- Maasina Fulfulde
Maasina Fulfulde (or Maasinankoore in the language itself) is a
Fula language spoken primarily as a first language byFula people and associated groups in theNiger Inland Delta area traditionally known as Macina in the center of what is now the West African state ofMali . It is also spoken elsewhere in Mali, parts ofCote d'Ivoire and NorthernGhana .Maasinankoore is the most widely spoken dialect of Fula spoken in Mali and is a
national language of in the country.Fact|date=November 2007According to "Ethnologue" there are two dialects - Western and Eastern - and "There are some dialect differences, but popular opinion is that all dialects in Mali are inherently intelligible."
It is written in a modified
Latin alphabet but historically was written in the Arabic script.* 900.000 speakers in Mali (1991) * 7000 speakers in Ghana (1991)
Linguistic features
Maasina Fulfulde is grammatically basically the same as other varieties of Fula, with some particularities. For instance there are some slight differences in some verb endings.
The counting system retains an interesting recapitulation of older systems historically used by other groups in what is now Mali. Tens from 60-90 have alternative versions not used in other varieties of Fula. In the table the general form, which would be understood by any Fulaphone person (basically counting by tens) and Maasina variant:
A progressive verbal expression is formed by inserting the word "ni" before the verb in the non-accomplished voice. For example, "omo ni wara" = s/he is coming (right now).
References
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ffm "Ethnologue" page on Maasina Fulfulde]
ee also
*
Languages of Mali
*Fula orthographies
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