Fulani (Fulfulde/Pular) - The Fula /ˈfuːlə/[2] language, also known as Fulani /fʊˈlɑːniː/[2] (Fula: Fulfulde, Pulaar, Pular; French: Peul) is a language of West Africa. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Wolof, it belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo language family. It is spoken as a first language by the Fulɓe (Fula or Fulani people) and related groups (such as the Tukulor in the Senegal River Valley) from Senegambia and Guinea to Cameroon and Sudan. It is also spoken as a second language by people in the region. Sapir (1971) proposed a West Atlantic branch of the Niger–Congo languages that included a Northern branch largely synonymous with Senegambian. However, Sapir's West Atlantic and its branches turned out to be geographic and typological rather than genealogical groups. The only investigation since then, Segerer (2010), removed the Bak languages from Sapir's Northern West Atlantic but found that the remaining languages, Senegambian (Serer–Fulani–Wolof), to be a valid group, characterized by consonant mutation:

Serer: - Serer, sometimes called Serer-Sine "Serer proper" (Seereer-Siin, etc.) after its prestige dialect, is a language of the Senegambian branch of Niger–Congo spoken by 1.2 million people in Senegal and 30,000 in the Gambia.[2] It is the principal language of the Serer people. Serer is one of the Senegambian languages, which are characterized by consonant mutation. The traditional classification of Atlantic is that of Sapir (1971), which found that Serer was closest to Fulani.[3] However, a widely cited misreading of the data by Wilson (1989) inadvertently exchanged Serer for Wolof. Segerer (2009, 2010) confirms Sapir's findings on this point; Serer and Fulani are closely related (they share noun-class suffixes not found elsewhere in Atlantic), while Wolof is relatively distant from either.[4]
Dialects of Serer are Serer Sine (the prestige dialect), Segum, Fadyut-Palmerin, Dyegueme (Gyegem), and Niominka. They are mutually intelligible.

Wolof - Wolof (English pronunciation: /ˈwɒlɒf/,[2] /ˈwoʊlɒf/[3][4]) is a language of Senegal, the Gambia, and Mauritania, and the native language of the Wolof people. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, it belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo language family. Unlike most other languages of Sub-Saharan Africa, Wolof is not a tonal language.
Wolof originated as the language of the Lebou people.[5][6] It is the most widely spoken language in Senegal, spoken natively by the Wolof people (40% of the population) but also by most other Senegalese as a second language[citation needed]. Wolof dialects vary geographically and between rural and urban areas. "Dakar-Wolof", for instance, is an urban mixture of Wolof, French, and Arabic.
"Wolof" is the standard spelling, and may refer to the Wolof people or to Wolof culture. Older French publications may use the spelling Ouolof, and some English publications Wollof, predominantly referring to (anglophone) Gambian Wolof. Prior to the 20th century, the forms Volof and Olof were used.
Wolof words in English are believed to include yam, from Wolof nyami "to eat food", nyam in Barbadian English [7] meaning to eat (also compare Seychellois nyanmnyanm, also meaning to eat [8] ).

Wow. Interesting.

I find it very interesting how all these three languages are non-tonal. I wonder how it came about.

Nice thread!

StarFlux: I find it very interesting how all these three languages are non-tonal. I wonder how it came about.

Nice thread!

That is the diversity of west Africa