolof-Multilanguage Live Dictionary Project. Think of it as a survival phrasebook for your upcoming jolly to Mauritania.

Comments

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  • sionnach Was DSK studying the handbook from which this list is derived? Jun 7, 2011

  • bilby Thanks Blaff. There are lots more great and funny lists around, so keep looking :-) May 26, 2009

  • blafferty This is the best list ever. I haven't laughed so hard in years. Thanks! May 26, 2009

  • bilby Pain! Glorious pain! Mar 26, 2009

  • lea "Listening to the Wolof language makes my head hurt.- Tweet found on Twitter. Mar 26, 2009

  • bilby In the home stretch now, thunderfrogs are go. Mar 23, 2009

  • frogapplause I'm addicted to this list now. Keep it coming, bilbycakes! Mar 22, 2009

  • lea I think Wolof is the sexiest language from now on, in my book. Officially. Nobody can resist that language. It is the language of love. Not French. French is boring. Mar 14, 2009

  • sonofgroucho This is a truly great, if somewhat baffling, list! Mar 9, 2009

  • nycanthro Thanks bilby, I know I'm kinda lazy, treating this place like a wiktionary with live operators (not that my queries are generally heeded) LOL.

    That said, I doubt I could find a decent Wolof translation of 'Leprechaun'. But stranger things have happened.

    When I lived in Kalamazoo (Woolloomoolloo's much colder sister city) I had the opportunity to experience snowfall again for the first time with a Senegalese exchange student named Mamadou. I still get a chuckle remembering that giant of a man taking tentative baby steps trying to avoid a pratfall on the slippery cobblestones of Academy street.

    You make great lists. Mar 9, 2009

  • bilby If you look at the blogroll of the site that is the source of this material, there are many links to Wolof resources on the internet. I hope you can find what you are looking for there, nyca. Mar 9, 2009

  • bilby Thanks V. There's an interesting linguistic angle to this pun on the Wikipedia page for Wolof.

    Yep, I'm puzzled too :-) Mar 9, 2009

  • nycanthro Everything I know of Wolof I learned from Senegalese cab drivers and sidewalk vendors in my city. I can't spell anything, as it was all transmitted orally, but I'm partial to an uncommon response to "How are you?" (nan ga def) "I'm walking around in circles".

    I'd love to know how to write them. Can the author of this list provide some original spellings (or anyone else for that matter)? Also, I'd love to know how to tell a Wolof speaker that they make me feel like a leprechaun because they're generally so tall and statuesque. Really lovely people, in my experience. Mar 9, 2009

  • valse wonderful list name :) The list itself I find a little puzzling, but I'm curious Mar 9, 2009