The Fula language is a language of West Africa, spoken by the Fula people from Senegal to Cameroon and Sudan. It belongs to the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... Map showing the distribution of Niger-Congo languages The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the worlds major language families, and Africas largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The (West) Atlantic languages1 of West Africa are a subgroup of Niger-Congo language family. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... The Fula language is a language of West Africa, spoken by the Fula people from Senegal to Cameroon and Sudan. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...  Western Africa (UN subregion)  Maghreb West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. ... Categories: Africa-related stubs | Burkina Faso | Cameroon | Ethnic groups of Africa | Fulani Empire | Mali | Nigeria ... The (West) Atlantic languages1 of West Africa are a subgroup of Niger-Congo language family. ... Map showing the distribution of Niger-Congo languages The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the worlds major language families, and Africas largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. ...

There are many names for the Fula people and their language. The Hausa call them the Fulani, while the Wolof use Peul and the Mandinka people Fula. The Fula call themselves Fulbe (plural), Pullo (singular). Speakers of western dialects call their language Pulaar or Pular, while eastern dialects use Fulfulde. The Hausa are a people chiefly located in northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger. ... The Wolofs are an ethnic group living in Senegal, the Gambia and Mauritania. ... The Mandinka are a Mande people of West Africa, all descendent physically or culturally from the ancient Mali Empire which controlled the trans-Saharic trade from the Middle East to West Africa. ...

Dialects

While there are numerous dialects of Fula, it is typically regarded as a single language. Wilson (1989) states that "travellers over wide distances never find communication impossible." Bible translators estimate that at least 7 different translations are needed to make it comprehensible for all Fulfulde speakers. Ethnologue, however, treats several of the varieties as separate languages: A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages primarily to provide the speakers with native language biblical texts. ...

East Central

Fulfulde, Western Niger (Niger)

Fulfulde, Central-Eastern Niger (Niger)

Fulfulde, Nigerian (Nigeria)

Eastern

Fulfulde, Adamawa, fub

• 700.000 speakers in Cameroon (1993)
• 128.000 in Chad (1993)
• 90.000 in Sudan (1982)

Fulfulde, Bagirmi, fui

• 24000 speakers in Chad
• 156.000 speakers in Central African Republic (1996).

West Central

Fulfulde, Maasina, ffm

• 900.000 speakers in Mali (1991)
• 7000 speakers in Ghana (1991)

Fulfulde, Borgu, fub

• 280.000 speakers in Benin (2002)
• 48.000 speakers in Togo (1993)
• also spoken in Nigeria

Pular

Alternative name is Fuuta Jalon.

• 2.550.000 speakers in Guinea (1991)
• 50.000 speakers in Mali (1991)
• 136.000 speakers in Senegal (2002)
• 178.000 speakers in Sierra Leone (1991)

Pular is an official regional language in Guinea, and many speakers are monolingual. The language has borrowed a lot from Arabic and French, but also from English, Portuguese, Malinke, Susu, Wolof and others. A regional language is a language spoken in a part of a country - it may be a small area, a federal state or province, or a wider area. ... The Malinké are an African ethnic group. ... Susu may refer to: the Ganges and Indus River Dolphin an ethnic group in Guinea, the Soussou. ... Wolof may refer to: the ethnic group of the Wolof people; the Wolof language; things originating from the culture or tradition of the Wolof people. ...

Western

Pulaar

• Senegal

Alphabet

When written using the Latin alphabet Fula uses the following special "hooked" characters: Ɓ/ɓ, Ɗ/ɗ, Ŋ/ŋ, Ɲ/ɲ, Ƴ/ƴ (i.e. B, D, Ng, N, Y). The apostrophe (’) is used as a glottal stop and in Nigerian ’y substitutes ƴ.

Reference

• Wilson, W. A. A. (1989). Atlantic. In John Bendor-Samuel (Ed.), The Niger-Congo Languages, pp. 81-104.

External links

Fula language edition of Wikipedia

• http://www.jamtan.com
• http://www.kawtal.org
• http://www.kawtal.com
• Mido Waawi Pular! Learner's guide to Pular (Fuuta Jallon) by Herb Caudill and Ousmane Diallo
• Ethnologue entry for Fula
• Fulfulde Language Family Report (SIL) - includes maps of the dialects
• FULA (Fulfulde, Pulaar, Fulani, Peul) Language Page from MSU's Webbook of Afrian Language Resources (from the 1980s)
• Pular Language Ebooks, freely downloadable PDFs