Fur bèle fòòr
Spoken in:	Sudan, Chad
Region:	Darfur
Total speakers:	0.5 million
Language family:	Nilo-Saharan  Fur   Fur
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	ssa
ISO 639-3:	fvr
Geographic distribution of Fur
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

The Fur language (Fur bèle fòòr or fòòraŋ bèle, Arabic فوراوي Fûrâwî; sometimes called Konjara by linguists, after a former ruling clan) is the language of the Fur of Darfur in western Sudan. It belongs to the Fur branch of the Nilo-Saharan phylum. It has about 3,000,000 speakers (500,000 in 1983.) Flag of the Fur national movement Darfur (Arabic دار فور, meaning home of the Fur) is region of far western Sudan, bordering the Central African Republic, Libya, and Chad. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... Map showing the distribution of the Nilo-Saharan languages. ... The Fur languages constitute a small, closely related first-order subgroup within the Nilo-Saharan languages: Fur in western Sudan with 500,000 speakers and Amdang in eastern Chad (also called Mimi) with 5,000 speakers. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... Image File history File links Map showing the Fur language in Sudan, following Doornbos & Bender, produced from CIA World Factbook maps File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Map showing the Fur language in Sudan, following Doornbos & Bender, produced from CIA World Factbook maps File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Not to be confused with the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... This chart shows concisely the most common way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is applied to represent the English language. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... Flag of the Fur national movement The Fur (fòòrà in Fur, فور in Arabic) are a people of the western Sudan, numbering about 0. ... Flag of the Fur national movement Darfur (Arabic دار فور, meaning home of the Fur) is region of far western Sudan, bordering the Central African Republic, Libya, and Chad. ... The Fur languages constitute a small, closely related first-order subgroup within the Nilo-Saharan languages: Fur in western Sudan with 500,000 speakers and Amdang in eastern Chad (also called Mimi) with 5,000 speakers. ... Map showing the distribution of the Nilo-Saharan languages. ...

Phonology

The consonantal phonemes are:

• Bilabial: f b m w
• Dental/Alveolar: t d s n l r
• Palatal: j ñ y
• Velar: k g (h) ŋ

All symbols have their IPA value except for the following: j = [ɟ], ñ = [ɲ] and y = [j]. z occurs only as an allophone of y. Arabic consonants are sometimes used in loanwords. /h/ is very rare. IPA may refer to: The International Phonetic Alphabet or India Pale Ale ... In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. ... A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ...

The vowels are as in Latin: a e i o u. There is dispute as to whether the +ATR vowels ɛ, ɔ, ɪ, ʊ are phonetic variants or separate phonemes. /f/ varies along a range between [p] and [f]; thus some sources give the name of the language as pɔɔr.

There are two underlying tonemes, L (low) and H (high); phonetically, L, H, mid, HL and LH are all found.

Interestingly, metathesis is an extremely common, and regular, grammatical phenomenon in Fur; when a consonant pronoun prefix is prefixed to a verb that begins with a consonant, either the verb's first consonant is deleted or it changes places with the following vowel. Eg: lem- "lick" > -elm-; ba- "drink" > -ab-; tuum- "build" > -utum-. There are also a variety of assimilation rules. Metathesis is a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word. ...

Morphology

Plurals

Noun, and optionally adjective, plurals can be formed with -a (-ŋa after vowels): àldi "story" > àldiŋa "stories", tòŋ "(a certain species of) antelope"> tòŋà "antelopes"; bàin "old" > bàinà "old (pl.)". This suffix also gives the inanimate 3rd person plural of the verb: lìiŋ "he bathes" > lìiŋa "they (inanimate) bathe", kaliŋa "they (animate) bathe".

Vowel-final adjectives can take a plural in -là, as well as -ŋa: lulla "cold" > lullalà or lullaŋà "cold (pl.)". A similar suffix (metathesized and assimilated to become -òl/-ùl/-àl) is used for the plural of the verb in some tenses.

A few CVV nouns take the plural suffix H-ta; ròò "river" > ròota "rivers"; rèi "field" > rèito "fields".

At least two nouns take the suffix -i: koor "spear" > koori "spears", nuum "mouse" > kuumi "mice".

Nouns with the singular prefix d- (> n- before a nasal) take the plural k-; these are about 20% of all nouns. In some cases (mostly body parts) it is accompanied by L. Eg: dilo "ear" > kilo "ears"; nuŋi "eye" > kuŋi "eyes"; dagi "tooth" > kàgi "teeth"; dòrmi "nose" > kòrmì "noses".

• In some cases the singular also has a suffix -ŋ, not found in the plural: daulaŋ "shoe" > kaula "shoes", dìroŋ "egg" > kìrò "eggs".
• Sometimes a further plural suffix from those listed above is added: nunùm "granary" > kunùmà "granaries", nuum "snake" > kuumi "snakes", dìwwo "new" > kìwwolà "new (pl.)"
• Sometimes the suffix -(n)ta, is added: dèwèr "porcupine" > kèwèrtà "porcupines"; dàwì "tail" > kàwìntò "tails".
• One noun, as well as the demonstratives and the interrogative "which", take a plural by simply prefixing k-L: uu "cow" > kùù; ei "which (one)?" > kèì "which (ones)?".
• Several syntactic plurals with no singulars, mostly denoting liquids, have k-L-a; kèwà "blood", kòrò "water", kònà "name, song".

Nouns

The locative can be expressed by the suffix -le or by reversing the noun's final tone, eg: tòŋ "house" > toŋ "at the house"; loo "place", kàrrà "far" > loo kàrrà-le "at a far place".

The genitive (English 's) is expressed by the suffix -iŋ (the i is deleted after a vowel.) If the relationship is possessive, the possessor comes first; otherwise, it comes last. Eg: nuum "snake" > nuumiŋ tàbù "snake's head"; jùtà "forest" > kàrabà jùtăŋ "animals of the forest".

Pronouns

Independent subject:

The object pronouns are identical apart from being low tone and having -ŋò added to the plural forms.

Prefixed subject pronouns:

Thus, for example, on the verb bu- "tire":

gi, described as the "participant object pronoun", represents first or second person objects in a dialogue, depending on context.

Possessives (singular; take k- with plural nouns):

Verbs

The Fur verbal system is quite complicated; verbs fall into a variety of conjugations. There are three tenses: present, perfect, and future. Subjunctive is also marked. Aspect is distinguished in the past tense.

Derivational suffixes include -iŋ (intransitive/reflexive; eg lii "he washes" > liiŋ "he washes himself) and gemination of the middle consonant plus -à/ò (intensive; eg jabi "drop" > jappiò/jabbiò "throw down".)

Negation is done with the marker a-...-bà surrounding the verb; a-bai-bà "he does not drink".

Adjectives

Most adjectives have two syllables, and a geminate middle consonant: eg àppa "big", fùkka "red", làmme "sweet". Some have three syllables: dàkkure "solid".

Adverbs can be derived from adjectives by addition of the suffix -ndì or L-n, eg: kùlle "fast" > kùllendì or kùllèn "quickly".

Abstract nouns can be derived from adjectives by adding -iŋ and lowering all tones, deleting any final vowel of the adjective, eg: dìrro "heavy" > dìrrìŋ "heaviness".

Sources

• A. C. Beaton. A Grammar of the Fur Language. Linguistic Monograph Series, No. 1. Khartoum: Sudan Research Unit, Faculty of Arts, University of Khartoum 1968 (1937).
• Angelika Jacobi, A Fur Grammar. Buske Verlag: Hamburg 1989.
• Constance Kutsch-Lojenga & Christine Waag, "The Sounds and Tones of Fur", in Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages No. 9. Entebbe: SIL-Sudan 2004.

External links

• Ethnologue report for Fur