Wolof (Senegal) style guide¶
Write natural Wolof that preserves what the reader can do and what the product has done. This page covers Latin-script Wolof with Senegal as the main locale; it does not prescribe Wolofal spelling or every regional variety. Use it with the shared language review and house guide. Complete translations need proficient-language review in their actual interface.
Voice, terminology and exact meaning¶
Choose a consistent form of address for the audience. yaw and yéen distinguish singular and plural “you”; nga and ngeen appear in their respective verb constructions. Wolof pronouns do not require the supplier's masculine-only form of address. Preserve ownership, person and number rather than copying an English pronoun mechanically.
Use established terminology and record unresolved choices. Borrowing can be appropriate when readers know the term; unfamiliar English is not automatically clear. Keep protected product names, filenames and versions exact, including config.sys and PPPoE. Do not uppercase every identifier or translate an ordinary word merely because it appears in an old unlocalized-items list.
Check the full meaning of every example:
- A command to copy selected items must copy them. The supplier's move-a-file procedure instead tells the reader to copy. Keep copying and moving distinct.
- Sotti is a source copy term. The shortcut table's conflicting cut/copy labels cannot establish approved terminology without checking each action.
- Creating a new object differs from creating another copy. Keep the object, destination and selection scope, including “all” where it matters.
- A required selection must not become mere permission or ability. Mën ngëena does not by itself preserve “must”. Keep a retry instruction's repetition even when editing out other redundant words.
- Seetal sa wëralukaay bi contains the reader's possessive sa. Removing it by a blanket rule can lose who owns the browser or setting.
- A Datasheet View label must identify that view. A completion message must report completion, not ask the reader to perform an unrelated action.
Use sentence case in headings and controls, preserving proper names and exact UI labels. Do not force every heading into a noun phrase or every command into one English-derived template. Support factual claims and superlatives with evidence. Retain copyright owners and required notices; the supplier's old project rules do not determine every product's notice placement or wording.
Characters, spelling and punctuation¶
Keep accents and distinct letters in uppercase as well as lowercase: à À, é É, ë Ë, ó Ó, ñ Ñ and ŋ Ŋ. The source's Latin inventory omits ŋ and substitutes ð in damaged examples. That is eth, a different letter. ñaar needs ñ, not ð; Seriñ ends in ñ. Do not globally replace ng with ñ: ngir has a different sequence.
| Pair | Lowercase | Uppercase |
|---|---|---|
| ñ Ñ | U+00F1 | U+00D1 |
| ŋ Ŋ | U+014B | U+014A |
| ó Ó | U+00F3 | U+00D3 |
Vowel and consonant length can change a word. Preserve distinctions such as xar / xaar and toog / togg rather than removing repeated letters. Use the chosen standard orthography; the supplier's long French-style phonetic sample is not a model for product spelling. Alphabet and CLDR exemplar lists are not input whitelists for people's names or imported identifiers.
Use a locale-aware collator. Sorting is not a rule to ignore the first letter or remove all accents. Test mixed-case text, ñ, ŋ, accented vowels and doubled letters. Check that normalization preserves the text's identity.
Punctuation should express the Wolof sentence. « … » illustrates guillemets with nonbreaking internal spaces. U+00A0 is a nonbreaking space; … is U+2026, not the old decimal 133 code-page value. Use a keyboard method supported by the platform instead of prescribing one universal key chord.
Distinguish a hyphen, a range dash and a minus sign: 30–59 and −5 have different meanings. Preserve the literal hyphen in MS-DOS; prevent wrapping through layout if needed rather than changing the identifier's character. Keep resource escapes separate from display punctuation. A nonbreaking space can hold 25 kg together, but does not determine a locale's grouping separator. Compounds such as xam-xam need their own spelling, not a blanket hyphen rule.
Grammar and complete sentences¶
Wolof has noun classes expressed through articles and related agreement forms. ab jumtukaay / ay jumtukaay and ab jëfandaay / ay jëfandaay illustrate singular and plural indefinite phrases. bi / yi illustrate a definite class pairing, not the correct articles for every noun. Review the noun, article and modifier together; a French-style masculine/feminine rule based on the first noun does not describe Wolof agreement.
Possession and genitive constructions do apply. sama, sa, sunu and seen distinguish possessors. samay and say also carry number information about what is possessed. The linking -u occurs in Yaayu Amy and Xaritu Faatu, the Peace Corps manual's examples of a named possessor. Source forms jumtukaayu / jumtukaayi illustrate why complete noun phrases need review. Do not attach English possessive 's to a brand name.
Modifiers and relative constructions cannot be dismissed as inapplicable. Check the relevant class form, including bu or yu where required. Do not force singular nouns into every fragment: a count or plural selection must remain plural. A shortened label still needs to identify the correct object.
Commands such as Yokkal, Faral and Soppil illustrate singular imperative forms, not infinitives or second-person plural forms. The Peace Corps manual distinguishes singular -al / -l from plural leen constructions. Use the form appropriate to the actual audience and keep negation intact.
Verb constructions distinguish aspect, focus, time and modality. Dem naa, Dinaa dem and Damay dem illustrate different constructions; they are not interchangeable labels for an ongoing operation. A phrase with mën expresses ability, and bëgg expresses wanting. Neither alone establishes that converting, installing or loading is currently happening.
Preserve the relationship between actions. A purpose or condition must not become an accomplished fact through a blanket ban on subjunctive constructions. English split-infinitive rules do not determine Wolof word order. Keep the actor, negation, sequence, destination and degree of certainty when shortening. Review idioms for meaning rather than translating their words separately.
Dates, time and calendar names¶
Use the formatter for the selected language, territory and Gregorian calendar. The supplier's day and month spellings differ substantially from CLDR 48. These comparisons preserve the source forms without making them runtime defaults.
| Day | Source | CLDR 48 |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | Altine | Altine |
| Tue | Tlaatai | Talaata |
| Wed | Alarba | Àlarba |
| Thu | Alxames | Alxamis |
| Fri | Ajuma | Àjjuma |
| Sat | Asset | Aseer |
| Sun | Gaawo | Dibéer |
The supplier's abbreviations are Alt., Taa., Ala., Alx., Alj., Ase. and Gaa., Monday through Sunday. Do not mix a full-name set with unrelated short forms. Week start and the first numbered week of a year are separate settings.
| Month | Source | CLDR 48 |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | Sanvié | Samwiyee |
| Feb | Febirye | Fewriyee |
| Mar | Mars | Mars |
| Apr | Awril | Awril |
| May | Mée | Mee |
| Jun | Suyen | Suwe |
| Jul | Sulye | Sulet |
| Aug | Utt | Ut |
| Sep | Setambr | Sàttumbar |
| Oct | Octobr | Oktoobar |
| Nov | Nofambr | Nowàmbar |
| Dec | Desambr | Desàmbar |
The source's short forms are San, Fëb, Mar, Awr, Mée, Suy, Sul, Utt, Set, Oct, Nof and Des. Select a consistent reviewed set or use the chosen formatter's forms. A French month inside a supplier date example is not proof of the Wolof locale's spelling.
Source times 23:43:12, 03:06:09 and 13 h 09 illustrate different presentations. Match seconds, separators and precision to the task. Do not infer that 12-hour time is impossible because a source table leaves AM/PM blank. Pattern tokens are API-specific; use the formatter's documented date and time patterns, not a copied token string. Keep an actual instant unchanged.
Numbers, units and contact details¶
CLDR 48 Wolof specifies a decimal comma and full-stop grouping, as in 1.234,5. The supplier and Mozilla instead show space grouping, such as 1 234,5. Keep that distinction explicit when choosing product formatting. A nonbreaking space in prose is not evidence that every formatter uses it for thousands. Preserve identifiers, values, ranges and percentages exactly.
For Senegal, identify the currency with XOF where a code is needed. CLDR's default XOF currency formatting has zero fractional digits; the supplier's universal two-decimal rule is not that default. If the task supplies a value such as 246,88 with required precision, do not silently round it merely to match a display example. The colloquial counting unit dërëm equals five CFA francs in the Peace Corps manual; it is not a one-for-one replacement for the currency unit. Preserve the amount when translating a spoken price.
Keep standard unit symbols and case: km, m, dm, cm, mm; hL, L, dL, cL, mL; t, kg, g, dg, cg, mg and °C. Decimetres are dm, not decametres dam; decigrams are dg, not decagrams dag. Centigrams cg differ from hectograms hg. The supplier's conflicting spelled-out units must not change the scale. Local names such as meetar do not authorize changing an SI symbol.
Distinguish MB, Mbit, MB/s, Mbit/s, Hz and kHz. Mozilla's 24 okte changes the source's 24 bits into 24 bytes. Preserve the actual unit and quantity rather than copying either example without checking it. Use abbreviations readers understand; source pairs sim. / simili, wxt / waxtu and wr / weer need context and glossary review. An imported French abbreviation such as Go is not automatically a Wolof standard. Keep HTML, RAM, URL, DNS and TCP/IP intact.
Senegal's +221 plan has nine-digit ordinary national numbers, illustrated by +221 AA BBB CC DD. Mali's +223 plan uses eight digits for ordinary fixed and mobile numbers: +223 AA BB CC DD. Short service codes differ. The supplier's ten-digit example must not become a shared rule for both countries. These masks show structure, not allocated numbers; verify actual contact details before publication.
Keep the address's recipient, locality, delivery method and country accurate. A post-office-box reference is not automatically a postcode. Choose clearly fictional people and non-callable contact examples. Supplier sample names and addresses do not prove permission to republish a real person's contact details.
Messages, interface controls and final review¶
Write each label for its role: menu categories, buttons, dialog titles, groups, tabs, list entries and checkbox states need context. Tooltips should explain a control when needed. Distinguish an instruction, work in progress and completion; a command ending in -al is not automatically a suitable status label.
Errors must retain the failed operation, object, condition and useful recovery. Mënul and jàppandiwul are source expressions to evaluate in a sentence, not universal replacements for every error. A message about memory must concern the computer's memory, not the reader's intelligence or recollection. Keep memory and storage distinct, and preserve present inability versus past failure.
The source's %s doxatul moo tax ñu tëj ko adds an explicit causal relation. Do not claim that the failure caused the closure unless the source message and actual behavior establish that relationship. Likewise, retain whether an item is missing, inaccessible or unavailable rather than flattening all three into one generic failure.
Keep parameter syntax exact: %d, %ld, %u, %lu, %c, %s, %1!d!, %2!d! and %1!-.200s!. Source phrases ci %d fan and %d simili need complete-message checks with zero, one and several values. Preserve %1 and dynamic names where present; never translate the specifier, remove the count or substitute a fixed noun for unknown data.
Match key names to the actual keyboard. Maj, Échap, Entrée and Espace can be relevant French keycaps; they are not mandatory on every Wolof user's device. Distinguish Ctrl+Shift+Esc from the source’s Ctrl+Maj+Suppr, which substitutes Delete for Escape, and F10 from Alt. The supplier's inconsistent shortcut table is not proof that these are interchangeable. Test access keys, arrows, numeric-keypad behavior and character entry without assigning conflicts.
Review screen-reader names, focus order, keyboard access, zoom and narrow layouts. Check accented capitals, ñ, ŋ and doubled letters after copy, search and export. Use the shared review checklist for final terminology, formatting, message and interaction checks.
Adapted from Microsoft Wolof guidance and Mozilla's Wolof community guide. Credits record sources, corrections, review scope and Mozilla source notices and adaptation terms.