Fula language From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Fula /‘fu:lo/'*! language, also known as Fulani /fy'lozniy/®1 (Fula: Fulfiulde, Pulaar, Pular; French: Peul) is a non-tonal language spoken as various closely related dialects, in a continuum that stretches across some 20 countries of West and Central Africa. Like other related languages such as Serer and Wolof, it belongs to the Native to Atlantic subfamily of the Niger-Congo languages. It is Region spoken as a first language by the Fula people ("Fulani", | Ethnicity Fula: Ful6e) and related groups such as the Toucouleur | Native people in the Senegal River Valley from the Senegambia | speakers region and Guinea to Cameroon and Sudan. It is also Language spoken as a second language by various peoples in the family region, such as the Kirdi of Northem Cameroon and » Northeastern Nigeria. Contents 10 639- = 1 Nomenclature 1 = 2 Morphology 1S 639- = 2.1 Noun classes 2 = 2.2 Voice 180 639- = 2.3 Consonant mutation 3 = 2.4 Pronouns = 3. Varieties = 4 Status = 5 Writing systems = 5.1 Latin alphabet = 5.1.1 Sample Fula alphabet = 5.2 Arabic script = 5.3 Invented Fula scripts References = 6.1 Works = 62 Notes External links Nomenclature There are several names applied to the language, just as there are to the Fula people. They call their language Pulaar or Pular in the western dialects and Fulfulde in the central and eastern dialects. Fula(h) and Fulani in Fula Fulani, Peul Fulfulde, Pulaar, Pular West Africa The Sahel Fulbe 24 million (2007)!!] Niger—Congo = Atlantic—Congo = Senegambian = Fula-Serer + Fula Language codes ff ful ful — inclusive code Individual codes: uc (http://mev-01.5i1 .0rg/is0639- 3/docunentation.asp2id=fuc) ~ Pulaar (Senegambia, Mauritania) uf (http://mev-01.5i1.0rg/is0639- 3/docunentation. asp?ié=fuf) — Pular (Guinea, Siena Leone) fm (http://mev-01.5i1 .0rg/is0639- 3/docunentation.asp?ideffn) — Maasina Fulfulde (Mali) fue (http://mev-01.5i1 .0rg/iso639- 3/docunentation.asp?idfue) ~ Borgu. Fulfulde (Benin, Togo) fuh (hetp://mov-01.si1 .org/iso639- 3/docunentation,asp2idefuh) — Western Niger (Burkina, Niger) fug (ht tp://wwd-01. si .org/is0639- 3/documentation.asp?id=fug) — Central_Eastern Niger (Niger) fuv (http://mev-01.5i1 .0rg/150639-English come originally from Manding (esp. Mandinka, 3/docunentation.asp?idefuv) ~ but also Malinke and Bamana) and Hausa, respectively; Nigerian Fulfulde (Nigeria) Peul in French, also occasionally found in literature in fub (http://www-@1.si1.org/iso639- English, comes from Wolof. 3/documentation.asp?id=Fub) — Adamawa Fulfulde (Cameroon, Chad, Morphology Sudan) fut (hetp://ma-01,541.0rg/1s0639- Fula is based on verbo-nominal roots, from which verbal, 3/docunentation.asp?id=ful) — noun and modifier words are derived. It uses suffixes Bagirmi Fulfulde (CAR) (sometimes inaccurately called infixes, as they come Glottolog fula1264 (http://glottolog.org/reso between the root and the inflectional ending) to modify meaning, These suffixes often serve the same purposes in Fula that prepositions do in English. urce/languoid/id/fulai264)l?] Person Pullo Noun classes People Fulbe The Fula or Fulfulde language is characterized by a Language Fulfulde robust noun class system, with 24 to 26 noun classes being common across the Fulfulde dialects (Amett 1975: 5). 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 (Paradis 1992: 25). For example, there are classes 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 (Amett 1975: 74). 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 (McIntosh 1984:45-46) 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 | 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 MeIntosh’s 1984 description of Kaccecereere Fulfulde, which the author describes as “essentially the same" as Arnott’s 1970 description of the noun classes of the Gombe dialect of Fula. Thus, certain examples from Amott also informed this table (Amott 1975: 5), (MeIntosh 1984:44).