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.
Fula (/ˈfuːlə/FOO-lə),[2] also known asFulani (/fʊˈlɑːniː/fuul-AH-nee)[2] orFulah[3][4] (Fulfulde,Pulaar,Pular;Adlam:𞤊𞤵𞤤𞤬𞤵𞤤𞤣𞤫,𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤢𞥄𞤪,𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤢𞤪;Ajami:ࢻُلْࢻُلْدٜ,ݒُلَارْ,بُۛلَر), is aSenegambian language spoken by around 36.8 million people as a set of various dialects in acontinuum that stretches across some 18 countries inWest andCentral Africa. Along with other related languages such asSerer andWolof, it belongs to theAtlantic geographic group withinNiger–Congo, and more specifically to theSenegambian branch. Unlike most Niger-Congo languages, Fula does not havetones.
Several names are applied to the language, just as to theFula people. They call their languagePulaar orPular in the western dialects andFulfulde in the central and eastern dialects.Fula,Fulah andFulani in English come originally fromManding (esp. Mandinka, but also Malinke and Bamana) andHausa, respectively;Peul in French, also occasionally found in literature in English, comes fromWolof.
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.[5] However,Ethnologue has found that nine different translations are neededto make the Bible comprehensible for most Fula speakers[citation needed], and it treats these varieties as separate languages. They are listed in the box at the beginning of this article.
Fula is based on verbonominal roots, from which verbal, noun, and modifier words are derived. It uses suffixes (sometimes inaccurately calledinfixes, as they come between the root and the inflectional ending) to modify meaning. These suffixes often serve the same purposes in Fula thatprepositions do in English.
The Fula or Fulfulde language is characterized by a robustnoun class system, with 24 to 26 noun classes being common across the Fulfulde dialects.[6] 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.[7] 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 thanclass markers.[8] 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.[9]
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" asDavid Arnott's 1970 description of the noun classes of the Gombe dialect of Fula. Thus, certain examples from Arnott also informed this table.[6][10]
Class name
Meaning
Example
o𞤮
Person singular
laam-ɗo 'chief'; also loan words
ɓe𞤩𞤫
Person plural
laam-ɓe 'chiefs'
ngel𞤲'𞤺𞤫𞤤
Diminutive singular
loo-ngel 'little pot'
kal𞤳𞤢𞤤
Diminutive quantities
con-al 'small quantity of flour'
ngum/kum𞤲'𞤺𞤵𞤥/𞤳𞤵𞤥
Diminutive pejorative
laam-ngum/laam-kum 'worthless little chief'
kon/koy𞤳𞤮𞤲/𞤳𞤮𞤴
Diminutive plural
ullu-kon/ullu-koy 'small cats/kittens'
nde𞤲𞥋𞤣𞤫
Various, including globular objects, places, times
Verbs in Fula are usually classed in threevoices: active, middle, and passive.[11] Not every root is used in all voices. Some middle-voice verbs arereflexive.
A common example are verbs from the root -𞤤𞤮𞥅𞤼loot-:
𞤤𞤮𞥅𞤼𞤵𞤣𞤫lootude, to wash (something) [active voice]
𞤤𞤮𞥅𞤼𞤢𞥄𞤣𞤫lootaade, to wash (oneself) [middle voice]
Another feature of the language is initialconsonant mutation between singular and plural forms of nouns and of verbs (except in Pular, no consonant mutation exists in verbs, only in nouns)[clarification needed].
Fula hasinclusive 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.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, two teenage brothers,Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry from theNzérékoré Region of Guinea, created theAdlam 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.[12][13][14]
Smartphone keyboard used for Fula, with the special lettersD with hook (ɗ),B with hook (ɓ) andeng (ŋ).
When written using theLatin 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 lettersc,j, andr, 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.[clarification needed]
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:[15]a, b, mb, ɓ, c, d, nd, ɗ, e, f, g, ng, h, i, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ŋ, ny (later ɲor ñ), o, p, r, s, t, u, w, y, ƴ, ʼ.
The following is a sample text in Fula of Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights.[16] The first line is in Adlam, the second in Latin script, the third in IPA.
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."
^Ka, Fary (1991). "Problématique de la standardisation linguistique: Le cas du pulaar/fulfulde". In Cyffer, N. (ed.).Language Standardization in Africa. Hamburg: Helmut Buske verlag. pp. 35–38....malgré son extension géographique et ses variations dialectales, le fulfulde reste une langue profondément unie.
