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Wolof and Fula (also known as Fulani) are both considered Senegambian languages (formerly part of the now-defunct “Atlantic” subfamily of Niger-Congo).Update: It appears to me now that “Niger-Congo” as a family may be equivocal and ostensible, as there is some additional disagreement regarding many of the constituent languages and subfamilies of the “Atlantic” grouping, as will be mentioned below. As the linguist Tom Martin explained to me on Quora, the Volta-Congo languages classed traditionally within Niger-Congo is an acceptable family, with the Fula-Serer family constituting a lineage that is likely related to Volta-Congo. As for other families classed traditionally under the “Atlantic” category beyond the Fula-Serer family, the diagnostic evidence of relatedness to Volta-Congo and also to Fula-Serer is either ambiguous or quite lacking, such as with Wolof, which is overall quite contrary to the existing literature on this family. However, I am now inclined to believe Tom Martin, since, beyond a handful of some fairly transparent lexical and grammatical similarities, Wolof (an erstwhile “Atlantic” language), for example, appears to be in a class unto its own and, at its core, when excluding possible borrowings, rather dissimilar to many assumed related languages around it (Fula-Serer and Volta-Congo included), particularly when looking at overall native lexicon and, to a degree, its noun-classification system. While I did a great deal of research to answer this question, and also tracking the evolution of the literature regarding Niger-Congo languages, I now suggest that the reader be aware of this amendment when I refer to the “Niger-Congo” family. However, bear in mind that Volta-Congo still constitutes the majority of the languages traditionally classed under Niger-Congo.Otherwise, they both have SVO basic constituent word orders and use verbal extensions, two traits that are typical of Niger-Congo languages, as are shown below.Fula:mi tott-ii rawaandu ndu sawru ndu. [1]I gave the dog the stick (lit. “I give-(perfective marker) dog-the book-the”)Note: the perfective is expressed with the perfective verbal extension “-ii”The word “dog” in Fula can also be “boosaru.” [2][3]Wolof:ñoom ñaar ñepp togg-andoo ci lal bi. [4]They both sat on the bed together (lit. “They two all sit-together at/on bed the)Note: “-together” is expressed with the co-participative verbal extension “-andoo”A notable characteristic of Senegambian languages (Wolof and Fula included) is the use of initial consonant mutations, like what is seen in Celtic languages. This characteristic is particularly noticeable in Fula.Fula:rawaa-ndu [IPA: rawaː-ⁿdu] → “dog” [5]dawaa-di [IPA: dawaː-di] → “dogs” [6]ndawaa-kon [IPA: ⁿdawaː-kon] → “small dogs” [7]Gambe Fula (Fula variety): [8]neɗɗ-o/gim-ɗo → “person”yim-ɓe → “people”ngim-kon → “small people”Note: The suffixes are noun class markers.This exists in Wolof as well: [9]góór → manngóór → little manbëgg → “want, love (verb)”mbëgg-éél → “want, love (noun)”sàcc → “rob” (verb) [10]càcc → “robbery”The main difference, however, is that the consonant mutations are mostly vestigial in Wolof: [11][12]góor-gi → “the man”góor-yi → “the men”In the examples above, the initial consonants remain the same. In Fula, “the man” would be “gor-ko o” and “the men” would be “wor-ɓe ɓe.” [13]Another notable quality of these languages is that, unlike most other Niger-Congo languages, they are not tonal. [14][15] In Wolof, for example, the words for “to chat to oneself” is “waxtu” is a homophone of the word for “hour,” which is “waxtu.” [16]The two also have rich noun classification systems, often comparable in range to many of the distantly related Bantu languages.Wolof:“nit” → “person” (root) [17][18]nit-ki → the personnit-ñi → these people“góor” → “man” (root)góor-gi → the man“picc”picc-mi → the birdpicc-yi → the birdsFula“rawaa” → “dog” (root)ndawaa-kon → small dogs (diminutive class)“neɗɗ ” → “person” (primary root)neɗɗ-o → person (human singular class)“gim” → “person” (alternative root)yim-ɓe → people (human plural class)Unlike with Fula, as you might have noticed, the phonological form of the noun in Wolof often determines the noun class to which it is assigned. So, it is a more difficult process identifying a specific semantic coherence behind the noun classes in Wolof. [19] There are some exceptions, though, such as m-, which is used for liquids (see example below).[20]m-class liquid marking:“ndox mi”→ the water“soow mi” → the buttermilkWhat also frequently happens is the class marker harmonizes with the initial consonant of the noun. [21] Consequently, while the noun class system is indeed functional, the markers can lack concrete meaning. This is particularly noticeable in loanwords: [22]galaas (from French “glace (ice)”)galaas gi → the icewago (from French “wagon (wagon)”)wago wi → the wagonsoble (from Portuguese “cebola (onion)”)soble si → the onionAdditionally, as you’ve likely seen, the noun class marker falls only on the determiner of the noun in Wolof. [23] In Fula, however, there is a suffix after the noun that marks the noun class before the use of any determiner. For determiners (articles included), they harmonize with the noun class suffix.Wolof:góor → “man”góor-gi → the manFula:wor-ɓe → “men”-human plural class suffix → “men”wor-ɓe ɓe → “men”-human plural class suffix-the → “the men”Fula, unlike Wolof, has more noticeable semantic coherence in its noun classification system. Thus, class markers can mark a large range of nouns, such as liquids, human plural, trees, diminutive, etc.Above: The 21 Noun class marker types in Pulaar (Prominent Western Fula Variety). [24]Above: Noun classes in Wolof. [25]There’s also a large discrepancy between the two regarding the number of noun classes. Pulaar, the western variety of Fula, has 21 noun classes, but overall, depending on the variety of Fula, up to 26 noun classes can be used. Wolof, on the other hand, generally uses 10 noun classes, but, depending on the dialect, it can be as many as 15. [26]By virtue of the Fula being composed traditionally of nomadic pastoralist populations, the Fula language has spread from its original homeland in the Senegambia region throughout the Sahel region and is now spoken in as many as 21 countries in Africa (e.g., Senegal, Guinea, Nigeria, etc), though with varying population sizes. Thus, there are more varieties of Fula spoken than Wolof, such as the previously mentioned Pulaar and Fulfulde, which is spoken more in the east of West African and also Central Africa.Above: Map of major Atlantic languages subgroupings [Wolof and Fula subsumed under the blue space] (Güldemann 2018). Fula extends across the Sahel region, thus accounting for the large territory that the blue space takes up. [27]Above: D. Sapir’s 1971 lexical count for Atlantic languages. [28]According to D. Sapir’s 1971 lexical count for Atlantic languages, Wolof and Fula have a 24% lexical similarity, which, if using only lexical items, ostensibly suggests they split between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago.[29] That’s a substantially deeper time depth than between English and German, so the lexical dissimilarities can be noticeably large at times.Above: Comparison of some of the basic vocabulary of Fula, Wolof, and other related languages. [30]Also, unlike many other Niger-Congo languages, they do not shy away from closed syllables, as you’ve already seen, thus allowing for words like “garab” in Wolof and “leggal” in Fula, which both mean “tree.”In terms of the way the language sounds, Wolof has sounds like “q” and “x” (e.g. “xay” → “dog”), which give it a fairly guttural sound. Fula, however, does not have these sounds, so the language sounds less guttural.Above: News in Fula (Fulfulde variety) (Cameroon).Above: News in Wolof (Senegal).So, overall, the Fula and Wolof are fairly similar, but it’s easy to see the dissimilarities. There are many more similarities and dissimilarities between the two one could observe, but for now, I think this is enough to compare the two languages.Footnotes[1] The Oxford Handbook of Inflection[2] A Fulfulde-English Dictionary[3] http://images.library.wisc.edu/AfricanStudies/EFacs/LSSTexts/Fulfulde/reference/africanstudies.fulfulde.i0054.pdf[4] Reciprocals and Reflexives[5] An Introduction to the Languages of the World[6] An Introduction to the Languages of the World[7] An Introduction to the Languages of the World[8] http://llacan.vjf.cnrs.fr/nigercongo2/presentations/Hepburn-Gray.pdf[9] https://linguistics.ucla.edu/general/dissertations/Torrence/torrence-dis-chapter-1-introduction.pdf[10] http://sal.research.pdx.edu/PDF/261McLaughlin.pdf[11] The Oxford Handbook of Inflection[12] http://sal.research.pdx.edu/PDF/261McLaughlin.pdf[13] The Oxford Handbook of Inflection[14] African Language Structures[15] Multilingual Aspects of Speech Sound Disorders in Children[16] Wolof: A Language of West Africa[17] http://sal.research.pdx.edu/PDF/261McLaughlin.pdf[18] http://llacan.vjf.cnrs.fr/fichiers/nigercongo/fichiers/Pozdniakov_NC_numbers.pdf[19] Noun classes in Wolof · Issue #592 · UniversalDependencies/docs[20] http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/etd/ucb/text/Merrill_berkeley_0028E_18249.pdf[21] http://sal.research.pdx.edu/PDF/261McLaughlin.pdf[22] http://sal.research.pdx.edu/PDF/261McLaughlin.pdf[23] Handbook of Quantifiers in Natural Language[24] The Oxford Handbook of Inflection[25] http://sal.research.pdx.edu/PDF/261McLaughlin.pdf[26] Handbook of Quantifiers in Natural Language[27] The Languages and Linguistics of Africa[28] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307144096_Some_Hypotheses_About_Possible_Isolates_within_the_Atlantic_Branch_of_the_Niger-Congo_Phylum[29] https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5a44/168b08360468f2efac967fdddea9065b04c5.pdf[30] http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/etd/ucb/text/Merrill_berkeley_0028E_18249.pdf