Senegambian languages
The Senegambian languages, also known as Northern West Atlantic, are a branch of the Atlantic–Congo family. They are mainly spoken from Mauritania to Guinea, including Senegal, southern Mauritania, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea. The Fula (Fulani) languages have spread across the region, extending into the western and central Sahel.
Wolof is the most widely used language in this group, with about four million native speakers and many more who speak it as a second language. Together, the Fula varieties total around 13 million speakers, and Serer has over a million speakers.
A distinctive feature of Senegambian languages is that they are not tonal, unlike most other Atlantic–Congo languages. Another characteristic in some branches is consonant mutation, where the initial sound of a word changes in different forms.
The Senegambian family includes several language groups and varieties, such as Fula–Wolof (a controversial label), Bak languages, Cangin languages, Wolof (including Lebu), Kasanga, Kobiana, Banyum, Baïnounk, Nalu, Serer, and clusters like Bassari–Bedik and Jaad (Badjara/Biafada) among others. The status of Nalu is uncertain because it is poorly documented.
Like many Niger–Congo languages, Senegambian languages use noun-class systems. In the Fula–Serer branch, these noun classes are shown with suffixes or a mix of prefixes and suffixes, rather than with prefixes alone. Some scholars think these suffixes come from determiners that later agreed with the noun class.
Classification notes: in Glottolog, the Senegambian languages are listed under North-Central Atlantic. Over time, researchers have refined the groupings and relationships within the branch, partly because early classifications were based on incomplete data.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 19:55 (CET).