Pular is a Fula language

Fula language

The Fula or Fulani language is a language of West Africa. It is spoken as a first language by the and related groups from Senegambia and Guinea to Cameroon and Sudan...

 spoken primarily by Fula people

Fula people

Fula people or Fulani or Fulbe are an ethnic group spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and Sudanese North Africa...

 in the Fouta Jalon area in Guinea

Guinea

Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...

. It is also spoken in parts of Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...

, and Senegal

Senegal

Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

. There are a small number of speakers in Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

. Pular is spoken by 2.5 million Guineans, about 28% of the national population. This makes Pular the most widely spoken indigenous language in the country. Substantial numbers of Pular speakers have migrated to other countries in West Africa, notably Senegal

Senegal

Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

.

Pular is not to be confused with Pulaar

Pulaar

Pulaar is a Fula language spoken primarily as a first language by Fula people and Tukolor in the Senegal River valley area traditionally known as Futa Tooro, and further south and east...

, another Fula language spoken natively in Senegambia, Mauritania

Mauritania

Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

, and western Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

 (including the Futa Toro region).

Pular is written in Arabic

Arabic alphabet

The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...

 or Ajami script

Ajami script

The term Ajami , or Ajamiyya , which comes from the Arabic root for "foreign" or "stranger," has been applied to Arabic alphabets used for writing African languages....

 and the Roman alphabet.

Linguistic features

There are some particularities to this version of Fula, including:

• Use of plural form for politeness (such as in German or French, unlike other varieties of Fula)
• A number of separate verbal roots for politeness (these may exist only in Pular)
• There is no initial consonant mutation from singular to plural verb forms as is the case in other varieties of Fula (there is in nominal forms, however)
• In addition to the more standard long-form pronouns of Fula there are alternate forms in Pular (= hi(l) + pronoun). The table below summarizes these (question marks where the info is not complete):

Person / number	Standard long-form pronoun (as in Pulaar)	Corresponding form in Pular
1st / sing	miɗo	miɗo hilan (non-standard alternate form)
2nd / sing	aɗa	hiɗa
3rd / sing	omo	himo
1st /pl (excl)	miɗen, amin	meɗen himen (non-standard alternate form)
1st / pl (incl)	eɗen	hiɗen
2nd / pl	oɗon	hiɗon
3rd / pl	eɓe	hiɓe

Writing

Like other varieties of the Fula language

Fula language

The Fula or Fulani language is a language of West Africa. It is spoken as a first language by the and related groups from Senegambia and Guinea to Cameroon and Sudan...

, Pular was written before colonization in an Arabic-based orthography called "Ajami

Ajami script

The term Ajami , or Ajamiyya , which comes from the Arabic root for "foreign" or "stranger," has been applied to Arabic alphabets used for writing African languages....

." Today, ajami remains prevalent in rural areas of Fuuta Jalon, but Pular is mainly written in a Latin-based orthography, the so called UNESCO orthography. Pular Latin orthography is basically the same as that used for Fula languages throughout West Africa.

Up until the mid-1980s, Pular in Guinea was written with an orthography set by the Guinean government

Orthography for languages of Guinea (pre-1985)

Following independence, the government of Guinea adopted rules of transcription for the languages of Guinea based on the 26-letter basic Latin alphabet...

that differed from that used in other countries.

External links

• Miɗo Waawi Pular! Learner's guide to Pular (Fuuta Jallon) by Herb Caudill and Ousmane Diallo