Editing Wolof language (section)

===Vowels===
The vowels are as follows:<ref>Unseth, 2009.</ref>

{|class="wikitable"
|+Vowels
! rowspan=2|
! colspan=2 style="font-size:smaller"| [[Front vowel|Front]]
! colspan=2 style="font-size:smaller"| [[Central vowel|Central]]
! colspan=2 style="font-size:smaller"| [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! style="font-size:80%"| short
! style="font-size:80%"| long
! style="font-size:80%"| short
! style="font-size:80%"| long
! style="font-size:80%"| short
! style="font-size:80%"| long
|-align=center
! style="font-size:smaller"| [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA link|i}} {{angbr|i}}
| {{IPA link|iː}}
| style="background-color:gray"|
| style="background-color:gray"|
| {{IPA link|u}} {{angbr|u}}
| {{IPA link|uː}}
|-align=center
! style="font-size:smaller"| [[Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]]
| {{IPA link|e}} {{angbr|é}}
| {{IPA link|eː}}
| style="background-color:gray"|
| style="background-color:gray"|
| {{IPA link|o}} {{angbr|ó}}
| {{IPA link|oː}}
|-align=center
! style="font-size:smaller"| [[Mid vowel|mid]]
| style="background-color:gray"|
| style="background-color:gray"|
| {{IPA link|ə}} {{angbr|ë}}
| 
| style="background-color:gray"|
| style="background-color:gray"|
|-align=center
! style="font-size:smaller"| [[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]
| {{IPA link|ɛ}} {{angbr|e}}
| {{IPA link|ɛː}}
| style="background-color:gray"|
| style="background-color:gray"|
| {{IPA link|ɔ}} {{angbr|o}}
| {{IPA link|ɔː}}
|-align=center
! style="font-size:smaller"| [[Open vowel|Open]]
| style="background-color:gray"|
| style="background-color:gray"|
| {{IPA link|ä|a}} {{angbr|a}}
| {{IPA link|äː|aː}}
| style="background-color:gray"|
| style="background-color:gray"|
|}
There may be an additional low vowel, or this may be confused with orthographic ''à''.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}}

All vowels may be long (written double) or short.<ref>Long ''ëë'' is rare (Torrence 2013:10).</ref> {{IPA|/aː/}} is written {{angbr|à}} before a long (prenasalized or geminate) consonant (example ''làmbi'' "arena"). When ''é'' and ''ó'' are written double, the accent mark is often only on the first letter.

Vowels fall into two [[vowel harmony|harmonizing]] sets according to [[advanced tongue root|ATR]]:  ''i u é ó ë'' are +ATR, ''e o a'' are the −ATR analogues of ''é ó ë''.  For example,<ref>Torrence 2013:11</ref>

{{interlinear|indent=3|glossing3=yes
|Lekk-oon-ngeen
|{{IPA|/lɛkːɔːnŋɡɛːn/}}
|eat-PAST-FIN.2PL
|'You (plural) ate.'}}

{{interlinear|indent=3|glossing3=yes
|Dóor-óon-ngéen
|{{IPA|/doːroːnŋɡeːn/}}
|hit-PAST-FIN.2PL
|'You (plural) hit.'}}

There are no −ATR analogs of the high vowels ''i u''. They trigger +ATR harmony in suffixes when they occur in the root, but in a suffix, they may be transparent to vowel harmony.

The vowels of some suffixes or enclitics do not harmonize with preceding vowels. In most cases following vowels harmonize with them. That is, they reset the harmony, as if they were a separate word. However, when a suffix/clitic contains a high vowel (+ATR) that occurs after a −ATR root, any further suffixes harmonize with the root. That is, the +ATR suffix/clitic is "transparent" to vowel harmony. An example is the negative ''-u-'' in,

{{interlinear|indent=3|glossing3=yes
|Door-u-ma-leen-fa
|{{IPA|/dɔːrumalɛːnfa/}}
|begin-NEG-1SG-3PL-LOC
|'I did not begin them there.'}}

where harmony would predict ''*door-u-më-léén-fë''.
That is, ''I or U'' behave as if they are their own −ATR analogs.

Authors differ in whether they indicate vowel harmony in writing, as well as whether they write clitics as separate words.