Fula language

The Fula language is a language of West Africa, spoken by the Fula people from Senegal to Cameroon and Sudan. It belongs to the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo language family.

There are many names for the Fula people and their language. The Hausa call them the Fulani, while the Wolof use Peul and the Mandinka people Fula. The Fula call themselves Fulbe (plural), Pullo (singular). Speakers of western dialects call their language Pulaar or Pular, while eastern dialects use Fulfulde.

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." Bible translators estimate that at least 7 different translations are needed to make it comprehensible for all Fulfulde speakers. Ethnologue, however, treats several of the varieties as separate languages:

East Central

Fulfulde, Western Niger (Niger)

Fulfulde, Central-Eastern Niger (Niger)

Fulfulde, Nigerian (Nigeria)

Eastern

Fulfulde, Adamawa, `fub`

700.000 speakers in Cameroon (1993)
128.000 in Chad (1993)
90.000 in Sudan (1982)

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 Fuuta Jalon.

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

Senegal and The Gambia

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 like "ng" in "king', palatal N, ejective Y). The apostrophe () is used as a glottal stop. In Nigeria ' substitutes ', and in Senegal ñ is used instead of .

References

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.jamtan.com
http://www.kawtal.org
http://www.kawtal.com
Mido Waawi Pular! Learner's guide to Pular (Fuuta Jallon) by Herb Caudill and Ousmane Diallo
Ethnologue entry for Fula
Fulfulde Language Family Report (SIL) - includes maps of the dialects
FULA (Fulfulde, Pulaar, Fulani, Peul) Language Page from MSU's Webbook of Afrian Language Resources (from the 1980s)
Pular Language Ebooks, freely downloadable PDFs

Atlantic languages | Languages of Mali

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