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Fulah Language
Fula ( ),Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student's Handbook'', Edinburgh also known as Fulani ( ) or Fulah (, , ; Adlam: , , ; Ajami: , , ), is a Senegambian language spoken by around 36.8 million people as a set of various dialects in a continuum that stretches across some 18 countries in West and Central Africa. Along with other related languages such as Serer and Wolof, it belongs to the Atlantic geographic group within Niger–Congo, and more specifically to the Senegambian branch. Unlike most Niger-Congo languages, Fula does not have tones. It is spoken as a first language by the Fula people ("Fulani", ) from the Senegambia region and Guinea to Cameroon, Nigeria, and Sudan and by related groups such as the Toucouleur people in the Senegal River Valley. It is also spoken as a second language by various peoples in the region, such as the Kirdi of northern Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria. Nomenclature Several names are applied to the language, just as to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fala Language
Fala ("speech", also called ''Xalimego'') is a Western Romance languages, Western Romance language commonly classified in the Galician–Portuguese, Galician–Portuguese subgroup, with some traits from Leonese language, Leonese, spoken in Spain by about 10,500 people, of whom 5,500 live in a valley of the northwestern part of Extremadura near the border with Portugal. The speakers of Fala live in the towns of Valverde del Fresno (Valverdi du Fresnu), Eljas (As Ellas) and San Martín de Trevejo (Sa Martín de Trevellu). These are within the valley of Jálama, in the comarca of Sierra de Gata (comarca), Sierra de Gata. Other names sometimes used for the language are ''Fala de Jálama'' or ''Fala de Xálima'', but neither of them is used by the speakers themselves, who call their linguistic varieties ''lagarteiru'' (in Eljas), ''manhegu'' / ''mañegu'' (in San Martín de Trevejo) and ''valverdeiru'' (in Valverde del Fresno). [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pulaar Language
Pulaar (in Latin: , in Ajami: ), often referred to as Pulaar du Nord, is dialect of the Fula language spoken primarily as a first language by the Fula and Toucouleur peoples in the Senegal River valley area traditionally known as Futa Tooro and further south and east. Pulaar speakers, known as '' Haalpulaar'en'' live in Senegal, Mauritania, the Gambia, and western Mali. The two main speakers of Pulaar are the Toucouleur people and the Fulɓe (also known as Fulani or Peul). Fula, considered as a single language, is the second most spoken local language in Senegal, being a first language for around 22% of the population. This correlates with 23.7% of the country in which Fulbe is the population's ethnicity. Pulaar is one of the national languages of Senegal alongside 13 others. It was admitted as an official language of Senegal by Presidential decree in 1971. There are around 28 known dialects of Fula, most of which are mutually intelligible with each other. The Fula dialects, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic Languages
The West Atlantic languages (also the Atlantic languages"West Atlantic" is the traditional term, following Diedrich Hermann Westermann; "Atlantic" is more typical in recent work, particularly since Bendor-Samuel (1989), but is also used specifically for the northern branch of West Atlantic. or North Atlantic languages) of West Africa are a major subgroup of the Niger–Congo languages. The Atlantic languages are spoken along the Atlantic coast from Senegal to Liberia, though transhumant Fula speakers have spread eastward and are found in large numbers across the Sahel, from Senegal to Nigeria, Cameroon and Sudan. Wolof of Senegal and several of the Fula languages are the most populous Atlantic languages, with several million speakers each. Other significant members include Serer and the Jola dialect cluster of Senegal. Temne, a major language of Sierra Leone, was included in the Atlantic subgroup in earlier classifications but in modern proposals, it is no longer grouped wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolof Language
Wolof ( ; , ) is a Niger–Congo language spoken by the Wolof people in much of the West African subregion of Senegambia that is split between the countries of Senegal, The Gambia and Mauritania. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, it belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo language family. Unlike most other languages of its family, Wolof is not a tonal language. Wolof is the most widely spoken language in Senegal, spoken natively by the Wolof people (40% of the population) but also by most other Senegalese as a second language. Wolof dialects vary geographically and between rural and urban areas. The principal dialect of Dakar, for instance, is an urban mixture of Wolof, French, and Arabic. ''Wolof'' is the standard spelling and may also refer to the Wolof ethnicity or culture. Variants include the older French , , or , which now typically refers either to the Jolof Empire or to jollof rice, a common West African rice dish. Now-archaic forms incl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serer Language
Serer, often broken into differing regional dialects such as Serer-Sine and Serer-Saloum, is a language of the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo family spoken by 1.2 million people in Senegal and 30,000 in the Gambia as of 2009. It is the principal language of the Serer people, and was the language of the early modern kingdoms of Sine, Saloum, and Baol. Serer is primarily written in the Latin alphabet. Classification Serer is one of the Senegambian languages, which are characterized by consonant mutation. The traditional classification of Atlantic languages is that of Sapir (1971), which found that Serer was closest to Fulani. However, a widely cited misreading of the data by Wilson (1989) inadvertently exchanged Serer for Wolof. Dialects of Serer are Serer Sine (the prestige dialect), Segum, Fadyut-Palmerin, Dyegueme (Gyegem), and Niominka. They are mutually intelligible except for the Sereer spoken in some of the areas surrounding the city of Thiès. Not all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Africa
Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Middle Africa is an analogous term used by the United Nations in its United Nations geoscheme for Africa, geoscheme for Africa and consists of the following countries: Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe. The United Nations Office for Central Africa also includes Burundi and Rwanda in the region, which are considered part of East Africa in the geoscheme. These eleven countries are members of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Six of those countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of the Congo) are also members of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dialect Continuum
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varieties may not be. This is a typical occurrence with widely spread languages and language families around the world, when these languages did not spread recently. Some prominent examples include the Indo-Aryan languages across large parts of India, varieties of Arabic across north Africa and southwest Asia, the Turkic languages, the varieties of Chinese, and parts of the Romance languages, Romance, Germanic languages, Germanic and Slavic languages, Slavic families in Europe. Terms used in older literature include dialect area (Leonard Bloomfield) and L-complex (Charles F. Hockett). Dialect continua typically occur in long-settled agrarian populations, as innovations spread from their various poin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bagirmi Fulfulde
Bagirmi Fulfulde also known as Baghirmi Peul or Bagirmi Fula is a variety of the Fula language spoken primarily in the Chari-Baguirmi region of Chad as well as in the Central African Republic. Bagirmi Fulfulde, like other Fula varieties, has a consonant inventory with sounds such as stops, fricatives, and nasals. It typically includes a set of oral and nasalized vowels.Gaden, Henry. 1908. Notes on the Foul dialect spoken by the Foulbé of Baguirmi. Asian Journal 11. 5-70. The lexicon of Bagirmi Fulfulde shares many common words with other Fula varieties. Bagirmi Fulfulde, like other Fula varieties, is generally classified as a member of the Atlantic branch of the Niger–Congo language family. It exhibits agglutinative features, where affixes are added to a root to convey grammatical meaning. Fula languages, including Bagirmi Fulfulde, often have a complex noun class system, which is reflected in the agreement patterns with verbs and modifiers. Verbs in Bagirmi Fulfulde typical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adamawa Fulfulde
Adamawa Fulfulde is a variety of the Fula language. It is spoken mainly in Cameroon but also by significant communities residing in Nigeria, Chad, and Sudan by Fulani pastoralists across the Sahel. It is also known as Eastern Fulfulde and by various other names including Boulbe, Dzemay, Fula, Fulfulde, Mbororo, Palata, Peul etc. Adamawa Fulfulde was originally brought to Cameroon in the early parts of the 19th century during a religious war (Jihad) that was launched by Usman dan Fodio from Northern Nigeria. It was originally used as a trade language, however since the arrival of Christian missionaries in the latter half of the 19th century in 1885 to the area in what is now Northern Cameroon and Northern Nigeria, Adamawa Fulfulde became a language widely used in churches and is now used as a Language Of Wider Communication (LWC) in 3 regions of Cameroon. It is an Atlantic language that belongs to the Niger–Congo language family. The speakers of the language are the Fulani peo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nigerian Fulfulde
Nigerian Fulfulde, also known as Hausa States Fulfulde, Fula, or Fulani is a variety of the Fula language spoken by the Fulani people in Nigeria, particularly in the Northern region of Nigeria. It belongs to the West Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Phonologically, Nigerian Fulfulde exhibits a system of vowel harmony and a relatively simple consonant inventory, including stops, fricatives, and nasal sounds. The syntax of Nigerian Fulfulde is characterized by a subject-verb-object (SVO) word order, but it is flexible due to the use of extensive nominal and verbal agreement markers. These markers convey information about gender, number, and person, playing a crucial role in indicating grammatical relationships within sentences. The language employs a complex system of noun classes, which impacts both nominal and verbal concord. Word order in Nigerian Fulfulde is subject to pragmatic and contextual factors, allowing for variations in emphasis and focus. It ofte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central-Eastern Niger Fulfulde
Central-Eastern Niger Fulfulde, also known as Lettugal Niiser Fulfulde ( Ajami: ) is a variety of the Fula language, a Niger–Congo language predominantly spoken in the Central and Eastern regions of Niger, particularly among the Fulani people The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people are an ethnic group in Sahara, Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. Inhabiting many countries, they live mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, South Sudan, Darfur, .... The linguistic structure of this language exhibits distinct features, including a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) word order. Prepositions and postpositions are utilized in the language to convey spatial relationships. Genitives, articles, adjectives, numerals, and relatives follow noun heads, contributing to the overall complexity of sentence structures. The language employs a question-word-final pattern, placing question words at the end of interrogative sentences. Additionally, there is a spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Niger Fulfulde
Western Niger Fulfulde, also known as Gorgal Niiser Fulfulde ( Ajami: ) is a variety of the Fula language, spoken mainly in Niger, and Burkina Faso, as well as by a small number of speakers in Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ... by 3 million people. It has SOV word order and is closely related to other varieties of Fula spoken in Niger.https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/28/92/20/28922087092038854933212051748501873382/silesr2003_009.pdf Western Niger Fulfulde, a member of the Niger-Congo language family, exhibits a range of grammatical features, syntax, and phonology. In terms of phonology, the language is characterized by a system of vowels and consonants, and it employs a tonal system, where pitch variations play a crucial role in distinguishing lexica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
