Fula People - Culture and Language

Culture and Language

The language of Fulas is called Pulaar or Fulfulde depending on the region, or variants thereof. It is also the language of the Tukulor. It is a language closely related to Wolof and Serer. All Senegalese who speak the language natively are known as the Halpulaar or Haalpulaar'en, which stands for "speakers of Pulaar" ("hal" is the root of the Pulaar verb haalugol, meaning "to speak"). In some areas, e.g. in northern Cameroon, Fulfulde is a local lingua franca.

With the exception of Guinea (where the Fula make up a 90% plurality of the population), Fulas are minorities in every country they live in (most countries of West Africa and parts of Central and North Africa), so most also speak other languages of the countries they inhabit.

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