Fula/Fulfulde/Pulaar language page

Classification and where spoken

Fula belongs to the northern branch of West Atlantic and is spoken throughout West Africa. Most speakers are found within a band running from Senegal to northern Cameroon, including the countries of Senegal, Mauritania, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Burkina Faso, northern Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. Technically, Fulfulde or Pulaar is the name of this language, while ful'be (singular = pullo) is the name of the people who speak Fulfulde. Fulani is the Hausa designation for these people, while Fula is the Mandinka term, and Peul is Wolof.

Number of speakers

Sauvegeot (1978) cautiously estimates there are around 5 million speakers of Fula. The population statistics of the ICAO (1980-1981) are given as follows.

Country
Estimated Speakers
Source
Estimated Speakers
Source (cited in Grimes 1996)
Benin
80,000
ICAO
280,000
Johnstone 1993
Burkina Faso
600,000
ICAO
1,038,200
Johnstone 1993
Cameroon
400,000
ICAO
668,700
"1986"
Central African Republic    
156,000
"1996"
Chad
5,500
ICAO
24,000+
Grimes 1996
Cote d'Ivoire
100,000
ICAO
1,200
"1991" (Grimes, personal
communication 1998)
Gambia
1,000,000???
ICAO
214,000
"1995"
Ghana    
7,300
"1991"
Guinea
2,100,000
ICAO
2,574,000
Grimes 1996
Guinea Bissau
100,000
ICAO
180,000
Vanderaa 1991
Mali
600,000
ICAO
1,144,700
Grimes 1996
Mauritania
100,000
ICAO
150,000
Grimes 1996
Niger
400,000
ICAO
?
  
Nigeria
5,000,000
ICAO
7,611,000
SIL 1991
Senegal
1,152,451
Vital Statistics Senegal, 1981
2,046,000
Grimes 1996
Sierra Leone    
178,400
"1991"
Sudan    
90,000
SIL 1982
Togo    
48,200
Johnstone 1993
Total
10,000,000+
.
16,411,700
.

Usage

Fula is an officially recognized national language in the following countries: Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Gambia. It is one of the six national languages of Senegal, French being the official language. It is current government policy to teach each student to read in the prominent national language of each major region. Radio broadcasts in Fula can be heard in the countries where it is an officially recognized language. In addition, the USSR and Radio Cairo broadcast in Fula. Senegal has a Fula press. Each country where it is an official language has (1) a government office responsible for adult literacy in Fula and (2) a section in the Department of Education responsible for introducing national languages into the school system and radio broadcasts in Fula (Fagerberg-Diallo, personal communication, 1985).

Orthographic status

A standard orthography (based on the 1966 Bamako conference on orthographic standardization) has been adopted in all of West Africa, Europe, and the United States. Exceptions are Guinea and Nigeria, although Guinea has now accepted the future use of the standard orthography (Fagerberg-Diallo, personal communication).

Sets of learning materials

Despite mutual intelligibility, at least two sets of materials (Eastern: Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and the Central African Republic; and Western: Senegal, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Mali) are required.