Simplification and complexification in Wolof noun morphology and morphosyntax

Abstract

This chapter addresses simplification and complexification in the morphology and morphosyntax of Wolof noun classes. Simplification, compared with its closest Atlantic cognates, is well known to have occurred in Wolof as a whole, ever since its earliest attestations. In addition, urban Wolof further simplifies noun classes which is partly due to the particular dynamics of linguistic prestige in the Wolophone community. What went unnoticed until recently is that at the same time also complexification took place locally in some spots of the grammatical system, with the rise of morphological irregularity (overabundance) in some noun paradigms and of defectiveness and other irregularities, for some noun classes, in the paradigm of the indefinite article.