- published: 05 Nov 2007
- views: 23346
The Fula or Fulani language (Fula: Fulfulde or Pulaar or Pular ; French: Peul) is a language of West Africa. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Wolof, it belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo language family. It is spoken as a first language by the Fulɓe (Fula or Fulani people) and related groups (such as the Tukulor in the Senegal River Valley) from Senegambia and Guinea to Cameroon and Sudan. It is also spoken as a second language by peoples in various areas of the region.
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 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.
Fula is based on verbo-nominal roots, from which verbal, noun and modifier words are derived. It also uses infixes (a syllable inserted in the "middle" of a word, actually following the root and before the ending) to modify meaning. These infixes often serve the same purposes in Fula as prepositions do in English.
Fula people or Fulani or Fulbe (Fula: Fulɓe; French: Peul; Hausa: Fulan; Portuguese: Fula; Wolof: Pël; Bambara: Fulaw) are an ethnic group spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and Sudanese North Africa. African countries where they are present include Mauritania, Ghana, Senegal, Guinea, The Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Chad, Togo, the Central African Republic, Liberia, and as far as Sudan and Egypt in the East. Fula people form a minority in every country they inhabit, but in Guinea they represent a plurality of the population (40%).
There are also many names (and spellings of the names) used in other languages to refer to the Fulɓe. Fulani in English is borrowed from the Hausa term, and it is also used by the Manding peoples, being the diminutive form of the word "Fula" in their language, essentially meaning "little Fula". Fula, from Manding languages, is also used in English, and sometimes spelled Fulah or Foulah. Fula and Fulani are commonly used in English, including within Africa. The French borrowed the Wolof term Pël, which is variously spelled: Peul, Peulh, and even Peuhl. More recently the Fulfulde / Pulaar term Fulɓe, which is a plural noun (singular, Pullo) has been Anglicised as Fulbe, which some people use. In Portuguese, the terms Fula or Futafula are used.