Fulakunda

Fulakunda, also called Fulani or Fulacunda, is a dialect in the Fula language continum. Fulakunda is primarily spoken in southern Senegal, specifically the Casamance region, the Gambia, and northern Guinea Bissau. This region is often referred to as Fuladou. It is spoken by the Fulakunda people, a sub-group of the Fulani or Fulbe. It is noted for the presence of many loanwords from Mandinka, although the two are not mutually intelligible.
Fulakunda is mutually intelligible with all other Fula dialects in Senegal, although it shares more similarities with Pulaar than with Pula Futa, despite the laters closer geographical range.

Linguistic features

Negation and tenses

There are three verb forms, each of which have their own forms of negation, which vary by tense. Double negatives are an common part of the Fulakunda language, as in phrases like "mi annda heyhunde", or "I don't know nothing". The future and present habitual are conjugated the same, with the difference detectable by context. In present progressive affirmative, and for static verbs, long-form pronouns are used.

Class	Simple Past Affirmative	Simple Past Negative	Present Habitual /Future Affirmative	Present Habitual/ Future Negative
root + ude/de verbs	root + ii	root + aani	Root + at	Root + ataa
Root + aade verbs	root + iima	root + aaki	Root + oto	Root + otaako
-eede verbs	root + aama	root + aaka	Root + ete	Root + etaake

Noun classes

Fulakunda contains 21 noun classes. These noun classes can commonly be observed by looking at the suffix of a noun. For example, a noun that is the result of a loan word will typically end in -o. The class of the noun will often refer to the actual content of the noun. For example, the ɗam noun class is applied to nouns that describe a liquid. However, Fulakunda is a heavily irregular language, and so noun class will commonly break these rules and both observation and the general grouping of nouns should not be relied upon. A noun's determiner is the noun class, with the definite article form occurring after the noun and the demonstrative pronoun occurring before the noun. The table below shows the noun classes in Fulakunda and what the class indicates the content of the noun to be:

Class	Content of noun
ngo	curved up at edges
ki	straight upright, trees, body parts, abstractions
o	humans, loanwords
nge	celestial bodies, bovines, abstractions
ndu	hollow, inflated, round
ba	animals
ɗam	liquids, abstractions, mass nouns
ɗum	certain loanwords
ka	objects, abstractions
kal	liquids in small quantity
ko	body parts, plants
nde	objects
ndi	male animals, augmentatives, nouns that cannot be counted
ngal	body parts, birds, augmentatives, trees
ngol	things that are long and thin, action nouns
ngel	diminutives
ngu	insects, fish, collectives, abstractions
ɗe	animals, objects
kon	diminutives
ɗi	animals, objects
ɓe	humans

Counting system

The Fulakunda counting system is base five which is similar to the surrounding Niger-Congo languages. The number 7, for example, uses the prefix of joy and the suffix ɗiɗi becoming jeeɗiɗi. Other languages that use this system in West Africa include Pular, Wolof, Sereer-Sine and East Limba. These quinary-decimal counting languages can be found in the west African regions of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Gambia. Pulaar, Pular, and Fulakunda possess almost identical words for numbers, in which every number from 1 to 10 share the exact same name except for 5.

Verb suffixes

The Fulacunda verb system contains multiple suffixes which can be added to verbs to change their cases. These suffixes include the -an suffixes, the -d suffixes, the -oy suffixes, and the -ir suffixes. Typically, multiple suffixes are not used in verbs, differentiating it from Pulaar.

Suffix	Meaning	Example	Meaning
-an	to do for	yahde→yahande	to go for
-d	to do with	yahde → yahdude	to go → to go with
-oy	to go and do	namde→ namoyde	to eat →to go and eat
-ondir	to do to each other	Anndude→ anndondirde	to know → to know each other
-ir	to do by/with	dogde → dogirde	to run →to run with
-in	to make someone do	jangude → janginde	to read/study→to make someone read or study

Consonant mutation

Fulakunda has a significant amount of consonant mutation in the language, in many situations. For almost all plurals, the first consonant in the verb or noun will be transformed. Additionally, for verbs, when the pronoun is in post position, consonant transformation will take place. When speaking casually, occasionally speakers will transform consonants for no clear reason. These transformations will be applied to loan words as well. In some cases, particularly in the h → k and f → p pairs, the mutation will be bi-directional. S and t are also fully interchangeable in all instances, as are t and r, but s and r are not fully interchangeable.

Initial	Transformed
vowels	ng+vowels
j/y	nj
s	c
r	d/nd
W+	mb
w	mb/ng
h	k
f	p
l	nd

Orthography

Fulakunda today is primarily written in the Latin alphabet, with orthographic conventions in common with all indigenous languages of Senegal. The Latin alphabet has been standardized in various Senegalese government decrees, the latest of which was issued in 2005.
However, historically, similar to other indigenous languages of the region, such as the Wolof language, its first writing system was the adaption of Arabic script. Arabic script is used today as well, albeit in a smaller scale, and mostly limited to Islamic school teachers and students. The Arabic-based script of Pulaar, to be used for all Fula dialects within Senegal, was set by the government as well, between 1985 and 1990, although never adopted by a decree, as the effort by the Senegalese ministry of education was to be part of a multi-national standardization effort.

A a

Aa aa

B b

Mb mb

Ɓ ɓ

C c

D d

Nd nd

Ɗ ɗ

E e

Ee ee

F f

G g

Ng ng

H h

I i

Ii ii

J j

Nj nj

‍~‍

~‍

K k

L l

M m

N n

Ñ ñ

Ŋ ŋ

O o

Oo oo

P p

R r

S s

T t

U u

Uu uu

W w

X x

Y y

Ƴ ƴ

’

Prenasalized consonants are written as a digraph. While historically, there were single letter alternatives, these letters are no longer used. Prenasalized consonants are constructed using meem or noon in combination with other consonants. The letter meem appears in pairs with beh, whereas the letter noon appears in pairs with dal, jeem, and geh.
Prenasalized consonants cannot take the zero-vowel diacritic sukun . If they are at the end of the word and have no vowels, they will take the gemination diacritic shadda.
Some consider these digraphs as their own independent letters.

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Translation	Latin script	Ajami script
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.	Innama aadeeji fof poti, ndimɗidi e jibinannde to bannge hakkeeji. Eɓe ngoodi miijo e hakkilantaagal ete eɓe poti huufo ndirde e nder ɓ iynguyummaagu.