A Morphological Analysis of Fulfulde Loanwords From Hausa language

Cite this article as: Abubakar, A., & Hussaini, B. (2025). A morphological analysis of Fulfulde loanwords from Hausa language. Sokoto Journal of Linguistics and Communication Studies (SOJOLICS), 1(2), 105–111. https://doi.org/10.36349/sojolics.2025.v01i02.011

A MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF FULFULDE LOANWORDS FROM HAUSA LANGUAGE

By

Abdullahi Abubakar

Adamawa State College of Education, Hong

Phone Num; 08039221168

Email; babanwaleed873@gmail.com

&

Babanmama Hussaini

Nasarawa State College of Health Science and Technology, Keffi

Phone Num; 08034593121

Email hbabanmama@gmail.com

Abstract

This Article focuses on Aspects of morphological analysis of words borrowed by Adamawa Fulfulde from Hausa. The main objectives of this research is to identify the morphological processes applied on the Fulfulde words borrowed from Hausa. This study employs qualitative research method, the research respondents are selected from the students of Fulfulde Department, Federal College of Education, Yola. The article focuses on morphology, fifteen (15) borrowed lexical loanwords were collected from the field work. The analysis reveals that Fulfulde employs strategies in adopting Hausa loanwords viaSuffixation. The study finds observed that: morphological processes are involved. This is evident from the suffixation of bound morphemes at the end of Hausa words while borrowing them into Fulfulde. Each borrowed loanword takes the suffix that is relevant to the class of the noun and the appropriate suffix grade. The Hausa word zamani for example, changes the initial consonant to [ʤ] and the final vowel /i/ is replaced by [u] because the noun in Fulfulde belongs to the -ɳgu class; hence, it takes the grade A [-u] suffix. The findings of research have implications on the expansion and growth of the language as the research discusses morphological modifications which loanwords undergo to help the language develop its vocabulary.

1. Introduction

Fulfulde, the language of the Fulɓe, is spoken across most West African countries and beyond. The Fulɓe are the native speakers of Fulfulde, also referred to as Fulani in Hausa and English, Peul in French, and Peule in German. The plural form, Fulɓe, and the singular, Pullo, are used in Nigeria and other countries from Mali eastward, while in Senegal and Guinea, the language is called Pulaar and Pulle, respectively. These various names share the same root, ‘Ful-/Pul-’, from which the German name Ful and the French Peul are derived (Arnott, 1970). The Fulfulde spoken in northern Nigeria has been significantly influenced by Hausa due to prolonged contact between speakers, resulting in what is commonly referred to as Hausa-Fulani. Fulfulde and Hausa have interacted for centuries, exchanging numerous lexical items, with most loans originally from Arabic, but a substantial portion from Hausa (Baldi, 1992). This study, therefore, examines the phonology and morphology of Fulfulde words borrowed from Hausa, focusing specifically on the Adamawa dialect.

The international significance of both Fulfulde and Hausa has drawn attention from global organizations. Governmental and non-governmental entities, including UNESCO and UNICEF, utilize these languages to implement development programs in rural areas (Mohammed, 1989). Loanwords, lexical items acquired from one language and integrated into another, serve to fill expressive or semantic gaps not covered by existing local vocabulary (Crystal, 1997; Winter, 1992). Hoffer (2005) notes that borrowed words generally conform to the grammatical and morphological processes of the recipient language, with nouns accepting plural or possessive markers and verbs and adjectives taking local morphemes.

In some cases, loanwords coexist with native structures as doublets, a phenomenon known as core or central borrowing, often influenced by the prestige of the donor language (Mwita, 2009). Loanwords may also violate the phonological well-formedness constraints of the receiving language, necessitating adaptations to fit the target language’s structure (Katamba, 1993; Appel &Muysken, 1997; Newman, 2000). Masamba (1991) emphasizes that although languages may share some phonetic features, no two languages have identical patterns. Mwihaki (1998) identifies the adaptation of phonological structures as a key aspect of language change. The Lexical Phonology theory (Kiparsky, 1982) provides a framework for understanding the interface between phonology and morphology, an idea tracing back to Panini, the ancient Indian grammarian, as cited in Katamba (1993). Wanyoke (2002) further suggests that some phonological changes result from affixation. However, most studies on this interface have focused on European languages, highlighting the need for research based on African languages.

Language contact inevitably drives change, with some languages evolving and others declining as a result of borrowing. Borrowed elements are typically adapted phonologically and morphologically to integrate into the recipient language, a process known as nativization, which serves to preserve the language from attrition due to excessive borrowing (Hock, 1991). The study of loanwords has a long tradition in linguistics (Antilla, 1989; Newman, 2000; Campbell, 2004; Hoffer, 2005; Sahayi, 2005; Kang, 2010; Kadenge & Mudzingwa, 2011, 2012; Kadenge, 2012). Campbell (2004) asserts that languages can borrow not only lexical items but also sounds, phonological rules, syntactic patterns, discourse strategies, semantic relations, and grammatical morphemes. Loanword adaptation typically involves morphological adjustments, particularly phoneme identification from the donor language, while phonetic fidelity plays a secondary role (Lacharite & Paradis, 1997; Kenstowicz&Suchato, 2006). The speaker strives to maintain the source word’s identity while conforming to the recipient language’s segmental inventory, phonotactic constraints, and prosodic structures. This study investigates lexical borrowing from Hausa into Fulfulde to assess the extent of conformity with established patterns in the literature.

Geographically, Fulfulde is spoken between the 7th and 17th parallels across approximately 17 countries (Paradis, 2001). Girei (2009) identifies these countries as Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Benin, Sierra Leone, and Sudan. The Fulfulde dialect continuum exhibits substantial linguistic diversity, shaped by migration, language contact, and ecological factors (Arnott, 1970). Arnott (1974) proposes a stylized classification of six Fulfulde dialect areas across West Africa: Futa Toro, Futa Jalon, Masina, Sokoto & Western Niger, Central Northern Nigeria, and Adamawa. In Nigeria, three dialects are recognized: Sokoto, Central Northern Nigeria, and Adamawa, though intervening varieties complicate clear-cut boundaries (Girei, 2009).

Nigeria’s multilingual context, with over 550 languages (Blench, 2011), positions Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo as the major languages, with Fulfulde among 12 larger or network languages widely spoken as first or second languages. Hausa, a Chadic language within the Afro-Asiatic phylum (Greenberg, 1970), functions as the lingua franca in northern Nigeria and has approximately 50–60 million speakers across Nigeria and neighboring countries (Gordon, 2005). Prolonged contact between Hausa and Fulfulde has produced linguistic phenomena such as heavy borrowing, divergence, language shift, and L1-L2 interference (Abubakar, 1987; Muhammad, 1987; Girei, 2002; Shehu, 2015, 2016). Despite these studies, little research has focused specifically on the morphological aspects of Fulfulde words borrowed from Hausa.

2. Literature Review

On morphological borrowing, Thomason (2015) noted that a common agreement among historical linguists is that morphology, particularly inflectional morphology, is the grammatical subsystem least susceptible to influence from language contact. Foreign words rarely create their own structures in the inflectional system due to its tightly unified paradigmatic organization, which acts as a barrier to unregulated integration.

Mindaryani (2005) examined the linguistic forms of English borrowings in Kompas and identified two primary forms: words (single words and noun compounds) and phrases (noun phrases). Her study revealed that noun phrases were the most frequent, followed by noun compounds and single words (nouns and adjectives). The dominance of noun phrases reflected the prevalence of scientific and technical terms in the general election domain. Similarly, Guntur (2007) analyzed English borrowings adapted by Indonesian speakers to better align with their native phonology. He observed that Indonesians often relied on English spelling to guide pronunciation. Susilowati (2008) also found that English borrowings in the Compare Space of Pulsa tabloid appeared as words (single or compound) and phrases, with phonological and orthographic adjustments made to integrate the items into Indonesian.

In the Nigerian context, Shehu (2015) demonstrated substantial borrowing into the Adamawa dialect of Fulfulde, most prominently from Hausa in Nigeria and French in Cameroon. His intelligibility tests showed that the use of varied loanwords among speakers of these varieties increased communication gaps, highlighting the impact of source language differences on comprehension. These findings suggest that morphological influences are likely present in Fulfulde words borrowed from Hausa.

Language contact often results in the acquisition or exchange of semantic and linguistic material between languages (Campbell, 2004). As Yalwa (1992) observed, “No people, group, or community can live without having contact with different groups around it. It is through this contact that groups impact each other at various levels—etymologically or linguistically, socially, culturally, and at times religiously” (p. 101). Borrowed linguistic material generally requires adaptation to conform to the structural and functional norms of the recipient language (Kang, 2010). In line with this, Grema (2018) found that Hausa loanwords in Kanuri underwent phonological and morphological modifications to integrate fully. Morphological adaptations included the use of native suffixes for inflection and derivation, while semantic borrowing spanned multiple domains.

Affixation is a central morphological process in language, involving the derivation of new words through the addition of bound morphemes (Plag, 2003; Harimurti, 2007). O’Grady and Guzman (1996) define affixation as the attachment of affixes to free morphemes to create new words, while Chaer (2003) emphasizes that affixes can alter the meaning, type, or function of a base form. Affixation occurs primarily in two forms:

Prefixation involves attaching a bound morpheme to the front of a base lexeme, generally affecting meaning rather than word class (e.g., asleep, beloved). Suffixation, in contrast, attaches a bound morpheme to the end of a base lexeme, often changing word class, as seen in nominal and adjectival derivations (e.g., noticeable, careless, slowly) (Harimurti, 2007). Languages in contact may borrow both free (lexemes) and bound (affixes) morphemes (Aikhenvald& Dixon, 2007). Borrowability depends on multiple factors, including the morphological type of the source and recipient languages (Bakker & Hekking, 2012). Some studies suggest that inherent inflectional affixes are more likely to be borrowed than contextual inflections, with noun and adjective affixes more frequently transferred than verbal ones (Seifart, 2012).

Suffixation, while structurally analogous to prefixation, differs in effect: it frequently alters the word class of the base. Some suffixes retain the base’s word class (e.g., nominal -ship, -let, -ing; adjectival -ish), but these constitute a minor portion of derivational suffixes, whose primary function is to create new word classes (Harimurti, 2007). This study examines how Fulfulde attaches suffixes to Hausa loanwords to form new lexical items. For instance, Arnott (1970) categorizes Fula suffixes into grades A, B, C, and D and further classifies them into 25 types, providing a framework for analyzing morphological adaptation in Fulfulde.

3. Research Methodology

Identifying specific words or forms as borrowed from other languages is often a challenging task, particularly when the target language has long been influenced by multiple languages. In such cases, borrowed items may have been fully assimilated into the recipient language’s system, making their foreign origin less obvious. The difficulty is further compounded when the languages in contact are genetically related; the closer the relationship, the harder it becomes to recognize loanwords. For example, identifying loans from Wolof and Serer, both closely related West Atlantic languages to Fula, is more challenging than identifying loans from Hausa, which belongs to a different language family (Miyamota, 1990).

This study is guided by methodological considerations related to data collection, sampling, and analytical tools. Data were drawn from students in the Department of Fulfulde at the Federal College of Education, Yola. A corpus-based descriptive research design was employed, as it is suitable for eliciting information about word structures and their usage in context. According to Yule (2008), the descriptive approach enables the systematic description of linguistic features against their contextual usage. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. Secondary data were obtained through published academic works in books, journals, and reputable web sources, all of which are fully acknowledged in the reference section.

The study population comprised residents of four Local Government Areas of Adamawa State, specifically students in the Department of Fulfulde, Federal College of Education, Yola. The total sample included fifty (50) adult proficient speakers of Fulfulde, consisting of 20 female and 30 male students. The focus of this study is a morphological analysis of lexical items borrowed by Fulfulde from Hausa, specifically within the Adamawa dialect, although other Fulfulde dialects such as Gombe also exhibit Hausa borrowings.

The analysis is informed by generative theory, first proposed by Noam Chomsky in the 1950s. Generative grammar examines the hypothesized innate grammatical structures of language. According to Hooper (1975), generative theory primarily addresses syntax and word order, but it has since been extended to phonology, morphology, and semantics. The adoption of generative theory in this study is motivated by its focus on morphological changes related to lexical borrowing, providing a framework for analyzing systematic mechanisms of morphological adaptation (Stampe, 1979).

4. Data Presentation and Analysis

The Morphological processes involved in the borrowing of words from Hausa to Fulfulde language.

The major morphological process affecting borrowed words from Hausa into Fulfulde is affixation where by a morpheme would either attach at the initial (prefix), medial (infix) or final (suffix) position of a given word. Arnott, (1970:88), categorizes the Adamawa Fula suffixes into grade as A, B, C and D, and also classifies them according to numbers from 1-25. The classification, as explained in chapter 2, proposes that each noun belongs to one of the classes and as such takes the suffixes relevant to that class of grade A, B, C, or D.

 This research finds out that, Fulfulde borrowed words from Hausa; usually retain their Hausa roots but take Fulfulde suffixes. It is the suffixes that make them “Fulfulde words”. The following data explain further.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

1. bosbos+wa bus borrowed from English into Hausa.

The morphological process evident from the above is suffixation where the bound morpheme /wa/ is attached to the original lexeme “bos” of Hausa to derive “boswa” in Fulfulde. This is because the noun belongs to the argumentative -ɳga class; so it takes the –wa suffix in grade A.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

2. sati saati+re week

 The above data reveal that, inflectional element (bound morpheme)-reis attached to the original lexeme (root) of Hausa word “saatii” which is modified to derive “saatiire” in Fulfulde. Because the noun belongs to the –nde class so it takes the –re suffix in grade B.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

 3. Bature Baturee+jo European

The morphological process involved is suffixation where the bound morpheme –jo is attachedto the original lexeme of Hausa word “bature”, which derives “batureejo” in Fulfulde. This is because the noun belongs to the personal singular –ο class, so it takes the –josuffix in grade B.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

 4. Dibino Dibino+je Date palm

The morphological process discovered from the borrowed word is suffixation. Where the inflectional element (bound morpheme) “–je” is attached to the original lexeme (root) of the Hausa word “dibino” which derives the Fulfulde word “dibinooje”. Therefore, since the noun belongs to the -ɗe plural class, it takes –je suffix in grade B.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

 5. Yerima yerimaa+jo Prince

The finding reveals that, the inflectional element (bound morpheme) –“jo” is attached to the root word of Hausa “yerima”in word final position, which modifies and derives the Fulfulde word “yerimaajo”. This is because the noun class belongs to the personal singular –ο class, so it takes the –josuffix in grade B.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

6. Sura sura+wol a chapter of the holy Qur’an

The morphological processrealised is suffixation. This shows how the bound morpheme –“wol”attaches to the original lexeme of the Hausa word “sura” at the end of the word, from which the Fulfulde word “suurawol” is derived. This is because the noun belongs to the –ɳgol class it takes the –wol suffix in B grade.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

 7. tasa tasa+wol Dish

The morphological process involved here is suffixation. It reveals that the inflectional element, i.e., bound morpheme –woattached in word final position of the Hausa borrowed word “tasa” which modifies and derives new Fulfulde word “taasawo”. This depict that the noun belongs to the –ɳgo class so it takes the –wo suffix in grade B.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

8. bindiga bindiga+ru Gun

The study reveals the morphological process involved here is also suffixation, where the attachment (inflectional element) i.e bound morpheme “-ru” attached at the end of theHausa borrowed word “bindiga” which is modified to a new Fulfulde word “bindigaaru”. This is because the noun belongs to the ‘neuter’ class ɗum, so it takesthe–ru suffix in grade B.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

9. malafa malafa+ru hat

The morphological process is suffixation. The Hausa borrowed word, “malafa” went through modification by attaching the inflectional element i.e bound morpheme “-ru” in wordfinalpositionto derive a new word in Fulfulde “malafaaru”. The noun belongs -ɗumclass so it takes the –rusuffix in grade B.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

10. atamfa atamfa+ru wrapper

The morphological process involved is suffixation, where the derivational element –ruisused.The inflectional element (-ru) is attached at the end of the Hausa borrowed word “atamfa” to derive “atamfaaru” as Fulfulde new word. This is because the noun belongs to the –ɗum, so it takes the –ru suffix in grade B.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

11. Duniya duniya+ru World

The morphological process involved here is suffixation. It depicts the inflectional element attached at the end of the borrowed word “Duniya” to derive another new word in Fulfulde “Duniyaaru”. This reveals that the noun class is –ɗum so it takes -ru suffix in grade B.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

 12. acca acca+ri mustard seed

The morphological process involved here is suffixation, where the bound morpheme “-ri” is attached at the end of the borrowed lexical word “acca” to derive “Accaari”. This is because the noun belongs to the –kiclassso it takes –ri suffix in grade B.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

13. buhu buhu+ji sack

The bound morpheme “-ji” is attached at the end of the borrowed lexeme from Hausa “buhu” to derive “buhuji”in Fulfulde. This is because the noun belongs to the -ɗiclass; therefore, it will take the –ji suffix in grade B.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

14.zuma jum+ri Honey

From the above data, the borrowed word “zuma” is modified, by attaching the inflectional element (i.e bound morpheme) “-ri” at the end of the lexeme to derive “jumri” in Fulfulde. Therefore, the morphological process hereissuffixation.This is because the noun belongs to the –kiclassso it takes –ri suffix in B grade.

Hausa Fulfulde Gloss

15. asali asal+ji origin

This indicates that the inflectional element (bound morpheme) -ji is attached at the end of the borrowed word “asali” to derive a new word in Fulfulde “asaliiji”. This is because the noun belongs to the -ɗiclass, therefore, it will take –ji suffix in grade B.

5. Conclusion

This research investigated the borrowing of Hausa words into Fulfulde language. The paper specifically examined the morphology, of the loanwords. As it were, languages borrow words from the languages they come into contact with because a language does not necessarily have all the words to express all its experiences. Borrowing of words from Hausa by Fulfulde as this paper finds out, follows the pattern found in the literature on lexical borrowing, i.e to enrich and/or expand vocabulary as well as to develop the language. Other reasons for borrowing are the absence of equivalent expressions for new ideas and concepts as well as for reasons of prestige.

 

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