Talk:Torodbe

Fula, Fulbe, etc.

I made a few edits with regard to use of "Fulbe" and in general would urge caution, especially applying it as an adjective. "Fulbe" - the anglicized version of the plural noun for the Fula people, Fulɓe (singular Pullo) - has become somewhat popular in academic literature in recent years. As I read it, this has been spurred by the notion that it is better to use the term the people would use to describe themselves (endonym). However this is also a case where there are already well-established words in English - namely Fula and Fulani - with no negative connotations (as sometimes exonyms have), as they derive ultimately from the same "ful-/pul-" root at the foundation of the endonyms. This issue is not new, and I've outlined some of the concerns with use of "Fulbe" in English elsewhere. In the context of Wikipedia, I think there is room for more than one approach, disambiguated in the Fula people article. However, it would seem more appropriate to use Fulbe as a (plural) noun (its role in the source language), and less so as an adjective (which reads oddly to one who speaks the language; the well "digested" loan words in English, "Fula" or "Fulani," would not have this problem). What particularly caught my attention here - and I note it in a couple of other instances now on WP - were the terms "Fulbe language" and "Fulbe word." For their language(s), one can easily adapt the regionally appropriate endonym (if the language context is specific to the area treated) - i.e., Fulfulde, Pulaar, or Pular. Sorry to pick on a small aspect of an otherwise worthy article, but it's part of a wider and longer discussion.--A12n (talk) 17:40, 6 March 2013 (UTC)