An Appraisal of the Fulfulde Noun Class Markers

Article Citation: Abubakar Atiku Alkali (2019). An Appraisal of the Fulfulde Noun Class Markers. DEGEL: The Journal of the Faculty of Arts and Islamic Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1. ISSN 0794-9316

AN APPRAISAL OF THE FULFULDE NOUN CLASS MARKERS

By

Abubakar Atiku Alkali

Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto

Department of Modern European Languages and Linguistics

aalkali.abubakar@udusok.edu.ng

Abstract

This paper examines the Fulfulde noun class system with particular reference to the Sokoto dialect, spoken in the north-western part of Nigeria. This work is based on existing work by Arnott (1970) on a related dialect spoken in Gombe, in the north-eastern part of Nigeria. Fulfulde language is generally reported to consist of a nominal class system with the number of classes varying from dialect to dialect (Arnott, 1970). The Noun class in Fulfulde is reported to resemble what obtains in other class-marking languages such as Bantu (Paradis, 1992:25) in which nouns are characterised by the classes to which they belong. This paper studies the noun classes of the Sokoto dialect, identifying their functions and relevance to the derivation of nouns. The paper argues that the Fulfulde noun classes have a strict agreement/concord-marking function which makes them different from the class markers of other languages such as Bantu.

Introduction

Fulfulde, otherwise called Fulani in English or Pulaar, Pulo, Fulɓe (Paradis, 1992), is also known as Peul, Pul and Pular (McIntosh 1984). As varied as the name of the language is, so is the opinion about its origin. Following Biblical accounts, Taylor (1953) concludes that Fula is of the Hamitic Family. McIntosh (1984) describes the language as belonging to the West-Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo family. Paradis (1992), referring to Ruhlen (1975) and Westermann & Bryan (1970) reports that it is a Kordofanian language belonging to the Niger-Congo group of the West-Atlantic subgroup. Delafosse (1904 in Paradis, 1992) describes it as a Sudanese language belonging to the Sudanese-Guinean group. Harrison, Harrison, Rueck and Isaac (2012) also classify Fulfulde as belonging to the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo family. However, using lexicostatistics as a basis for classification, Fula is described as a member of the North-Atlantic language family (Segerer, 2002; Segerer, 2010 in Fisher, 2015; Segerer and Pozdniakov 2016). This later view coincides with the description in WALS online (Dryer and Haspelmath 2013) that Fula belongs to the Northern Atlantic genus of the Niger-Congo family. Fulfulde boasts of an estimated 27 million speakers; 20 million first language speakers and about 7 million second language speakers spread in about 17 countries across the African continent as shown by Eifring and Theil (2005:3):

Fula … is spoken in 17 countries, most of them in West Africa, especially in Sahel, the savanna belt south of the Sahara desert, from Mauritania and Senegal in the west, through Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and neighboring countries areas…

The Fulfulde noun class system.

Noun classes in Fulfulde, like in the Bantu languages, “function as part of larger ‘concordial’ agreement systems”. But Bantu noun classes, unlike the Fulfulde noun classes, “tend to be realized as grammatical morphemes rather than independent lexical items”. Similarly, Fula class markers differ from the class markers of Bantu languages “where nominal modifiers, pronominals and verbs are all morphologically marked with the same noun class (gender) feature” as shown in the sentence in (1) from Demuth (2000:273).

(1)   Ba shányana	bá-ne	bá-fúnáné	di-perekisi	tsé-monáté
2-boys	2DEM	2-SM found	10-peaches	10-good
‘Those boys found some tasty peaches’

 

In (1) as Demuth explains, the class 2 subject ba shányana ‘boys’ is modified by the class 2 demonstrative bá-ne ‘those’ whereas the subject marker on the verb also agrees with the nominal subject marker; thus, bá-fúnáné ‘found’. The object, which occurs with a class 10 marker, di-perekisi ‘peaches’ is modified by an adjective that occurs with a class 10 “relative” prefix tsé-monáté ‘good’. Contrasting the example in (1) with a Fulfulde example in (2) shows considerable differences.

 

(2)   sukaa-ɓe	ɓen	heɓ-ii	murtoo-ɗe	bel-ɗe
boys-2	2-DEM those	found-3PL	peach-24	sweet-24
‘Those boys found some tasty peaches’

 

The Fulfulde example in (2) shows that although the subject sukaa-ɓe ‘boys’ belongs to the class 2 human plural and both the object murtoo-ɗe ‘peaches’ and the adjective bel-ɗe ‘sweet’ that modifies it belong to class 24, there is no overt class marking on any of the nouns. The verb heɓ-ii ‘found’ is also not marked for class membership: the radical only takes a suffix that shows an action (completed) in the past. Thus, there is no overt class marking in Fulfulde which supports the position of Arnott (1970:67) that “the basis of the nominal class system of Fula is the pattern of agreement, or concord, which operates between nominals and verbo-nominals having the same referent” as exemplified in (3) and (4).

(3)   Examples of nominals having the same referent.

 

(a). wudere mawnde nde’e  tummude mawnde nde’e	‘this big cloth’ (lit. cloth big this) ‘this big calabash’
(b). sawru mawndu ndu’u  suudu mawndu ndu’u	‘this big stick’ ‘this big room/hut’

 

(4)   Examples of verbo-nominals having the same referent.

 

(a)   ʼo-yiɗi sooduki nde, ŋgam nde wooɗnde, naa ba nde ma  ‘He wants to buy it, for it (is) fine, not like that of his’

(b)  ʼo-yiɗi sooduki ŋgol, ŋgam ŋgol booɗŋgol, naa ba ŋgol maako. ‘He wants to buy it, for it (is) fine, not like that of his’.

 

In both examples in (3), the nouns and the adjectives modifying them as well as the demonstratives belong to the same class: the nde class for (a) and the ndu class for (b). Meanwhile, in the examples in (4), one of the verbo-nominals, i.e. the infinitive sooduki ‘to buy’ is said not to enter into the same agreement as other nominals because “infinitives which resemble nouns rather than adjectives, belong to the ki class” (Arnott, 1970:70 footnote). But the verbo-nominal participle wooɗnde ‘fine’ in (4.a) occurs with a continuant-initial stem; a feature of the nde class. Similarly, the same verbo-nominal, i.e. the participle booɗŋgol ‘fine’ occurs with a stop-initial stem in (4.b), consistent with the ŋgol class to which it belongs.

Still on the Fulfulde noun classes, Paradis (1992:25) observes that:

Although Fula descriptions never clearly define the notion of nominal class, it isimplicitly agreed that the nominal class is an abstract concept, to which semantic features can sometimes be attached. However, these features almost never characterize the whole class, but do characterize subsets of the class… As nominal classes group together several subsets whose semantic fields overlap, one can consider them as arbitrary as the feminine and masculine in French, as the holy and non-holy or animate and inanimate in Amerindian languages. To sum up, they have above all a morphological function which is expressed by the class markers.

However, in addition to the grammatical and agreement/concord-marking functions, the class markers are said to perform semantic functions (see Paradis, 1992). This paper however, argues that the Fulfulde noun class markers are strictly grammatical and agreement/concord markers. The paper argues that the semantic function of these markers is not total.

There are 22 class markers in the Fulfulde dialect of Sokoto^[1] (Alkali, 2019). These are presented in (5), taking as a reference point, the Gombe dialect noun classes from Arnott (1970). For a chart of the Gombe Fula noun classes, see Arnott (1970:75).

(5)   Sokoto Fulfulde Noun Classes and their meanings.

Class	Name	Meaning
1	‘o	the personal singular class, each noun referring to a single human being.
2	ɓe	the ‘personal plural’ class, counterpart of class 1
3	gel	the diminutive singular class. Small persons or things; or implies disparagement or affection.
4	kal	the small quantities.
5	gum	***
6	kon	the diminutive plural class, plural counterpart of classes 3–5.
7	ga	the augmentative singular class. Large or important person or things; or implies dislike, dread, etc.
8	ko	the augmentative class, plural counterpart of class 7
9	de	a wide range of meanings, including places and times, globular and anular objects.
10	di	male animals and birds, uncountables.
11	du	circular and cylindrical objects.
12	ga	some animals, including large ones.
13	ge	cow, fire, sun.
14	go	various.
15	gu	insects, worms, fishes, and some collectives and abstract nouns.
16	gal	***
17	go	long thin things.
18	ka	various.
19	ki	trees, also bladed instruments. Parts of trees and plants, plant and tree products, birds.
20	ko	grasses, etc.
21	kol	***
22	ɗam	liquids, collectives and abstracts.
23	ɗum	the ‘neuter’ class…also borrowed words without a suffix.
24	ɗe	non-personal plural classes – plural counterparts of the singular classes 9–22 (with class 25).
25	ɗe	.

 

*** Noun classes not occurring in the Sokoto dialect.

The data in (5) support the occurrence of 22 noun class markers in Sokoto Fulfulde. The Gombe Fula class 5 (diminutive pejorative) marker ŋgum, class 16 ŋgal and the class 21 kol are not found in this Fulfulde dialect. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that the Gombe class 16 ŋgal and class 19 ki markers combine into a class in Sokoto; i.e. the ki class as the examples in (6) demonstrate.

(6)   Examples of nouns occurring with the class marker ki in Sokoto Fula.

Suffix	Noun	Marker	IPA	Gloss
(a)   -al	baat-al gerl-al	ki ki	[bɑ:t-ɑl ki] [ɡerl-ɑl ki]	this needle this francolin
-wal	koro-wal	ki	[koɹo-wɑl ki]	this chair
-gal	daanor-gal cekor-gal	ki ki	[dɑ:nor-ɡɑl ki] [ʧekor-ɡɑl ki]	this mirror this sieve
-ngal	jaaw-ngal koy-ngal	Ki ki	[ʤɑ:w-ŋɡɑl ki] [koy-ŋɡɑl ki]	this guinea fowl this leg/foot
(b)  -i	laɓ-i duɓɓ-i	ki ki	[lɑɓ-i ki] [duɓɓ-i ki]	this knife this fan palm
-hi	kaare-hi boɗe-hi	ki ki	[kɑ:ɹe-hi ki] [boɗe-hi ki]	this shea tree this red one
-ki	ɓok-ki juuk-ki	ki ki	[ɓok-ki ki] [ʤu:k-ki ki]	this baobab tree this long one
-ki	dan-ki yon-ki	ki ki	[dɑŋ-ki ki] [joŋ-ki ki]	this temp. hut this soul

 

The examples in (6.a) belong to class 16 while those in (6.b) belong to class 19 in the Gombe dialect but in Sokoto Fulfulde, both belong to the class 19 ki.

It is reiterated here, that the semantic content of the class markers is not absolute as will be seen in (9). In (7), the chart in (5) is reproduced with examples of how the noun class markers occur with the nouns of each class.

(7)   A chart of Sokoto Fula noun classes.

 

Class	Name	Examples
1	‘o	debb-o (ʼo) ‘this woman’
2	ɓe	rew-ɓe (ɓe) ‘these women’
3	gel	col-el (gel) ‘this bird (diminutive singular)’
4	kal	neh-al (kal) ‘this oil (diminutive mass)’
5	gum	***
6	kon	col-on (kon) ‘these birds (diminutive plural)’
7	ga	dey-a (ga) ‘this woman (augmentative singular)’
8	ko	deh-o (ko) ‘these women (augmentative plural)’
9	de	hin-e-re (de) ‘this nose’
10	di	gaa-ri (di) ‘this bull’
11	du	rawaan-du (du) ‘this dog’
12	ga	babb-a (ga) ‘this donkey’
13	ge	hiit-e (ge) ‘this fire’
14	go	wur-o (go) ‘this house’
15	gu	ɓow-ngu (gu) ‘this mosquito’
16	gal	***
17	gol	laaw-ol (gol) ‘this road/path’
18	ka	caw-ka (ka) ‘this gourd (for drawing water)’
19	ki	laɓ-i (ki) ‘this knife’/ koro-wal (ki) ‘this chair’
20	ko	dum-o (ko) ‘this bran’
21	kol	***
22	ɗam	diy-am (ɗam) ‘this water’
23	ɗum	loowir-ɗum (ɗum) ‘this funnel’
24	ɗe	koy-ɗe (ɗe) ‘these feet’/ kin-e (ɗe) ‘these noses’
25	ɗi	coli-li (ɗi) ‘these birds’/ dawaa-ɗi (ɗi) ‘these dogs’

 

The data in (7) show the type of nouns expected in each noun class while the parenthesised words are the class marker in agreement with the nouns of their respective classes. In what follows, an examination of the functions of the class markers is undertaken.

Functions of the noun class markers

Sokoto Fulfulde noun class markers, like those of other dialects, exhibit a variety of functions. The most obvious are grammatical and concordial. The grammatical function of the noun class markers is apparent for most of the classes. Classes 1 and 2 are nominalisers for singular and plural human subjects, classes 3 and 6 are the diminutive singular and plural nominalisers for most nouns regardless of the referent. Class 4 is the diminutive nominaliser for mass nouns whereas classes 7 and 8 are nominalisers for augmentative singular and plural for all nouns, again irrespective of the referent. Comparatively, the grammatical function of the markers for class 9 – 23 nouns is not so obvious. Apart from the markers [de, ɡol, ɡɑl] as shown in (8), the remaining class markers do not have identifiable grammatical function in this dialect.

(8)   Grammatical (nominalising) functions of class markers.

(a)   The class 9 [de].

 

Root	Modal Ext.	Mar- ker	Derived from	Gloss
juul- ‘to pray’	ur-	de	juul-ur-de	mosque (palce for praying)
jang- ‘to read’	ir-	de	jang-ir-de	school (place for study)
wes- ‘to winnow’	er-	de	wes-er-de	winnowing field
waab- ‘to dye’	or-	de	waab-or-de	place for dyeing
ruum- ‘to spend a year’	ir-	de	ruum-ir-de	seasonal camp

 

(b)  The class 19 [ɡɑl]; Gombe class 19.

 

Root	Mar- ker	Derived from	Gloss
yaaw- ‘to be fast’	ngal-	jaaw-n-gal	guinea fowl (lit. the fast one)
yah- ‘to travel/go’	ngal-	jah-aan-gal	journey
seer- ‘divorce’	gal-	ceer-gal	divorce
sek- ‘to sift’	gal-	cek-or-gal	sieve
laaw- ‘to stir’	gal-	laaw-ir-gal	stick for stirring

 

(c)   The class 17 [ɡol].

 

Root	Mar- ker	Derived from	Gloss
wind- ‘to write’	-gol	bind-ir-gol	pen
wuuw- ‘to sweep’	-gol	buuw-ir-gol	broom
yoor- ‘to be dry’	-ngol	joor-ngol	A dry thing (e.g. rope)
moor- ‘to do hair’	-gol	moor-gol	hairderssing
dur- ‘to herd’	-ngol	dur-ngol	herding/grazing

 

It is seen from the foregoing examples that the class markers, which in these cases are similar to the suffixes, perform a nominalising function of deriving deverbal nouns. Considered next is the semantic function of the noun class markers. Four class markers: [de, ɡol, ki, ɗɑm] have clearly discernible semantic functions although as the counter-examples show, this description is not absolute. The counter-examples are the (ii) part in each set

(9)   Semantic function of Sokoto Fula noun class markers.

(i)                 The class 9 [de] – Locative.

 

(ii)              ɓaa-de [de] ‘this house’	(iii)            tummu-de [de] ‘this
waan-de [de] ‘this mountain’	huunee-re [de] ‘this cap’
jangir-de [de] ‘this school’	iyoon-de [de] ‘this rainstorm’
weser-de [de] ‘this winnowing field’	jan-de [de] ‘this study’
waaabor-de [de] ‘this dyeing place’	ɓern-de [de] ‘this heart’

 

(ii)              The class 17 [ɡol] – Length

 

(i)                 ɓogg-ol [ɡol] ‘this rope’	(ii)              ɗen-gol [ɡol] ‘this sleep’
jugg-ol [ɡol] ‘this stream/river’	jan-gol [ɡol] ‘this reading’
diid-ol [ɡol] ‘this line’	kiin-gol [ɡol] ‘this old thing’
laaw-ol [ɡol] ‘this road/path’	bam-ol [ɡol] ‘this dance’
looc-ol [ɡol] ‘this cane/whip’	ɗere-wol [ɡol] ‘this paper’

’

(iii)            The class 19 [ki] – Fowl/bird.

 

(i)                 jaawn-gal [ki] ‘this guinea fowl	(ii) ɗen-gal [ki] ‘tongue/language
gero-gal [ki] ‘this hen’	leele-yal [ki] ‘this moon’
gerl-al [ki] ‘this francolin’	leg-gal [ki] ‘this tree’
dut-al [ki] ‘this eagle’	ɓaaru-gal [ki] ‘this ladder’
ciil-al [ki] ‘this hawk’	ƙomb-al [ki] ‘this stalk’

 

(iv)            The class 22 [ɗɑm] – Liquid

 

(i)                 kos-am [ɗɑm] ‘this milk’	(ii)              en-ɗan [ɗɑm] ‘this consanguinity’
diy-am [ɗɑm] ‘this water	lan-ɗan [ɗɑm] ‘this salt’
ƴiiƴ-am [ɗɑm] ‘this blood’	nebb-am [ɗɑm] ‘this body cream’
nebb-am [ɗɑm] ‘this oil’	bus-am [ɗɑm] ‘this bone marrow’
ɓiraa-ɗan [ɗɑm] ‘this fresh milk’	***

 

The examples in (9) are indicators of the controversial nature of the semantic content of noun class markers in Sokoto Fulfulde. In each of the examples, while the data in (i) support the semantic purpose of the markers, the counterexamples in (ii) impugn it. The examples further point to the unqualified nature of the agreement/concord marking function of the markers. While, gero-gal ‘hen’ and leele-yal ‘moon’ share no semantic similarity, they both occur with the marker [ki], but foon-du ‘dove’ which is many respects resemble gero-gal ‘hen’ occurs with the cacophonous marker [du]. Similarly, although the marker [ɗɑm] is significantly concordant with nouns denoting liquid such as kos-am ‘milk’ and diy-am ‘water’, cobb-al ‘gruel’ and juuy-ri ‘honey’ which are both liquid, take the marker [ki] and [di] respectively.

Although the grammatical function of the noun class markers as shown in (8) above is fairly consistent, their semantic function has been found not to be all-pervading. Contrariwise, the concord-marking function of the markers is absolute – there are no examples violating the agreement. Examples are provided in (10) to support this argument.

(10)           Examples of absolute concord-marking function of noun class markers.

Singular Marker Class Plural Marker Class Gloss

loɓ-ol gol 17 loɓ-i ɗi 25 idiot

 (human)

hitii-re de 9 kitii-je ɗe 24 young adult

 (male)

logee-ru du 11 logee-ji ɗi 25 stupid person

cuka-wu gu 15 N/A N/A N/A child

 (affectionate use)

ɓin-gu gu 15 N/A N/A N/A baby

 (affectionate use)

The examples in (10) above refer to human subjects. However, none of them occurs with any of the singular class 1 or plural class 2 suffixes (see the chart in 5 above). They all occur with the class markers relevant to their suffixes because the agreement is never violated.

Conclusion

This paper has examined the Fulfulde noun class markers as they occur and function in the Sokoto dialect of the language. It argues that although the class markers perform a number of functions, they are more or less grammatical and agreement/concord markers. These are the functions for which no counter examples are evident; other functions are marked by the occurrence of counter examples which call to question the totality of such function for the markers in the language. Further research is however needed to examine the functions of noun class markers in both the Sokoto dialect and other dialects of Fulfulde in order to establish whether the findings in this paper are consistent across the dialects.

References

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[1] It should be noted that the Sokoto variety of Fulfulde has no pre-nasalisation in word-initial position (Miyamoto, 1989; Alkali, 2019); hence, a donkey for example, may be written as ^mbabba in some dialects but as babba in the Sokoto dialect.

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