Fula orthographies

The Fula language is written mainly in a modified Latin alphabet today, but was and still is in some places written in a modified Arabic alphabet called "Ajami script".

Latin-based orthographies

Background

The Latin alphabet was introduced to Fula-speaking regions of West and Central Africa by Europeans during, and in some cases immediately before, colonization. Various people - missionaries, colonial administrators, and later during the colonial period, scholarly researchers, devised various ways of writing the Fula language they encountered. One issue similar to other efforts by Europeans to use their alphabet and home orthographic conventions to write African languages with unfamiliar sounds was how to represent the implosive b and d, the ejective y, the velar n (the latter being present in European languages, but never in initial position), prenasalised consonants, and doubled vowels (the latter being as significant in Fula for meaning as tone differences are in other languages).

Major influences on the current forms used for writing Fula were decisions made by colonial administrators in Northern Nigeria and the Africa Alphabet. A major conference on African language orthographies held in Bamako in 1966 confirmed this trend.

Nevertheless, orthographies for the language and its variants are determined at the country level. So while Fula writing uses basically the same character sets and rules (such as for doubling vowels) there are some variations.

Writing Fula

Some rules:
*Long vowels are doubled

Alphabets by country

enegal

a, aa, b, mb, ɓ, c, d, nd, ɗ, e, ee, f, g, ng, h, i, ii, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ŋ, ñ, o, oo, p, r, s, t, u, uu, w, x, y, ƴ

Gambia

"as Senegal??"

Mauritania

"as Senegal??"

Guinea

a, aa, b, mb, ɓ, c, d, nd, ɗ, e, ee, f, g, ɠ, ng, h, i, ii, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ŋ, ɲ, o, oo, p, r, s, t, u, uu, w, x, y, ƴ

Guinea Bissau

"as Guinea??"

ierra Leone

"as Guinea??"

Mali

a, aa, b, mb, ɓ, c, d, nd, ɗ, e, ee, f, g, ng, h, i, ii, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ŋ, ɲ, o, oo, p, r, s, t, u, uu, w, x, y, ƴ

Burkina Faso

"as Mali??"

Niger

a, aa, b, mb, ɓ, c, d, nd, ɗ, e, ee, f, g, ng, h, i, ii, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ŋ, ny, o, oo, p, r, s, t, u, uu, w, x, y, ƴ

Nigeria

a, aa, b, mb, ɓ, c, d, nd, ɗ, e, ee, f, g, ng, h, i, ii, j, nj, k, l, m, n, ŋ, ny, o, oo, p, r, s, t, u, uu, w, x, y, ʼy

Cameroon

"as Niger??"

Arabic-based (Ajami) orthographies

The Arabic script was introduced into the West African Sahel with Islam several centuries before European colonization. As was the case with other languages such as Hausa, Muslim Fulas who went through Koranic education adapted the script to writing their language. This practice, while never formally standardized, followed some patterns of customary use in various regions. These usages differ on some details, mainly on how to represent certain consonants and vowels not present in the Arabic language.

Other scripts

There has been at least one effort to adapt the N'Ko script to Pular of Guinea.