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Fula language
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The Fula language is a language of West Africa, spoken by the Fule (Fula or Fulani people) from Senegambia and Guinea to Cameroon and Sudan. It is also spoken as the first language by the Tukulor in the Senegal River Valley and as a second language by peoples in other areas.
There are several names applied to the language, just as there are to the Fula people. They call their language Pulaar or Pular in the western dialects and Fulfulde (pronounced full-full-day) in the central and eastern dialects.
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Encyclopedia
The Fula language is a language of West Africa, spoken by the Fule (Fula or Fulani people) from Senegambia and Guinea to Cameroon and Sudan. It is also spoken as the first language by the Tukulor in the Senegal River Valley and as a second language by peoples in other areas.
There are several names applied to the language, just as there are to the Fula people. They call their language Pulaar or Pular in the western dialects and Fulfulde (pronounced full-full-day) in the central and eastern dialects. Fula(h) and Fulani in English come originally from Manding and Hausa, respectively; Peul in French comes from Wolof.
Classification
Fula belongs to the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo language family.
Description
Fula has the reputation of being complex but very regular in the construction of verbs, with few exceptions or "irregular" forms. The plural forms of nouns, however, are highly irregular and often do not resemble their singular form.
Morphology
Fula is based on verbo-nominal roots, from which verbal, noun and modifier words are derived. It also uses infixes (a syllable inserted in the "middle" of a word, actually following the root and before the ending) to modify meaning.
Noun classes
There are about 25 noun classes (the number may vary slightly in different dialects).
Voices
Verbs in Fula are usually classed in 3 "voices" (except in Adamawa Fulfulde): active, middle and passive. Not every root is used in all voices. Some middle voice verbs are reflexive.
A common example are verbs from the root loot-:
- lootude - to wash (something)
- lootaade - to wash (one's self)
- looteede - to be washed
Consonant mutation
Another feature of the language is initial consonant mutation between singular and plural forms of nouns and of verbs (except in Pular, there is no consonant mutation in verbs, only in nouns).
A simplified schema is as follows:
- b <-> mb <-> w
- c <-> s
- d <-> nd <-> r
- g <-> ng <-> w
- h <-> k
- j <-> nj <-> y
Pronouns
Fula has inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns.
Dialects
While there are numerous dialects of Fula, it is typically regarded as a single language. Wilson (1989) states that "travellers over wide distances never find communication impossible," and Ka (1991) concludes that despite it geographic span and dialect variation, Fulfulde is still fundamentally one language. However, Bible translators estimate that at least 7 different translations are needed to make it comprehensible for all Fulfulde speakers, and Ethnologue treats several of the varieties as separate languages:
East Central
Fulfulde, Western Niger (Niger)
Fulfulde, Central-Eastern Niger (Niger)
Fulfulde, Nigerian (Nigeria)
- 1.700.000 in Nigeria (2000)
Eastern
Fulfulde, Adamawa, fub
- 700.000 speakers in Cameroon (1993)
- 128.000 in Chad (1993)
- 90.000 in Sudan (1982)
Adamawa Fulfulde is also used by non-native speakers as the regional lingua franca in Far North, North and Adamawa provinces in Cameroon.
Fulfulde, Bagirmi, fui
- 24000 speakers in Chad
- 156.000 speakers in Central African Republic (1996).
West Central
Fulfulde, Maasina, ffm
- 900.000 speakers in Mali (1991)
- 7000 speakers in Ghana (1991)
Fulfulde, Borgu, fub
- 280.000 speakers in Benin (2002)
- 48.000 speakers in Togo (1993)
- also spoken in Nigeria
Pular
Alternative name is sometimes given as Fuuta Jalon (which is actually the name of the region in which it is spoken).
- 2.550.000 speakers in Guinea (1991)
- 50.000 speakers in Mali (1991)
- 136.000 speakers in Senegal (2002)
- 178.000 speakers in Sierra Leone (1991)
Pular is an official regional language in Guinea, and many speakers are monolingual. The language has borrowed a lot from Arabic and French, but also from English, Portuguese, Malinke, Susu, Wolof and others.
Western
Pulaar
- Mauritania, Senegal and The Gambia
Writing systems
Latin alphabet
When written using the Latin alphabet, Fula uses the following additional special "hooked" characters to distinguish meaningfully different sounds in the language: (i.e., implosive B, implosive D, velar N [sounds like "ng" in "king'], palatal N, ejective Y). The apostrophe is used as a glottal stop. In Nigeria substitutes , and in Senegal ń is used instead of .
Sample Fula alphabet
a, aa, b, mb, ?, c, d, nd, ?, e, ee, f, g, ng, h, i, ii, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ?, ny (or ń or ?), o, oo, p, r, s, t, u, uu, w, y is the twenty-fifth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English language is spelled wye or occasionally wy' , plural wyes....
, ?
The letters q, x, z are used in some cases for loan words. In the Pular of Guinea an additional letter - ? - is also part of the orthography.
Arabic script
Fula has also been written in the Arabic script or Ajami since before colonization. This continues to a certain degree and notably in some areas like Guinea.
See also
Macrolanguage
Works
- Arnott, David W. (1970). The nominal and verbal systems of Fula. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Wilson, W. A. A. (1989). Atlantic. In John Bendor-Samuel (Ed.), The Niger-Congo Languages, pp. 81-104.
External links
http://www.yaakaare.com
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- by Herb Caudill and Ousmane Diallo
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- - includes maps of the dialects
- from (from the 1980s)
- , freely downloadable PDFs
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