Fish names in Wolof

Our product page said “diarégne (pageot)”. That was wrong: the pandora (pageot) is the youfouf, a Lebu name, tikki in Wolof.

Diarégne comes from the Lebu jaroñ. It is the pink dentex (Dentex gibbosus), called “dent long fil” in Senegalese markets, after the filament that extends its dorsal fin. And “dent long fil” is where the “colas fil” of French fishmongers comes from.

It is not a Wolof name. It is a French nickname: the diaspora does not know the fish’s name, sees that it is flat and says “plat plat” (flat flat).

The word describes a shape, not a species, which is why the chart also gives it to Chloroscombrus chrysurus, another flat fish. The fish sold under this name is the ileer geej, the African sicklefish.

Identified on fishing footage: lamellar ridges, high spire, spiky surface. It is a murex.

Three matching clues: the shell has spikes, it must be broken to get the meat out, and it is collected with the cockles, which makes sense since the murex feeds on them. The chart calls it yooxoñ, but at Louma this word means the oysters. Same shell, two words.

The chart and FishBase give “sompatt” to two different grunts. But FishBase gives “sompaat” and “carpe blanche” (white carp) to both.

“Sompate” is therefore a market name covering two close species, not the name of one species. There was nothing to settle.