Product Code Database
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 Fula people 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 Fula people. The language itself is divided into a number of sub-dialects: Maroua, Garoua, Ngaondéré, Kambariire, Mbororoore, and Bilkire.
In Sudan, the language is spoken mainly in Blue Nile, Gedaref, and Sennar State states with some communities of speakers also found in North Kordofan and South Kordofan states. In South Sudan, it is spoken in Western Bahr el Ghazal state by Ambororo cattle herders. In Chad, it is spoken in Lac Léré Department in the Mayo-Kebbi Ouest Region. In Nigeria, it is spoken in Adamawa State and Taraba State states. While in Cameroon the language is widespread across the Far North and Northern regions of the country.
Adamawa Fulfulde has the Morphological imperative in which words are divided into second singular and second plural, and like many of the languages of the Fula language dialect continuum and Niger–Congo language family, Adamawa Fulfulde has a system of noun classes and marks plurals by mutating the initial consonant of a word. The word order for Adamawa Fulfulde is SOV (subject–object–verb).
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Archive)()
Latin alphabet is also used for writing of Adamawa. The usage of Latin is a lot more recent, only coming to existence with the arrival of European Christian. Still, in Cameroon, Arabic alphabet remains more popular for writing of Adamawa Fulfulde than Latin.
The alphabet consists of 33 basic letters, 28 plus hamaza from Arabic, and 4 are new letters created for use in Fulfulde. 10 of the Arabic letters are only used for writing Arabic loanwords, and have no use for writing indigenous Fulfulde words.
| +Primary Characters of Adamawa Fulfulde Ajami ! rowspan="2" | Name ! colspan="4" | Forms ! rowspan="2" | Sound represented ! rowspan="2" | Latin equivalent ! rowspan=2 | Unicode ! rowspan="2" | Notes | ||
| aliifi | () | A a ( - ) | U+0627 | Main function of this letter is lengthening of the vowel a, in which case, the preceding letter needs to carry a diacritic . Unlike the conventions in various other languages using Arabic alphabet, this letter is not used at the beginning of words as a vowel diacritic carrier. Instead, the letter ayni is used. This letter does come in the beginning of words as a vowel diacritic carrier for common Arabic loanwords. | ||||
| bee | B b | U+0628 | ||||||
| ɓee moɗu | Ɓ ɓ | U+08A1 | Character unique to Fulfulde, not found in Arabic. | |||||
| tee | T t | U+062A | ||||||
| camamlu | () | S s | U+062B | Only used in Arabic loanwords. Pronounced as θ in Arabic, but as s in Fulfulde. | ||||
| jiimi | J j | U+062C | ||||||
| haa baaluul | H h | U+062D | This letter is pronounced as h in Fulfulde, and is used for representing the sound h (except in Arabic loanwords). This is contrary to Arabic itself where this letter is pronounced as ħ (voiceless pharyngeal fricative), and the letter haa peetel '' is pronounced as h. The latter is only used in Arabic loanwords in Fulfulde. | |||||
| haa toɓɓuŋgol | () | H h (Kh kh) | U+062E | Only used in Arabic loanwords. Pronounced as x in Arabic, but as h or x in Fulfulde. | ||||
| deeli | - | - | D d | U+062F | ||||
| jaali | - | - | (/) | J j | U+0630 | Only used in Arabic loanwords. Pronounced as ð in Arabic, but as d͡ʒ in Fulfulde, as z in Maroua. | ||
| arre | - | - | / | R r | U+0631 | The letter arre '' is pronounced as "flapped" ɾ on its own, but when geminated (with shaddah diacritic), as a "thrill" r". | ||
| jayra | - | - | () | J j | U+0632 | Only used in Arabic loanwords. Pronounced as z in Arabic, but as d͡ʒ in Fulfulde, as z in Maroua. | ||
| siini | S s | U+0633 | ||||||
| ciini | ~ | C c | U+0634 | This letter has a variation of pronunciations in different local dialects. | ||||
| saadi | () | S s | U+0635 | Only used in Arabic loanwords. Pronounced as sˤ in Arabic, but as s in Fulfulde. | ||||
| daadi | () | D d | U+0636 | Only used in Arabic loanwords. Pronounced as dˤ in Arabic, but as d in Fulfulde. | ||||
| ɗaadi | Ɗ ɗ | U+0637 | ||||||
| jaadi | () | J j | U+0638 | Only used in Arabic loanwords. Pronounced as z in Arabic, but as d͡ʒ in Fulfulde, as z in Maroua. | ||||
| ayni | / | ’ | U+0639 | This consonant is used at the beginning of words that start with vowels, to be a carrier of the vowel diacritic. It is also used in middle and end of words when there are vowel hiatus. This is the local indigenous innovation in the Adamawa dialectical area. | ||||
| aŋgani | G g | U+063A | ||||||
| fee | F f | U+063A | ||||||
| pee | P p | U+0760 | Character unique to Fulfulde, not found in Arabic. | |||||
| gaafu | ~ () | K k G g | U+0642 | Only used in Arabic loanwords. Pronounced as q in Arabic, but as k~g in Fulfulde. | ||||
| keefu | K k | U+06A9 | ||||||
| laamu | L l | U+0644 | ||||||
| miimi | /ᵐ◌ | M m | U+0645 | This letter serves two functions. Either as a consonant m, in which case it will always carry a diacritic, including zero-vowel/sukun ' diacritic. Or it is a part of a digraph that indicates a prenasalized consonant, in which case it will not carry any diacritic. | ||||
| nuunu | /ⁿ◌ | N n | U+0646 | This letter serves two functions. Either as a consonant n, in which case it will always carry a diacritic, including zero-vowel/sukun ' diacritic. Or it is a part of a digraph that indicates a prenasalized consonant, in which case it will not carry any diacritic. | ||||
| haa peetel | H h | U+0647 | Only used in Arabic loanwords. For all other instances, the letter haa baaluul '' is used. | |||||
| waawu | - | - | // | W w Oo oo Uu uu | U+0648 | This letter serves two functions, either as a consonant w, or it lengthens vowels o or u. When serving as a consonant, it always carries a diacritic, including zero-vowel/sukun diacritic. When lengthening a vowel, it does not. When lengthening a vowel, the preceding letter must carry either an o diacritic or an u diacritic ''. | ||
| yah | / | Y y Ii ii | U+064A | This letter serves two functions, either as a consonant j, or it lengthens vowel i. When serving as a consonant, it always carries a diacritic, including zero-vowel/sukun diacritic. When lengthening a vowel, it does not. When lengthening a vowel, the preceding letter must carry an i diacritic . | ||||
| - | Ee ee | U+0649 plus U+0670 | Letter used for lengthening of vowel e. The preceding letter must carry an e diacritic ''. | |||||
| yah moɗi | Ƴ ƴ | U+08A8 | Character unique to Fulfulde, not found in Arabic. | |||||
| nya | Ny ny | U+08A9 | Character unique to Fulfulde, not found in Arabic. | |||||
| hamaja | - | - | - | ’ | U+0621 | Only used in Arabic loanwords to indicate a glottal pause or a vowel hiatus. In native Fula words, the letter ayni '' is used. |
Unlike Arabic orthography, or other Arabic-derived scripts, in Ajami tradition, all diacritics are written. Even letters that don't have any vowels, are written with a zero-vowel/sukun '' diacritic. Only in the following instances are letters written without a diacritic:
| +Vowel at beginning of word | ||||
| +Vowel at middle and end of word | |||||
| + Adamawa Fulfulde Latin alphabetScriptsouce Writing System. Contributor: Lorna Evans Adamawa Fulfulde written with Latin scriptfub-Latn [2] | M m |
| Ƴ ƴ | |
|
|
