Fula
Story
Fula is a Senegambian language of the Niger-Congo family spread across more than 18 countries by the historically nomadic Fulani people, making it one of the most geographically dispersed language groups in Africa. In the late 1980s, two teenage brothers, Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry from Guinea, invented the Adlam script specifically to write Fula; the name is an acronym meaning "the alphabet that protects the peoples from vanishing". Adlam is written right to left, was added to the Unicode standard in 2016, and is now taught in Guinea, Nigeria, Liberia, and other countries. Unlike most Niger-Congo languages, Fula is not a tonal language, relying instead on consonant mutation, vowel length, and noun-class agreement to convey grammatical meaning.
At a glance
- Also known as: Fulfulde / Pulaar / Pular
- Family: Niger-Congo
- Region: West Africa
- Speakers: 40M (ethnologue (2014 to 2021) gives approximately 37 million l1 speakers; total including l2 and lingua franca speakers estimated at 40 to 95 million depending on scope; 40 million is a conservative defensible total)
- Writing system: Latin, Adlam script, and Arabic script (Ajami)
- Greeting: Jam waali (good morning / peace be upon you)
Spoken in
Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, Niger, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Chad, Sierra Leone, Mauritania, Togo, Sudan
Common questions
How many people speak Fula?
Fula is spoken by about 40M people (ethnologue (2014 to 2021) gives approximately 37 million l1 speakers; total including l2 and lingua franca speakers estimated at 40 to 95 million depending on scope; 40 million is a conservative defensible total).
Where is Fula spoken?
Fula is spoken in Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, Niger, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Chad, Sierra Leone, Mauritania, Togo, Sudan.
What language family does Fula belong to?
Fula belongs to the Niger-Congo language family.