Fula language

Not to be confused with the Fala language.

Fula (/ˈfuːlə/ FOO-lə), also known as Fulani (/fʊˈlɑːniː/ fuul-AH-nee) or Fulah (Fulfulde, Pulaar, Pular; Adlam: 𞤊𞤵𞤤𞤬𞤵𞤤𞤣𞤫, 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤢𞥄𞤪, 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤢𞤪; Ajami: ࢻُلْࢻُلْدٜ‎, ݒُلَارْ‎, بُۛلَر‎), is a Senegambian language spoken by around 36.8 million people as a set of various dialects in a continuum that stretches across some 18 countries in West and Central Africa. Along with other related languages such as Serer and Wolof, it belongs to the Atlantic geographic group within Niger–Congo, and more specifically to the Senegambian branch. Unlike most Niger-Congo languages, Fula does not have tones.

Fulani
فولا (Arabic) Peul (French)
Fulfulde 𞤊𞤵𞤤𞤬𞤵𞤤𞤣𞤫 ࢻُلْࢻُلْدٜ‎ Pulaar 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤢𞥄𞤪 ݒُلَارْ‎ Pular 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤢𞤪 بُۛلَر‎
Native to	Western Africa
Region	Sahel
Ethnicity	Fula
speakers	L1: 37 million (2014–2021) L2: 2.7 million (2019)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo West Atlantic Senegambian Fula–Wolof Fulani
Writing system	Latin Adlam Arabic (Ajami)
Official status
Official language in	Burkina Faso Mali
Recognised minority language in	Cameroon Niger
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ff – Fulah
ISO 639-2	ful – Fulah
ISO 639-3	ful – inclusive code – Fulah Individual codes: fuc – Pulaar (Senegambia, Mauritania) fuf – Pular (Guinea, Sierra Leone) ffm – Maasina Fulfulde (Mali, Ghana) fue – Borgu Fulfulde (Benin, Togo) fuh – Western Niger Fulfulde (Burkina, Niger) fuq – Central–Eastern Niger Fulfulde (Niger) fuv – Nigerian Fulfulde (Nigeria) fub – Adamawa Fulfulde (Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria) fui – Bagirmi Fulfulde (CAR)
Glottolog	fula1264
Core and peripheral Fula-speaking regions. Note that most of these areas, with the exceptions of Senegal and Guinea, are not primarily Fula-speaking, as this map only shows the absolute numbers of speakers.

It is spoken as a first language by the Fula people ("Fulani", Fula: Fulɓe) from the Senegambia region and Guinea to Cameroon, Nigeria, and Sudan and by related groups such as the Toucouleur people in the Senegal River Valley. It is also spoken as a second language by various peoples in the region, such as the Kirdi of northern Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria.

Nomenclature

Person	Pullo
People	Fulɓe
Language	Fulfulde

Several names are applied to the language, just as to the Fula people. They call their language Pulaar or Pular in the western dialects and Fulfulde in the central and eastern dialects. Fula, Fulah and Fulani in English come originally from Manding (esp. Mandinka, but also Malinke and Bamana) and Hausa, respectively; Peul in French, also occasionally found in literature in English, comes from Wolof.

Morphology

Fula is based on verbonominal roots, from which verbal, noun, and modifier words are derived. It uses suffixes (sometimes inaccurately called infixes, as they come between the root and the inflectional ending) to modify meaning. These suffixes often serve the same purposes in Fula that prepositions do in English.

Noun classes

The Fula or Fulfulde language is characterized by a robust noun class system, with 24 to 26 noun classes being common across the Fulfulde dialects. Noun classes in Fula are abstract categories with some classes having semantic attributes that characterize a subset of that class' members, and others being marked by a membership too diverse to warrant any semantic categorization of the class' members. For example, classes are for stringy, long things, and another for big things, another for liquids, a noun class for strong, rigid objects, another for human or humanoid traits etc. Gender does not have any role in the Fula noun class system and the marking of gender is done with adjectives rather than class markers. Noun classes are marked by suffixes on nouns. These suffixes are the same as the class name, though they are frequently subject to phonological processes, most frequently the dropping of the suffix's initial consonant.

The table below illustrates the class name, the semantic property associated with class membership, and an example of a noun with its class marker. Classes 1 and 2 can be described as personal classes, classes 3-6 as diminutive classes, classes 7-8 as augmentative classes, and classes 9-25 as neutral classes. It is formed on the basis of McIntosh's 1984 description of Kaceccereere Fulfulde, which the author describes as "essentially the same" as David Arnott's 1970 description of the noun classes of the Gombe dialect of Fula. Thus, certain examples from Arnott also informed this table.

Class name	Meaning	Example
o 𞤮	Person singular	laam-ɗo 'chief'; also loan words
ɓe 𞤩𞤫	Person plural	laam-ɓe 'chiefs'
ngel 𞤲'𞤺𞤫𞤤	Diminutive singular	loo-ngel 'little pot'
kal 𞤳𞤢𞤤	Diminutive quantities	con-al 'small quantity of flour'
ngum/kum 𞤲'𞤺𞤵𞤥/𞤳𞤵𞤥	Diminutive pejorative	laam-ngum/laam-kum 'worthless little chief'
kon/koy 𞤳𞤮𞤲/𞤳𞤮𞤴	Diminutive plural	ullu-kon/ullu-koy 'small cats/kittens'
nde 𞤲𞥋𞤣𞤫	Various, including globular objects, places, times	loo-nde 'storage pot'
ndi 𞤲𞥋𞤣𞤭	Various, including uncountable nouns	com-ri 'tiredness'
ndu 𞤲𞥋𞤣𞤵	Various	ullu-ndu 'cat'
nga 𞤲'𞤺𞤢	Various, including some large animals	nood-a 'crocodile'
nge 𞤲'𞤺𞤫	mainly for 'cow,' 'fire,' 'sun' 'hunger,'	nagg-e 'cow'
ngo 𞤲'𞤺𞤮	Various	juu-ngo 'hand'
ngu 𞤲'𞤺𞤵	Various	ɓow-ngu 'mosquito'
ngal 𞤲'𞤺𞤢𞤤	Various including augmentative singular	ɗem-ngal 'tongue'
ngol 𞤲'𞤺𞤮𞤤	Various, often long things	ɓog-gol 'rope'
ngii/ngil 𞤲'𞤺𞤭𞥅/𞤲'𞤺𞤭𞤤	Various including augmentative singular	ɓog-gii/ɓog-gii 'big rope'
ka 𞤳𞤢	Various	laan-a 'boat'
ki 𞤳𞤭	Various	lek-ki 'tree'
ko 𞤳𞤮	Various	haak-o 'soup'
kol 𞤳𞤮𞤤	'Calf' 'foal'	ɲal-ol 'calf', mol-ol 'foal'
ɗam 𞤯𞤢𞤥	mainly for liquids	lam-ɗam 'salt', ndiy-am 'water'
ɗum 𞤯𞤵𞤥	Neutral	maw-ɗum 'big thing'
ɗe 𞤯𞤫	Nonhuman plural	juu-ɗe 'hands'
ɗi 𞤯𞤭	Nonhuman plural	na'i 'cows'

Voice

Verbs in Fula are usually classed in three voices: 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 -𞤤𞤮𞥅𞤼 loot-:

• 𞤤𞤮𞥅𞤼𞤵𞤣𞤫 lootude, to wash (something) [active voice]
• 𞤤𞤮𞥅𞤼𞤢𞥄𞤣𞤫 lootaade, to wash (oneself) [middle voice]
• 𞤤𞤮𞥅𞤼𞤫𞥅𞤣𞤫 looteede, to be washed [passive voice]

Consonant mutation

Another feature of the language is initial consonant mutation between singular and plural forms of nouns and of verbs (except in Pular, no consonant mutation exists in verbs, only in nouns).

A simplified schema is:

• w ↔ b ↔ mb
• r ↔ d ↔ nd
• y ↔ j ↔ nj
• w ↔ g ↔ ng
• f ↔ p
• s ↔ c
• h ↔ k

Pronouns

Fula has inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns. The inclusive pronouns include both the speaker and those being spoken to, while the exclusive pronouns exclude the listeners.

The pronoun that corresponds to a given noun is determined by the noun class. Because men and women belong to the same noun class, the English pronouns "he" and "she" are translated into Fula by the same pronoun. However, depending on the dialect, there are some 25 different noun classes, each with its own pronoun. Sometimes those pronouns have both a nominative case (i.e., used as verb subject) and an accusative or dative case (i.e., used as a verb object) as well as a possessive form. Relative pronouns generally take the same form as the nominative.

Varieties

Main articles: Maasina Fulfulde, Pular language, Pulaar language, Nigerian Fulfulde, and Adamawa Fulfulde

While there are numerous varieties of Fula, it is typically regarded as a single language. Wilson (1989) states that "travelers over wide distances never find communication impossible," and Ka (1991) concludes that despite its geographic span and dialect variation, Fulfulde is still fundamentally one language. However, Ethnologue has found that nine different translations are needed to make the Bible comprehensible for most Fula speakers, and it treats these varieties as separate languages. They are listed in the box at the beginning of this article.

Status

Fulfulde is an official lingua franca in Guinea, Senegal, Gambia, northeastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Burkina Faso, Northern Ghana, Southern Niger and Northern Benin (in Borgou Region, where many speakers are bilingual), and a local language in many African countries, such as Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Togo, CAR, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia, numbering more than 95 million speakers in total.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
						plain	pal.
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	plain	p	t	c ~ t͡ʃ	k	ʔ	ʔʲ
	voiced	b	d	ɟ ~ d͡ʒ	ɡ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd	ᶮɟ ~ ᶮd͡ʒ	ᵑɡ
Implosive		ɓ	ɗ
Fricative		f	s			h
Trill			r
Approximant			l	j	w

The two sounds /c/ and /ɟ/, may be realized as affricate sounds [tʃ] and [dʒ].

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː		o oː
Open		a aː

Short /i e o u/ vowel sounds can also be realized as [ɪ ɛ ɔ ʊ].

Writing systems

Main article: Fula alphabets

There were unsuccessful efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to create a unique script to write Fulfulde.

Adlam script

Main article: Adlam script

Adlam Pular 𞤀𞤣𞤤𞤢𞤥 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤢𞤪
Script type	Alphabet
Creator	Ibrahima Barry and Abdoulaye Barry
Time period	created 1989
Direction	Right-to-left script
Languages	Fula
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Adlm (166), ​Adlam
Unicode
Unicode alias	Adlam
Unicode range	U+1E900–U+1E95F

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, two teenage brothers, Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry from the Nzérékoré Region of Guinea, created the Adlam script, which accurately represents all the sounds of Fulani. The script is written from right to left and includes 28 letters with 5 vowels and 23 consonants.

Arabic script

Fula has also been written in the Arabic script or Ajami since before European colonization by many scholars and learned people including Usman dan Fodio and the early emirs of the northern Nigeria emirates. This continues to a certain degree and notably in some areas like Guinea and Cameroon.

Fula also has Arabic loanwords.

Latin alphabet

Smartphone keyboard used for Fula, with the special letters D with hook (ɗ), B with hook (ɓ) and eng (ŋ).

When written using the Latin script, Fula uses the following additional special "hooked" characters to distinguish meaningfully different sounds in the language: Ɓ/ɓ [ɓ], Ɗ/ɗ [ɗ ], Ŋ/ŋ [ŋ], Ɲ/ɲ [ ɲ], Ƴ/ƴ [ʔʲ]. The letters c, j, and r, respectively represent the sounds [c ~ tʃ], [ɟ ~ dʒ], and [r]. Double vowel characters indicate that the vowels are elongated. An apostrophe (ʼ) is used as a glottal stop. It uses the five vowel system denoting vowel sounds and their lengths. In Nigeria ʼy substitutes ƴ, and in Senegal Ñ/ñ is used instead of ɲ.

Sample Fula alphabet

a, aa, b, mb (or nb), ɓ, c, d, nd, ɗ, e, ee, f, g, ng, h, i, ii, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ŋ, ɲ (ny or ñ), o, oo, p, r, s, t, u, uu, w, y, ƴ or ʼy, ʼ

The letters q, v, x, z are used in some cases for loan words.

Fula Alphabets
A	B	Nb	Ɓ	C	D	Nd	Ɗ	E	F	G	Ng	H	I	J	Nj	K	L	M	N	Ŋ	Ɲ	O	P	R	S	T	U	W	Y	Ƴ	ʼ
Lowercase
a	b	nb	ɓ	c	d	nd	ɗ	e	f	g	ng	h	i	j	nj	k	l	m	n	ŋ	ɲ	o	p	r	s	t	u	w	y	ƴ	ʼ
Phonetic value
a	b	ᵐb	ɓ	c~t͡ʃ	d	ⁿd	ɗ	ɛ~e	f	g	ᵑɡ	h	ɪ~i	ɟ~d͡ʒ	ᶮɟ~ ᶮd͡ʒ	k	l	m	n	ŋ	ɲ	ɔ~o	p	r	s	t	ʊ~u	w	j	ʔʲ	ʔ

Long vowels are written doubled: <aa, ee, ii, oo, uu> The standard Fulfulde alphabet adopted during the UNESCO-sponsored expert meeting in Bamako in March 1966 is as follows: a, b, mb, ɓ, c, d, nd, ɗ, e, f, g, ng, h, i, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ŋ, ny (later ɲ or ñ), o, p, r, s, t, u, w, y, ƴ, ʼ.

Sample text

The following is a sample text in Fula of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The first line is in Adlam, the second in Latin script, the third in IPA.

𞤋𞤲𞥆𞤢𞤥𞤢

Innama

/inːama

𞤢𞥄𞤣𞤫𞥅𞤶𞤭

aadeeji

aːdeːɟi

𞤬𞤮𞤬

fof

fof

𞤨𞤮𞤼𞤭,

poti,

poti,

𞤲𞤣𞤭𞤥𞤯𞤭𞤣𞤭

ndimɗidi

ⁿdimɗidi

𞤫

e

e

𞤶𞤭𞤦𞤭𞤲𞤢𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤫

jibinannde

ɟibinanⁿde

𞤼𞤮

to

to

𞤦𞤢𞤲𞥆𞤺𞤫

bannge

banᵑge

𞤸𞤢𞤳𞥆𞤫𞥅𞤶𞤭.

hakkeeji.

hakːeːɟi.

𞤉𞤩𞤫

Eɓe

eɓe

𞤽𞤮𞥅𞤣𞤭

ngoodi

ᵑgoːdi

𞤥𞤭𞥅𞤶𞤮

miijo

miːɟo

𞤫

e

e

𞤸𞤢𞤳𞥆𞤭𞤤𞤢𞤲𞤼𞤢𞥄𞤺𞤢𞤤

hakkilantaagal

hakːilantaːgal

𞤫𞤼𞤫

ete

ete

𞤫𞤩𞤫

eɓe

eɓe

𞤨𞤮𞤼𞤭

poti

poti

𞤸𞤵𞥅𞤬𞤮

huufo

huːfo

𞤲𞤣𞤭𞤪𞤣𞤫

ndirde

ⁿdirde

𞤫

e

e

𞤲𞤣𞤫𞤪

nder

ⁿder

𞤩

ɓ

ɓ

𞤭𞤴𞤽𞤵𞤴𞤵𞤥𞥆𞤢𞥄𞤺𞤵

iynguyummaagu.

ijᵑgujumːaːgu./

𞤋𞤲𞥆𞤢𞤥𞤢 𞤢𞥄𞤣𞤫𞥅𞤶𞤭 𞤬𞤮𞤬 𞤨𞤮𞤼𞤭, 𞤲𞤣𞤭𞤥𞤯𞤭𞤣𞤭 𞤫 𞤶𞤭𞤦𞤭𞤲𞤢𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤫 𞤼𞤮 𞤦𞤢𞤲𞥆𞤺𞤫 𞤸𞤢𞤳𞥆𞤫𞥅𞤶𞤭. 𞤉𞤩𞤫 𞤽𞤮𞥅𞤣𞤭 𞤥𞤭𞥅𞤶𞤮 𞤫 𞤸𞤢𞤳𞥆𞤭𞤤𞤢𞤲𞤼𞤢𞥄𞤺𞤢𞤤 𞤫𞤼𞤫 𞤫𞤩𞤫 𞤨𞤮𞤼𞤭 𞤸𞤵𞥅𞤬𞤮 𞤲𞤣𞤭𞤪𞤣𞤫 𞤫 𞤲𞤣𞤫𞤪 𞤩 𞤭𞤴𞤽𞤵𞤴𞤵𞤥𞥆𞤢𞥄𞤺𞤵

Innama aadeeji fof poti, ndimɗidi e jibinannde to bannge hakkeeji. Eɓe ngoodi miijo e hakkilantaagal ete eɓe poti huufo ndirde e nder ɓ iynguyummaagu.

/inːama aːdeːɟi fof poti, ⁿdimɗidi e ɟibinanⁿde to banᵑge hakːeːɟi. eɓe ᵑgoːdi miːɟo e hakːilantaːgal ete eɓe poti huːfo ⁿdirde e ⁿder ɓ ijᵑgujumːaːgu./

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

See also

• Pular grammar (a presentation for one variety of Fula)
• David Whitehorn Arnott

Notes

References

• Arnott, D. W. (1956). "The Middle Voice in Fula". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 18 (1): 130–144. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00122244. JSTOR 610132. S2CID 163033896.
• Arnott, D. W. (1970). The Nominal and Verbal Systems of Fula. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-815127-2.
• Arnott, D. W. (2003). "Fula". In Frawley, W. (ed.). International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Vol. 2. Oxford University Press.
• McIntosh, Mary (1984). Fulfulde Syntax and Verbal Morphology. London: St Edmundsbury Press. ISBN 9780710300744.
• Paradis, Carole (1992). Lexical Phonology and Morphology: The Nominal Classes in Fula. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 9780815306979.
• Reichardt, Charles Augustus Ludwig (1876). Grammar of the Fulde Language: With an Appendix of Some Original Traditions and Portions of Scripture Translated Into Fulde: Together with Eight Chapters of the Book of Genesis. Translated by Dr. Baikie. Church Missionary Society.
• Shehu, Ahmadu (2014). "Stress Placement Rules in Fulfulde: A Review". HARSHE Journal of African Languages: 169–186.
• Wilson, W. A. A. (1945). "Atlantic". In Bendor-Samuel, John (ed.). The Niger–Congo Languages. pp. 81–104.

External links

• Fulfulde Ajami script how to
• Fula- Language Gulper
• fulfulde app on googleplay
• Fulfulde Language Family Report (SIL) – includes maps of the dialects
• D. W. Arnott. The Nominal and Verbal Systems of Fula General Introduction webPulaaku
• Listen to a sample of Adamawa Fulfulde from Global Recordings Network
• Adlam alphabet

Fula on the web

Below are some websites from different countries that use the Latin alphabet of Fula/Fulfulde:

• Nigeria: www.mafindi.com/words www.mafindi.africa/words
• Nigeria: fulfulde24.com
• Nigeria: www.rfi.fr/ff/
• Mauritania: pulaar.org
• Mauritania: pulaagu.com
• Guinea: jowlol.org
• Guinea: tabaldefouta.org
• Guinea: misiide.net
• Guinea: webpulaaku.net
• Sierra Leone: peeral.com
• Fuuta Tooro: www.pulaaronline.com