Pulaar (inLatin:pulaar, inAjami:ݒُلَارْ‎) is aFula language spoken primarily as a first^[2] language by theFula andToucouleur peoples in theSenegal River valley area traditionally known asFuta Tooro and further south and east. Pulaar speakers, known asHaalpulaar'en live inSenegal,Mauritania,the Gambia, and westernMali. The two main speakers of Pulaar are the Toucouleur people and the Fulɓe (also known as Fulani or Peul).^[3] Pulaar is the second most spoken local language in Senegal, being a first language for around 22% of the population. This correlates with 23.7% of the country in which Pulaar is the population's ethnicity.^[4] Pulaar is one of the national languages of Senegal alongside 13 others.^[4] It was admitted as an official language of Senegal by Presidential decree in 1971.^[4] There are around 28 known dialects of Pulaar, most of which are mutually intelligible with each other.^[5] The Pulaar dialects, as well as otherWest African languages, are usually referenced under the umbrella term ‘Fula’. Pulaar as a language, however, is not usually referenced as ‘Fula’.^[6]

According toEthnologue there are several dialectal varieties, but all are mutually intelligible.

Pulaar is not to be confused withPular, another variety of Fula spoken inGuinea (including theFouta Djallon region). The Pulaar and Pular varieties of Fula are to some extent mutually intelligible.

Pulaar is currently written in primarily in theLatin script. Historically, for centuries, Pulaar has a literary tradition based on theArabic script, an orthographic tradition now known as "Ajami". More recently,Adlam script for Pulaar has been gaining ground as well (seeFula alphabets).

The word Pulaar translates to 'the language of the Fulɓe' as the stem/pul/ is the singular form of Fulɓe and the suffix/-aar/ means language. The language is believed to have formed in Fuuta Tooro when the ancestors of the Toucouleur people began speaking the language of the Fulɓe. It is then believed that the termHaalpulaar'en (which means 'speakers of the language of Pulaar') was created to apply to non-Fulɓe speakers of Fulɓe, of which the Toucouleur people are the largest demographic.^[3]

The negative accomplished verb form ends in-aani. (This is slightly different fromMaasina Fulfulde andPular.)

Pulaar contains 21 noun classes. These noun classes can commonly be observed by looking at the suffix of a noun. For example, a noun that is the result of a loan word will typically end in-o (however, human singular nouns such asdebbo (meaning woman) also end in-o). The class of the noun will often refer to the actual content of the noun. For example, theɗam noun class is applied to nouns that describe a liquid.^[7] The table below shows the noun classes in Pulaar and what the class indicates the content of the noun to be:

The Pulaar counting system is base five (a quinary-decimal system) which is similar to the surrounding Niger-Congo languages. The number 7, for example, uses the prefix ofd͡ʒoj (5) and the suffixɗiɗi (2) becomingd͡ʒeeɗiɗi (5+2).^[9] Other languages that use this system in West Africa include Pular,Wolof, Sereer-Sine and East Limba. These quinary-decimal counting languages can be found in the west African regions of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Gambia.^[9] Pulaar and Pular possess almost identical words for numbers, in which every number from 1 to 10 share the exact same name except for 5 (d͡ʒoj for Pulaar andd͡ʒowi for Pular).^[9]

The Pulaarverb system contains multiplesuffixes which can be added to verbs to change their cases. These suffixes include the -t suffixes, the-d suffixes, the-n suffixes, and the-r suffixes. When multiple suffixes are used in a single verb, they follow the 'TDNR' order. This means that -t suffixes go before-d suffixes which go before-n suffixes, and-r suffixes are the last in order .^[10] There are few exceptions to this rule. An example of this is the wordnyaam-n-id-ii. In this word, the-n suffix goes before the-d suffix.^[10]

the-t suffix is added to verbs in order to change the case of the verb.^[6] Theallomorphs-t or-it are added to make a verb retaliative, meaning to do in retaliation for a previous action. For example,lata (meaning ‘kick’) adds the allomorph -it to becomelat-it-o (meaning ‘kick back’).^[6] The allomorphs-t,-it or-ut  are added to a verb to make it reversive, meaning to do the opposite of the original verb. For example,taara (meaning ‘wind’) becomestaar-t-a (meaning ‘unwind’).^[6] The same allomorphs apply for the repetitive case, meaning the repeating of an action. There are no means of distinguishing between a reversive and a repetitious case other than by observing the context of the sentence.^[6] The allomorphs-t and-it are used to make a verbreflexive, which means to make the object of the action the same as the subject. For example,ndaara (meaning ‘look at’) becomesndaar-t-o (meaning ‘look at oneself’).^[10] The allomorphs-t, -ut and-it are used to show that a verb is completed with intensity. For example,yana (meaning ‘fall’) becomesyan-t-a (meaning ‘fall heavily’).^[10] For words such as ‘yama (meaning ‘ask’), the intensive form becomesyam-t-a (meaning ‘interrogate’) which is also the same form the repetitive case (meaning ‘ask again’). Therefore,yam-t-a is either one of those cases and therefore cannot be distinguished without taking into account the context of the sentence it is used in.^[6]

TheToucouleur people (also referred to as Tukulor) are one of the largest Pulaar speaking demographics in West Africa. They are an ethnic group of theFuta Tooro region encompassing the middle of the Senegal River. The Toucouleur people are heavily influenced byIslam, being one of the first black African groups to embrace Islam in the 11th century.^[11] Therefore, the Pulaar language has influences from Islam. This influence has led toArabic words being integrated into the Pulaar language.^[5] The vocabulary of the Pulaar language is also influenced by the conservative, family-oriented culture of Pulaar. There are Pulaar words which describe relationships between people. The phrasejokkere endam' (literally translated to "following maternal milk") is used to talk about the responsibilities that one has to maintain their relationship with their family. The wordmusidal is used to describe one's blood relationship to a family.^[5] Pulaar's noun classes also indicate the influence of the agricultural lifestyle of Fula people. For example, thenge class of nouns refers to bovines including cow (naage) and heifer (wiige), and theki class of nouns refer to trees or objects that are straight upright.^[7] The noun classes relating to themes of agriculture and farming relate to the Toucouleur economy, which consists mainly of raising of stock, crop cultivation and fishing.^[12] The Fulɓe people are known for being a semi-nomadic pastoralist group who have a history of cattle-herding, justifying the bovine noun class.^[3]

Pulaar today is primarily written in Latin alphabet, with orthographic conventions that are in common for all indigenous languages ofSenegal. The Latin alphabet has been standardized in variousSenegalese government decrees, the latest of which was issued in 2005.^[13]

However, historically, similar to other indigenous languages of the region, such asWolof language, its first writing system was the adaption of the Arabic Script. The Arabic script is used today as well, albeit in a smaller scale, and only mostly limited to Islamic school teachers and students. TheArabic-based script of Pulaar was set by the government as well, between 1985 and 1990, although never adopted by a decree, as the effort by the Senegalese ministry of education was to be part of a multi-national standardization effort.^[14]

Prenasalized consonants are written as adigraph (combination of two consonants). While historically, there were single letter alternatives, these letters are no longer used. Prenasalized consonants are constructed usingmeem (م) ornoon (ن) in combination with other consonants. The lettermeem (م) appears in pairs withbeh (ب), whereas the letternoon (ن) appears in pairs withdal (د),jeem (ج), andgeh (گ).

Prenasalized consonants cannot take the zero-vowel diacriticsukun (◌ْ). If they are at the end of the word and have no vowels, they will take the gemination diacriticshadda (◌ّ).

Some consider these digraphs as their own independent letters.

Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights.^[16]

The Pulaar language is a declining language in West Africa, the surrounding Niger-Congo languages, such asWolof, are increasing in speakers instead.^[17][18] A 1987–1988 study of bilingual North Senegalese communities found that the use of Pulaar was decreasing in the younger generation. Pulaar was being replaced by Wolof and French loan words.^[17] John Hames has argued that the reason for this decline in Pulaar in favour for Wolof and French has come down to the fact that the Wolof culture and Senegalese identity are strongly related. In Western Africa, Wolof language is often used in "major pop cultural and entertainment products and radio broadcast content".^[18] Wolof interpreters were used from the late sixteenth century with thePortuguese, therefore Wolof maintained a position in West Africa as the language of trade. Wolof also hold religious importance in West Africa as theMouride Muslim Sufi order holds its capital inTouba, which is a predominately Wolof-speaking zone.^[3] The Mouride population constitutes 3-5 million people in Senegal (the population of Senegal is around 16 million).^[19] Fiona McLaughlin argues that this economic and cultural hegemony that the Wolof have is at the expense of the Pulaar language. She states that people in Senegal will call themselves Wolof, despite not being ethnicallyWolof, because it is the only language that they learned.^[3] John Hames claims that the prevalence of Wolof in Senegalese culture as well as the lack of government intervention to maintain Pulaar as a contemporary language has led to its decline.^[18]

John Hames has argued that the regime of Mauritanian PresidentMoktar Ould Daddah has helped decrease the prevalence of Pulaar. Hames states that theMoor supportive presidency of Daddah led to an increase of Arab education over education of native languages.^[20] One of the more notable examples of this is when the Mauritanian government officially passed a law in 1965 that made it mandatory to teachArabic during primary and secondary education.^[21]

TheAssociation pour la Renaissance du Pulaar- Republique Islamique de Mauritanie (ARP-RIM) was established to teach Pulaar literacy in Mauritania. The organization received increased government funding after thecoup d'état of the then President of Mauritania,Moktar Ould Daddah in the late 1970s.^[22] The programs which the ARP-RIM participated in included campaigns to increase Pulaar literacy, this was done by creating more radio programs which taught the local languages of Mauritania.^[18] As The ARP-RIM also focused on applying the Pulaar language to primary education as it allocated Pulaar teachers to public schools in Mauritania.^[18] The efforts to revive Pulaar in Mauritania were reduced after the1984 coup d'état of then President of Mauritania,Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla, by ColonelMaaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya.^[23] In response to the coup d'état, theManifesto of the Oppressed Black Mauritanian was published in 1986 which criticized the perceived power and influence of the Arab "minority" in Mauritania. After the publishing of this manifesto, crackdowns by the Government against Pulaar speaker and teachers increased.^[18] Political imprisonments against the Pulaar people increased, notably Djigo Tafsirou, who was a Pulaar language activist, was arrested and possibly died in detention after 2 years of imprisonment.^[18]

TheMinistère de l'Éducation de Base et des Langues Nationales in 1986, (becoming theMinistère de l'Alphabétisation et des Langues Nationales in 2001) was established by the Senegal government as a means to boost the influence of the local languages of Senegal (including Pulaar). It did this by increasing the literacy amongst its users.^[4] Non-government companies that have aided the influence of the Pulaar language include the cotton producing company in West Africa, SODEFITEX. SODEFITEX has implemented local languages in their training courses for local farmers. A way this has been achieved is by creating radio programs in local languages to reinforce Pulaar to local employees.^[4] International development agencies have increasingly decided to focus on the use of local languages in West Africa to communicate ideas and governance. This is done as a means to increase local governance in regional areas of West Africa. These agencies includeWorld Vision International andTostan. For instance, the provision of basic literacy of Pulaar is one of the main focuses of Tostan.^[4] The government of Senegal has also had talks about creating an academy for national languages.^[4]

Mauritanian mathematician Mouhamadou Sy has published two math textbooks^[24] in Pulaar.

Pulaar language test ofWikipedia atWikimedia Incubator

• Fula language
• Languages of Senegal
• Languages of Mauritania
• Languages of the Gambia
• Languages of Mali
• Toucouleur language

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